http://www.rhci-online.net/radiogram/radiogram.htm

https://github.com/GyanD/codexffmpeg/releases/tag/2023-03-05-git-912ac82a3c

set MyFiles=*.flac *.fla *.wav *.aif *.mp4 *.mp3 *.mp2 *.aac *.ogg *.m4a
for %%a in (%MyFiles%) do ffmpeg -i "%%a" -y -lavfi showspectrumpic=s=1920x1080:color=fiery:gain=.7:fscale=lin:orientation=0:saturation=1:mode=combined:legend=enabled:start=0:stop=8000 "%%~na.jpg"

RSID: <<2025-03-20T23:31Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>


Welcome to program 394 of Shortwave Radiogram.

I'm Kim Andrew Elliott in Arlington, Virginia USA.

Here is the lineup for today's program, in MFSK modes as noted:

  1:47 MFSK32: Program preview (now)
  3:01 MFSK32: French, German international broadcasters re USAGM
  6:59 MFSK64: France 24 analysis: Trump mutes Voice of America
13:13 MFSK64: This week's images*
28:38 MFSK32: Closing announcements

* with image(s)


Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

We're on Bluesky now: SWRadiogram.bsky.social

And X/Twitter: @SWRadiogram





Kim's note:

During the past week, I have been occupied following the news
about President Trump's closure of the Voice of America -- where
I worked for 32 years -- along with its parent agency US Agency
for Global Media (USAGM). USAGM corporate entities Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia have had their grants
suspended, but they have stayed in operation for the time being.

Both stories in this Shortwave Radiogram are about these
devlopments.




Deutsche Welle statement, with France Médias Monde (Radio France
International and France 24):

FMM and DW alarmed by USAGM employees and funding suspension

March 17, 2025

France Médias Monde (FMM) and Deutsche Welle (DW) are alarmed by
the US administration's decision on 15 March to halt funding for
American public international media.

That includes Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,
and Radio Free Asia. This move threatens to deprive millions of
people worldwide of a vital source of balanced and verified
information—especially in countries where independent journalism
is scarce or nonexistent. By weakening this crucial safeguard
against disinformation and manipulation, the decision endangers
global media freedom.

This action is particularly concerning given the United States'
long-standing role as a champion of press freedom and
professional journalism within the DG8 and beyond. At a time of
increasing global polarization, the need for independent,
multilingual, and pluralistic journalism has never been more
critical. The abrupt nature of this decision only heightens
concerns over its impact.

While FMM and DW remain committed to their mission, they
recognize the broader risks posed by the potential loss of their
American counterpart in the shared pursuit of democracy and free
expression. They stand in full solidarity with their colleagues
at the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), many of whom may now
face the difficult prospect of leaving the United States and
returning to their home countries.

This decision underscores, once again, the urgent need to defend
the European model of independent public service media—embodied
by the continent's international broadcasters—and to secure the
long-term sustainability of their funding.

https://corporate.dw.com/en/france-m%C3%A9dias-monde-and-deutsche-welle-express-deep-concern-over-he-us-decision-to-suspend-usagm-employees-and-funding/a-71949915
 

Shortwave Radiogram now changes to MFSK64 ...


 

RSID: <<2025-03-20T23:37Z MFSK-64 @ 9265000+1500>>


This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net

 

From France 24:

Trump mutes Voice of America, makes space for Russian and Chinese
influence

US President Donald Trump last week cut funding for
international public radio stations Voice of America and
Radio Free Europe, which broadcast programmes aligned with
"democratic values" to millions of listeners around the
world. In their absence, Russia and China are now set to
fill the gap with their own state media offerings.

By Sébastian SEIBT
19/03/2025

President Donald Trump signed an executive order reducing the
scope the US Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of
America, as part of his campaign to downsize the US government. ©
Algi Febri Sugita, ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters

The decision was met with dismay in Europe and delight in
Beijing, Moscow and Tehran. Trump on March 14 decided to cut
funding for the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) – home to
international radio stations Voice of America (VOA) and Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

Hundreds of staff members – categorised as "radical left crazy
people" by Trump ally and advisor Elon Musk – were placed on
leave at the decades-old media outlets which, together, broadcast
in more than 60 languages to 420 million listeners in more than
100 countries.

They are among "the few credible sources in dictatorships like
Iran, Belarus, and Afghanistan", said Czech Foreign Minister Jan
Lipavsky at a meeting in Brussels on Monday as he urged EU
leaders to stump up funds to save RFE/RL.

A 'lie factory'

But in Russia, China and Iran, media outlets celebrated the news.
"This is an awesome decision by Trump!" said Margarita Simonyan,
editor of Russia's RT network. "We couldn't shut them down,
unfortunately, but America did so itself."

The Kremlin did not comment but current and former Russian
officials told independent media outlet The Moscow Times that it
was glad to see the outlets go.

In recent years, the Kremlin was "especially irritated" by
RFE/RL's attempts to undermine "the wartime censorship Moscow
imposed after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine" in Russia and
former Soviet countries, the news outlet said.

An editorial in China's Global Times branded VOA a "lie factory"
that was "widely recognised as Washington's carefully crafted
propaganda machine".

"When it comes to China-related reporting, VOA has an appalling
track record," it said, criticising its coverage of China's
treatment of the Uighurs, tensions in the South China Sea and
Beijing's economic difficulties.

In Iran, some media outlets said Trump had put a stop to "wasting
money" to pay "corrupt" journalists who wanted to overthrow
Tehran's regime.

Soft power

Silencing VOA and RFE/RL "is not just like any other news
organisation closing", says Martin Scott, professor of media and
global development at the University of East Anglia in the UK.

Both organisations are symbolic of the US itself, and its
position in the world order, Scott adds. "They are an expression
of US values in relation to press freedom and democracy."

VOA was founded in 1942 to promote democratic ideas in Nazi
Germany, including sharing content like American music programs
as a form of cultural diplomacy. During the Cold War, RFE began
broadcasting to Soviet satellite states while its sister station
RL focused on the Soviet Union.

VOA, especially, is "a soft power tool that has been used since
the Second World War", says Jack Thompson, a lecturer in the
American studies department at the University of Amsterdam. "It
has been part of US foreign policy for the entire post-World War
II era."

Its success in building global reach was due, in part, to its
annual budget of $267.5 million – a large sum compared with other
public service international broadcasters.

"Voice of America had the means and the scale," says Scott. "It
was effective because of its massive reach in so many different
languages to so many hard-to-reach precarious parts of the
world."

Both radio stations had undeniably political aims. "Their entire
job was to highlight aspects of regimes that are run counter to
what you might call liberal democratic values," Thompson says.

The impact of their loss will be "enormous", Alsu Kurmasheva a
Radio Free Europe journalist who was freed from detention in
Russian as part of a prisoner exchange in August 2023, told CNN.
"How is America going to tell its story?"

A ‘democratic disaster'

Why would Trump want to silence pro-US media? Their
government-funded but independent stance goes against the project
2025 plan to reshape the US federal government put forward by
conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation and endorsed by
members of the Trump administration.

"The idea is that the president is the sole repository of all
democratic authority, and there should not be democratic checks
and balances against him – including independent federal agencies
like the USAGM," says Kate Wright, senior lecturer in media and
communications at the University of Edinburgh and co-author with
Martin Scott of "Capturing News, Capturing Democracy: Trump and
the Voice of America".

The president has attacked the USAGM since his first term and has
been spurred on by new advisor Musk, who is in charge of
overseeing sweeping government cuts.

Musk "is one of the first people that started saying the US
needed to get rid of Voice of America", says Thompson, "in part
because he is an economic libertarian and he wants to
dramatically shrink the size of the US government, and in part
because he and a lot of others on the right viewed VOA and FRE/RL
as essentially being captured by extreme left-wingers. They
thought that too much of their content was woke."

But as the US decreases its media footprint, it risks ceding
influence to other global powers. Around the world,
"authoritarian countries are pushing more and more money into
international media networks", says Wright. "Media is the first
and most consistent target for would-be autocrats."

Amid a global wave of democratic backsliding, she says "the
decision to withdraw a course of credible and independent
journalism is a democratic disaster".

If sources such as Voice of America disappear, their vast
audiences will not stop seeking out news – they will get it from
the few alternative sources they have available to them. "Often
all you're left with is news and information that is perhaps
unreliable, untrustworthy, or not independent," says Scott.

American think tank the Lowry Institute found that in Asia in
2024, VOA was the number one ranked foreign media radio
broadcaster by a considerable margin. But in second place was
Russia's Sputnik.

The average listener may not be able to distinguish much
difference between the two says Thompson, meaning that if one
becomes unavailable, "they will get their information from
another source. And if the next best source is Sputnik, then they
are going to get their information from Sputnik."

"There can't be empty space in media," adds Kurmasheva. Without
organisations like RFE/RL, she says, "Russian and Chines
propaganda will fill [the gaps]."

She hopes her organisation will find a way to survive with its
values intact. "We are still in business. Nobody quit. Nobody
resigned. Our leadership is working on it and we hope we will
stay in business one way or another," she said.

But the Trump administration may have other plans for its
diminished global networks. "It may be that their intention is to
replace these journalists with perhaps more compliant
journalists," says Wright, "or to create a new network, which
perhaps would not be bound by the sort of legal restrictions that
protects Voice of America from political interference. We can't
assume this is the end of the road."

https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20250319-trump-mutes-voice-of-america-rfe-rl-makes-space-for-russian-and-chinese-influence
 

This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net
 

This week's images ...


The sign outside Voice of America headquarters in Southwest
Washington DC. "A Free Press Matters." tinyurl.com/29a72v7q ...

Sending Pic:218x127C;


 

Beach umbrellas outside a shopping mall in Bangkok.
tinyurl.com/2y9v7h9z ...

Sending Pic:210x116C;







Cherry blossom buds on the Tidal Basin in Washington DC, with the
Jefferson Memorial in the background. tinyurl.com/2bzebp85

Sending Pic:142x202C;










The lunar eclipse at totality, 3:20 am March 14 in Hancock,
Maryland. tinyurl.com/23koenw8 ...

Sending Pic:190x163C;










Tulips blooming at the Netherlands Carillion in Arlington,
Virginia. tinyurl.com/28e7l8ek ...

Sending Pic:195x146C;










An Anna's Hummingbird feeding on Grevillea at the University of
California Santa Cruz Arboretum. tinyurl.com/2b9y7sfl

Sending Pic:144x199C;










Early spring blooms at the Tyler Arboretum near Philadelphia.
tinyurl.com/24bgxd79 ...

Sending Pic:157x193C;










A crabapple bloom at an arboretum in Muscogee, Oklahoma.
tinyurl.com/2adctrkd ...

Sending Pic:197x146C;










Our art of the week is the drawing "Soviet citizens secretly
listening to The Voice of America." tinyurl.com/26odbqa2

Sending Pic:220x350;






Shortwave Radiogram returns to MFSK32 ...



 

RSID: <<2025-03-20T23:58Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>

This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK32 ...


Transmission of Shortwave Radiogram is provided by:

WRMI, Radio Miami International, http://wrmi.net

and

WINB Shortwave, http://winb.com


Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

http://swradiogram.bsky.social

X/Twitter (for now): @SWRadiogram

I'm Kim Elliott. Please join us for the next Shortwave
Radiogram.
 

RSID: <<2025-03-21T11:30Z MFSK-64 @ 15770000+1500>>
 

Roger Hodgson of Supertramp was born on March 21, 1950.


Sending Pic:179x240;



http://www.rogerhodgson.com/

Please report your decode to themightykbc@gmail.com.
 

<@GOFREQ:512>

This week, I had very little time for the show, because of other obligations.

So it is a modest one with only two images in PD50 and one data stream.

We will continue with EasyDRF in HamDRM format very soon, so you will need that
software, if you don't already have it.

You can find it on: https://dazdsp.org/tech/EasyDRF/

Please mind the instructions for downloading it from Github.


Both images for today are made by myself. image one are two LilyGo LoRa
devices which can be used for Meshtastic.

The second I also made just before making DX Headlines. Those two are
the very naughty, but also kind and wonderful kittens Luna (left) and
not very visible Milo (right). Especially Luna, in spite of having black
fur turned out to be really photogenic. They are almost 10 months old now.