Meyerton To Close

As many of you will have already read this week, Jeff White (WRMI) advises that South Africa's SENTECH, the operator of the Meyerton transmitter site, will be closed from March 31. This affects that nation's Channel Africa and the Radio Sonder Grense shortwave service. But other users of the relay station are also significantly affected. For the current B18 transmission season, they include the BBC, Radio Dabanga, NHK, Deutsche Welle, VOA, and AWR using a series of 100 and 250 kW transmitters. So, even with all these broadcasters leasing the facility on a daily basis, it would appear that SENTECH felt that the service was not financially viable in the long term, or (and this is well within the realms of possibility) SENTECH is directing its attention and resources into other business ventures and opportunities.

Whatever the story behind the closure, some people are declaring that this is the end of broadcasting to Africa from the above-mentioned stations. Well, no! These broadcasters still have responsibilities to provide services to Africa (although the BBC has been reducing its African output in the recent past). There is, after all, still the Talata-Volonondry relay site in Madagascar, owned and operated by MGLOB, a Malagasy global business founded by former employees of Radio Nederland, the previous owner. I suspect that MGLOB may be happy to take on some more clients! There are also other relay site options with spare transmitting and scheduling capacity. As they say, "watch this space"
F.DX Quiks