WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News

last DX will apparently be May 6! I'll miss the DX, but never appreciated
their "english" on religion, but they did have a dignity about it that
gets rarer. Have been running into them since high school on my old
HOWARD.
(Howard Box-TN-USA, dxld April 15)
Doug Weber's gist, interviewed by Allan Graham:
English broadcast stream comes to an end May 6. Affected by Pifo changes
discussed a couple weeks ago? No, a separate coincidental thing. A
philosophical/ ministerial decision. Has only been 2.5 hours a day, and
not getting much response, but gets more from some ESL programs.
Refocusing more on that, via other outlets, mostly Spanish. Personnel
issues, too; catalyst is losing more and more producers, Jeff Ingram
moving to S Pacific region; he coordinated a lot of our programming stream
too. No specific plans for further changes, but evaluating all ministries
in all langs, to emphasize what we are doing well. Still looking at
options of how can continue on SW after we have to close our Pifo site.
That will determine how much SW we can do in future. English language sce
from Quito concludes May 6. Will DXPL continue? We do have a Spanish
version, still quite useful in this region. Still trying to determine
exactly what the future of the English version will be, and talking with
partner stations about it. Sat May 6 at 1330 UT, almost 75 years of
English lang programming will come to an end. Doug is director of radio
for HCJB's Latin American region.
(HCJB DX PL April 15, notes by gh for dxld)
In lamenting the total termination of English from Ecuador, we are being
somewhat chauvinistic about lang, since after all they will go on in
Spanish and other tongues. Most of us have fond memories of HCJB being one
of the first SW stations we heard, thanks to its formerly dominant signals
from the tropics.
But those of us capable of independent thought eventually realized that
all the DX and other seemingly secular or mxal entertainment programming
was merely designed to lure impressionable young listeners into the WRMF's
wacky evangelistic agenda, typified by the creationism they still push,
even tho even among believers only a fraction buy into it, those with no
true understanding of science.
DXPL was the last show worth listening to on HCJB, and only fragments of
it at that. Rarely has there been any genuine DX nx on it for years, and
when there is it has been about developments at HCJB itself. Lately gobs
of time have been filled by pulling stuff out of the archive from decades
ago, as if there were not enough genuine nx each week, and there are
always those "Tips for Real Living", the real purpose of the show, around
which the flypaper is spread.
So I for one will not be begging HCJB to reconsider cancelling English. It
has gone on far too long already. Whatever success it has had in
converting listeners to WRMF's worldview has been at the expense of
rational progress in human thought.
(Glenn Hauser-OK-USA, dxld Apr 18)
May 6 will certainly be a sad day for me considering that HCJB has long
been a favourite station - especially before the cutbacks. I remember
listening to "Musica del Ecuador" and writing the hostess - her husband,
who I met at ANARC 82, said it was the only fan mail she ever received.
Anyone remember HCJB's own DX club, ANDEX - from back in the 80's? There
used to be a regular bulletin and members got their QSLs sent via airmail.
One of my prized QSLs was for their 40 watt ham transmitter feeding the
quad beam antenna.
(Mark Coady. Editor, Your Reports/Listening In Magazine Co-Moderator, ODXA
via dxld)