Capital FM listeners...

by **TobyA** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 3:11 pm

So the nights are drawing in, the leaves falling, the temperature cooling, the clocks will soon be going back... what does it all mean?

Yes - Capital FM will randomly change their Sshedule once again meaning that all the programmes that you like are suddenly not on once again. And just when you are getting used to the new schedule - it'll be spring and they'll change it all again.

So who think's NPR's "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" is an infinitely more interesting programme than some boring stuff on VOA? I do. Perhaps we can make a petition to try and stop YLE from moving things around and keep NPR exactly where it is now!

**Sponsor:**

by **superiorinferior** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 5:46 pm

This is crappy news.

Where do you want me to sign? (unless the great radio program This American Life is on the way)

Do you have any idea about the new schedule?

I have not heard a word about this...

by **TobyA** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 6:02 pm

superiorinferior wrote:Do you have any idea about the new schedule?

No - they have been doing it every year that I've been living here (8 or so) I used to think it was just something to do with timezones changing messing things up but Diana Rehm has stayed at 5pm summer and winter for as long as I've been listening.

This American Life is superb. Better than that self-satisfied smug git who does "Dialogue" which is on saturday lunchtimes at the moment!

by **sds** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 9:51 pm

TobyA wrote:No - they have been doing it every year that I've been living here (8 or so) I used to think it was just something to do with timezones changing messing things up but Diana Rehm has stayed at 5pm summer and winter for as long as I've been listening.

Such a pity too... I can't bear her

. She talks too slowly, I just keep thinking "get on with it, finish your damn sentence!"

Still, I can always switch over to Groove Fm, which (sometimes) plays some music I like.

Yes, Capital FM change their schedules, and it's not really clear why. But I am satisfied with the schedules for the moment - in my morning listening window between 7-8am I can hear half an hour of the bbc, yle news in english, and selkis too (have to listen through the german to get to the last one though

Stephen

by **Frypan** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 10:33 pm

Speaking of radio, I just got myself an MP3 player from Gigantti, and have been downloading the selkis and yle programs from http://www.wrn.org/listeners/stations/s ... ationID=23 as well as some Radio Australia programs. I know a lot of the NPR stuff isn't freely available for download, but luckily that doesn't interest me too much. Capital FM do transmit here in Jyväskylä (thank you) but even without keeping up with schedule changes, my own schedule is too erratic to even cope. At least this way I can listen when I want.

I still dearly miss the old YLE Radio Finland current affairs program in English. Often it feels futile to listen to foreign broadcasts about irrelevant local issues. Luckily I can understand a lot of Finnish talk radio (depending on the topic), so I'd rather listen to that. An mp3 or wma audio only version of the 9am YLE morning news in English that's on TV would be handy, and would give back a bit of what was taken away :-)

(Is Mr. YLE CAPITAL FM reading?) Or archives of the old programs 2000-2002 or so provide a lot of good content about general issues to an English speaking audience.

--Fry

by **TobyA** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 9:13 am

sds wrote:Such a pity too... I can't bear her . She talks too slowly, I just keep thinking "get on with it, finish your damn sentence!"

She has some medical condition which affects her voice - she has written a book on it. I just think they have consistently good guests on the show and discuss lots of issues that I'm very interested in. Dianne commits the occasional blooper totally misunderstanding something, but considering one day they are talking about the elections in Afghanistan, and the next the flu vaccine problem in the states, then the next US pension reform - I think she does a pretty good job!

I do find it a bit annoying that everyone who calls in has to start with "I just love your show - it is so important!" I haven't decided whether this is just standard American gushyness and sentimentallity or whether it is actually a scary comment on the rest of the US media.

Some time I'm gonna call in (i've been saying this to myself for the last 5 years) and start with "hi Dianne - its great to be on your show and I just want to say..... BIG UP THE HELSINKI-MASSIVE!"

The chap from YLE who looks after Capital FM has contributed here before so hopefully he might see this thread. So yeah!!! to Fresh Air and Booo!!! to boring VOA.

And why did you stop Prarie Home Companion halfway through last week and go into Russian! I actually tape PHC to enjoy at other points during the week and we had just had the Adventures of Guy Noire Private Eye and I was waiting for the News from Lake Wobegone and suddenly the Russians were everywhere! Have they invaded Minnesota?

by **superiorinferior** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 12:02 pm

TobyA wrote:And why did you stop Prarie Home Companion halfway through last week and go into Russian! I actually tape PHC to enjoy at other points during the week and we had just had the Adventures of Guy Noire Private Eye and I was waiting for the News from Lake Wobegone and suddenly the Russians were everywhere! Have they invaded Minnesota?

YLE will soon chime in, i reckon, with this answer: Capital FM (and affilliate stations across Finland) is automated and unmanned, and sometimes errors occur. However, what is not clear to me is the seemingly randomness of the grouping of programming.

For instance (during my dinner making sessions) I like listening to Diane Rehm, then the BBC then all of a sudden a half hour of NRK, then back to English with Terry Gross' Fresh Air... Now don't get me wrong, I am overjoyed that Fresh Air is on at all!!!! I just wonder how many Norwegians are tuning in for that half hour of news from their homeland...

Please note: I am not suggesting that Capital FM should be exclusively Anglo-American or whatever... I just wonder why Norwegian is tucked in at that particular time, and then we go back to English... I usually listen to most of the NRK broadcast, as I can understand about 65 percent of it (due to my swedish), but after about 16 minutes, I start to go batty and turn the radio off, usually missing the beginning or all or Fresh Air. :-(

BUT, as Capital FM is likely aware of: I am very very very appreciative of all NPR, PRI, BBC and other enjoyable english programming... I listen daily!

by **TobyA** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 12:18 pm

I guess that Capital takes most of its programmes as live feeds so they take NRK at 1830 as thats when its news is on?

Mixing languages isn't much of a problem for me as long as the schedules are consistent - although sometimes they aren't. Earlier this summer at 0930 it seemed completely random as to whether they would change to Spanish radio as scheduled or stay with the BBC in English.

On the cutting of Prairie Home Companion this weekend - I don't really understand Russian but I think it was a panel programme for Russians in Helsinki discussing the upcoming municipal elections - they seemed to have representatives from different parties. This seems very laudable but what did strike me as silly was to put this programme on halfway through a 2 hr English Language programme that has been on at that time for at least as long as I've been listening to Capital FM (since 96). Was there some advertising of this Russian programme before? Otherwise it seems very unlikely that Russian speakers in Helsinki who seem on average a lot less likely than native-Finns to speak english would have happened to stumble across it. So I'm not sure if many people listened to the Russian programme, whilst I imagine there are a few other PHC fans such myself upset to have missed the News from Lake Wobegone!

by **superiorinferior** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 3:30 pm

TobyA wrote: I guess that Capital takes most of its programmes as live feeds so they take NRK at 1830 as thats when its news is on?

I was listening to Car Talk and then right after that some Russian program came on, is this when you heard it? I turned it off but later turned it back on again and PHC was back on like it always is... Maybe it was an honest mistake or?

by **superiorinferior** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 3:32 pm

also...

what about this world satellite radio that NPR talks about all the time??? why is Finland on the list of countries where it is available when in Denmark or Norway ( I don't remember which) it is available!?

To be able to have 24-hr NPR(!) I would buy one right away, if it was fairly reasonable in price.

by **superiorinferior** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 3:39 pm

superiorinferior wrote:also...

what about this world satellite radio that NPR talks about all the time??? why is Finland NOT on the list of countries where it is available in Denmark or Norway ( I don't remember which) it is available!?

To be able to have 24-hr NPR(!) I would buy one right away, if it was fairly reasonable in price.

by **TobyA** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 3:58 pm

superiorinferior wrote:To be able to have 24-hr NPR(!) I would buy one right away, if it was fairly reasonable in price.

I checked this once. The radios are really expensive - a normal digital radio seem to start around GBP 60 and the digital satalite ones much more than that.

by **YLE CAPITAL FM** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 12:27 pm

Changes on Oct 30 depend on availability to us. At times, there are suprises that we have not been able to anticipate. FRESH AIR at 7 pm Finnish time is likely to continue, unless NPR changes its origination schedule. CBCs Sheila Rogers will appear at 4 am with a Nighttime Review. This replaces a slot currently from VOA. - Someone recollected the old RF productions, airing last at 7.30-08.00 am, local. Well, they will not return. There is a European trend against those kinds of broadcasts. This week VRT Belgium announced the decision to close down their production in English, French and German. The cost to VRT is minimal, it was rather a strategic decision. /When Brussels does not need a broadcast like that, how would Helsinki?) Here in Finland, the s c Niemelä Committee last week underlined it is final report that foreign language programming, if any, should in the future be paid by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry had in its statement to the Committee complained against the YLE decision (way back in 2002) to close down those productions. Actually, the For Min used to pay for broadcasts but stopped in the autumn of 1957. - - Back to the schedule: Taken the fact that stations worldwide have cut back on this and that, it may be difficult to get accurate information about availability - untill you notice on air the bcast is not there.. This has happened to us on several occasions. We do have personal contacts with some stations, but people get moved around and suddenly you do not know where to call.

During the first week of the new season, uncertainties prevail.

by **YLE CAPITAL FM** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 12:30 pm

As an answer to people inquiring about Worlspace. The signal here in Finland is so weak that we in Pasila have no longer been able to receive that signal, from Worldspace. NPR is available on Hotbird 6 (open) all day long - with a normal DVB-S receiver, with a dish antenna. - Worldspace is a sat service that requires no separate antenna. Its main target area is Africa. Their freq is not allowed in Europe actually. They used to have a large overspill for Europe, but that was amended of late.

by **YLE CAPITAL FM** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 12:33 pm

The Russian Sunday afternoon bcast on Oct 17 was a pre-planned election debate. The output in Russian is actually one of the key grounds for the existance of YLE Capital FM today. No sense in complaining against it. - From Oct 30 Russian will also feature a two-hour Saturday noon show, 12-14 local time. Mornings and evenings in Russian will continue as now.