It's only natural that they follow that up with radio coverage as well. And as I say, with all the expansion within the South Pacific, if you go to any of the Pacific Islands you'll see the Chinese are investing heavily in buildings and other things. JB: So that means it can project further?ĪS: Yes, and they're stronger and clearer and easier to hear. It's five times what Radio New Zealand uses. The shortwave ones are all 500 kilowatts, which is a lot of power. As I say it's a very big company, China Radio. There'll be news items about what hydro schemes they may have built or what they may be doing on a local scale within the area that they're broadcasting to. But generally speaking, having listened to what I've heard up until now, it's generally promoting Chinese, saying yeah we give aid, we do all these things around the Pacific. But whether they do that or not, I can't answer that. But I imagine they're bound to target different parts of the Pacific, and it would be sensible for them to put some local news in about it. JB: There's not journalism or news about the islands for instance like on RA or RNZ?ĪS: Until it really starts I don't think that anybody can really judge that. They don’t broadcast anything that's political of their own country. JB: Do we know what kind of programmes and content will be on these frequencies going out to the Pacific Islands?ĪS: Usually their programme content is promoting Chinese, talking about all the aid they give overseas, and all the good things that they do. So it's very easy to confuse them with a western station. They’ve got American accents, they've got British accents. You'll find China Radio International in most capital cities around the world.ĪS: Oh yes. What I do find interesting is that China Radio in its expansion is doing it not only on shortwave, but they're doing it on domestic. All I know is that in the past RA were using quite a few frequencies covering not only South Pacific, but also up into Papua New Guinea and that area, and into Asia. ![]() JOHNNY BLADES: How crowded is the spectrum, or how many of these former frequencies of the ABC's are being taken up, do you know?ĪS: I can’t answer that. It's only after listening for a while you realise, hello, this is not Radio Australia, this is a station that's talking about China quite a bit, and that's what's happening. By starting to use RA's frequencies, they inherit an audience in the sense that people over time have got used to RA being on those frequencies and if suddenly another English language station starts up on it, they'll listen, say they could be RA. ![]() ![]() And to me it seems to be a strategic move on their part. And it coincides with China Radio International wanting to expand its services into the South Pacific. Now what's happened in this instance is with RA (Radio Australia) closing, their frequencies become free. So people over time, like the BBC and so on, establish themselves on certain frequencies, and these go on for year after year after year. So you don't want two international broadcasters on the same channel. ADRIAN SAINSBURY: Now on the international broadcast bands, which is what we use for broadcasting from New Zealand for example into the Pacific islands, these frequencies can be used by anyone, but there is a co-ordination system, and people register them with the ITU which is the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva to prevent stations from colliding.
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