On Tuesday 17th February, WRN successfully launched TWR onto the Freesat platform on channel 790.

Trans World Radio is an international Gospel broadcasting network, with a specific focus on key areas such as women, children and youth, HIV/AIDS and primary health care, church leadership development and societies dominated by oral learners. TWR works in around 225 languages covering over 160 countries. TWR-United Kingdom broadcasts quality, speech-led Christian radio via satellite and the internet and at selected times on short and medium wave.
   
Freesat is the new digital UK platform that launched in May 2008, providing the first HD digital TV and radio, complete with interactivity, all from one subscription, contract-free box. The platform makes HD TV available to 98% of UK households, some of which have previously been unable to benefit from this technology due to coverage, price or subscription contracts. Since the launch of Freesat, over 250,000 receivers have been sold to British homes. As Freesat is served by the Eurobird 1 satellite, existing Sky broadcasters can gain access to this new platform at very little cost.

WRN coordinated the launch for TWR and Russell Farnworth, CEO of TWR-UK, says: "thanks to WRN's careful guidance, the process of launching our radio service on Freesat has been seamless and straightforward - we are very grateful for the way WRN has held our hand every step of the way."

WRN is able to supply satellite uplink and capacity and EPG services for Freesat and is also able to guide clients through the entire process of launching on the platform.

For more information regarding Freesat, please contact the Sales Team on [email protected].

"The Boat That Rocked" Radio Caroline, Then and Now

The forthcoming international release of the comedy movie "The Boat That Rocked" is drawing attention to offshore pirate radio that prospered in Britain from 1964 to 1970, and for many people is it the name Radio Caroline that is synonymous with it. For it was the most famous, as well as being the first and last station in the UK to be based at sea, and those stations changed radio forever, both here and all over Europe. 

While the film may give the impression that pirate radio was a brief interlude, starting and ending in the sixties, this is not so as Radio Caroline battled on at sea until 1990 and was silenced only when Government officials vandalised its broadcasting ship after which the station suffered a catastrophic shipwreck. With the salvaged vessel having to go for rebuild, Caroline either had to quit or find a new path. This path was satellite radio; through the technical facilities of WRN the station was first launched on Hotbird in 1994 and can now be found on Sky channel 0199 and of course via Internet.

To try and retain credibility while operating with UK jurisdiction, Caroline is self funded and totally independent but uses many of her ex-marine staff on air. Their motto is ‘same ideology, new technology'. Having exchanged hardship for a comfortable operation on land, Caroline avoids questions about what may happen when its radio broadcast ship Ross Revenge is fully repaired. Will the staff look longingly toward to ocean again? Never say never is the only response ever made to the question. Information on Radio Caroline is at www.radiocaroline.co.uk.
 
Richard Curtis's film "The Boat that Rocked" will be released on 3rd April in the UK and its worldwide release will follow. It stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh and Rhys Ifans.

WRN Launches New Shortwave Service for RTÉ to Africa 

WRN is pleased to announce that it will launch a new daily shortwave radio broadcast from RTÉ to the Irish in Africa. With the first broadcast taking place tomorrow, it has been timed specifically to coincide with St. Patrick's Day. From March 17, every evening they will be able to hear a one hour selection of RTÉ radio programmes from the day at 1930-2030 UTC/GMT on 6220 kilohertz. That will be 730pm at Ryan's Bar in Accra, Ghana and 1030pm at O'Willies Pub in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.

The new broadcast is in response to many requests from Irish people scattered throughout the continent, and working in fields such as aid, peace-keeping, construction and missionary work. According to the Irish government there are many thousands of Irish working in Africa.

Although RTÉ has long been available on satellite and via the internet, those in remote regions of Africa have asked for old fashioned short-wave transmissions which will reach portable radio sets in areas that do not even have electricity supplies let alone easy access to satellites and the web. The main coverage area will be West, Central and East Africa.

WRN has been transmitting RTÉ around the world since 1994. WRN's Director of Development, Jeff Cohen, says "it is a privilege to continue our long association with RTÉ and broadcast this important link with home to Irish people who are doing such valuable work in Africa".

JP Coakley, RTÉ's Head of Operations, says "RTÉ ceased its worldwide shortwave service in 2004 due to the growth of technologies such as the internet for serving the diaspora. However, Africa obviously presents particular challenges and in 2004 we also introduced a specific service based on delivery to small satellite radios called Worldspace. However, this service has effectively ceased for the moment so we are reintroducing a shortwave service to Africa - we want Irish people there to know that RTÉ values the connection with them as much as they do".

This and other RTÉ programmes will continue to be available on WRN satellite services around the world and to Africa five times daily (details at www.wrn.org). 

For more information on WRN's shortwave services, please contact [email protected].

David Treadway Appointed Managing Director  

WRN is pleased to announce the appointment of David Treadway as Managing Director, with effect from 1st February 2009. David joined the company as Business Manager in July 2008.

Tim Ashburner, Technical Director and one of WRN's founders, said: "We are delighted to appoint David to his new role as Managing Director and are looking forward to him steering the company forward in the coming years. 2008 was a challenging year for WRN; however our results show it was our most successful yet. David will use his experience to push WRN into new areas of business and spearhead the company's aggressive acquisition and expansion agenda."

David said: "WRN is stronger and more commercially effective today than at any point in its recent history.  Customer focus and the development of new products and services is key to our continuing success and I look forward to strengthening our client relationships as we move forward."

David has a distinguished career in broadcasting, in BBC Radio Sheffield, Radio Scotland and Radio 2. David headed up the Radio 1 & 2 Light Entertainment & Popular Music production department in Manchester and then went on to become the Assistant Controller of BBC Radio 2 in 1983. 

David joined United Artists Communications in 1990 as Managing Director of the group's Avon and Cotswolds cable television and telephone businesses before joining the leading venture capital and private equity group, 3i plc to advise on broadcasting, media and related technology investments worldwide.

WRN Demonstration of Radio With Pictures

On 24th March WRN will host a day of demonstrations of a new ‘Radio With Pictures' system, which provides a service of still pictures on standard satellite audio channels. 

Research shows that in the UK, more than 40% of homes regularly listen to radio from the TV set, however in Asian countries the figure is far smaller. WRN's new product means that "radio" will be transformed into a "TV channel" with accompanying visuals, thus ensuring the station is more accessible to such audiences.

WRN's ‘Radio With Pictures' will display images alongside a radio broadcast as a slide show or real time pictures that accompany the audio. This will allow radio stations to make far a greater impact at relatively low cost as it can increase audience awareness by radio stations being listed alongside TV stations, as well as adding the visual aspect. It will also support interactive services such as SMS texting.

The internationally patented software produces high quality images while requiring a bandwidth of under 200Kbit/s and allowing them to be seen on DVB receivers that normally may not decode video of less than 2Mb/s. The application would enable a broadcaster's web content to be put on television screens and this can be valuable for audiences that do not have computers or where the web is censored. The software is, in principle, capable of working with all satellite receivers currently in use around the world making it very easy and quick to implement.
 
If you would like to know more or attend the demonstrations on 24th March in London please contact the Sales team at [email protected]. 

WRN at the NAB 

Representatives from the WRN Business Team will be attending this year's NAB show in Las Vegas. The event will take place from 20th - 23rd April 2009. 

NAB Show is attended by leading media, entertainment and communications professionals who share a passion for the next generation of video and audio content across multiple platforms, from television, radios and computers to phones, the big screen and beyond.

The conference has evolved to remain the world's resource for high-level insight, training, education and state-of-the-art technology powering the future of content creation, management, commerce and delivery.

If you would like to meet with a member of WRN's Business Team at the NAB, please contact the Sales team at [email protected].