AFRICAN SITE DRAWS CLOSER TO START

February 13, 2015

Entrance to the Mahajanga transmitting site.

NEW AFRICAN SITE DRAWS CLOSER TO START

World Christian Broadcasting (WCB) has been given permission to put their new station on air in Madagascar - a sister station to their Alaskan KNLS transmitters. The station is to be known as Madagascar World Voice (MWV). This has been in the planning stages for some years now and building commenced in 2006. But local political instability and coup have played a large role in the delay of the realisation of this project. Finally, recent elections have given WCB an opportunity to work with the Government in bringing its dream to fruition. The transmitting facility is stationed at Mahajanga, Madagascar. It is on the western side of the island, more than seven hours and over 550 km away from the long established Talata-Volonondry site on the eastern side.

As some DXers will recognise, KNLS has often been a difficult station to hear in many parts of the globe. But, we know from the past that Madagascar has proven itself to be a fabulous staging point for transmitting to Africa, the Middle East and Asia by other broadcasters. So with new transmitters and antennas, WCB expects to make significant inroads in getting its voice heard around the world.

WCB's website details the latest information on this development:

World Christian Broadcasting’s freshly minted 100 KW transmitters were loaded on a cargo ship in the Port of Houston on January 12, 2015. A few days later the ship sailed, bound for the Indian Ocean. Arrival date is expected to be somewhere around March 25. The ships will cross many, many miles of open Atlantic Ocean before they sail under the tip of Africa to head north to their destination. The two transmitters were built at a cost of $1,000,000 each, so we are praying for smooth sailing and a safe arrival!

The transmitter building waiting for delivery of the new equipment.

Once the transmitters are unloaded at our station, much work is left to be done. They must be installed in the transmitter building that has been awaiting their arrival. They must be connected to the diesel generators that will power them. Technicians from Continental Electronics in Dallas must go to fine-tune their installation. Once all that has been done, we can begin the testing process—which in itself will take more than a month. Once everything is in order, we can begin broadcasting in late 2015 or early 2016.

The new transmitters will send out life-giving messages through these antenna wires. Radio signals will leave each of three antennas with 16 million watts of power.

Initially we will broadcast in six languages: Arabic (covering the entire Mid-East), Spanish (for South and Central America, plus the Spanish-speaking countries of Africa), English with an African sound (for the continent of Africa), Chinese (for western China), Russian (for the populous regions of western Russia, including St. Petersburg and Moscow), and International English (for India and nearby countries where English is a second language).

Part of the curtain array at Mahajanga.

Between the new station in the Indian Ocean and our other station in Alaska, our programming will cover almost the entire world (except for North America which is, of course, already blitzed with Christian messages on every media). How awesome to think that the whole world will be within the sound of Biblical, spiritual messages! Many of the countries in our listening range are off-limits to “boots-on-the-ground” missionaries. In some of those countries, people are afraid to correspond by mail about any religious topic. But once both our stations are fully operational, the whole world can tune their radios in the privacy of their homes, and they will pick up wonderful news—Good News—they have never heard before. To God be the glory! http://www.worldchristian.org

Here is an audio slideshow prepared by World Christian Broadcasting, that discusses the work of the organisation, station KNLS and the new facility in Mahajanga. There are some interesting shots of the curtain antennas and transmitter buildings in this presentation.

AN AIR OF OPTIMISM ?

With so many shortwave broadcasters closing down, it was intriguing to read WCB's Latest Updates, which is also on their website. Here's an excerpt:

Potential Daily Listening Audience

Three billion shortwave radios exist in the world. Studies show that at any given time throughout the day, one billion shortwave radios are turned on with an average of three people listening. This means that at any given time during the day, we could have a potential listening audience of 3 billion people.

WOW!! Three billion SW radios, one billion of which are switched on every day, each one listened to by three people? A potential daily audience of 3 billion? BILLIONS! Could these figures be a touch optimistic? Will these statistics encourage more donations from WCB followers? Hmmm..... Well, I suppose there's nothing liking thinking big with your goals!