While neither of them is still active on medium wave, both RTBF and VRT still own their old frequencies, “Newsday” reported on April 11. No measures had been taken to re-dedicate the frequencies, and so, the medium waves were bumming around with no new users.

Not that there wouldn’t be potential users. In fact, there was at least one operator, but that station was deemed illegal. Every evening, they rebroadcasted the program of “Radio Augusta”, a station in Ivory Coast, on 1611 kHz. That 400-watts relay station has recently been raided and confiscated by Belgian police. Reportedly, a reason given was that transmissions on 1611 kHz could interfere with other services.

Another prospective operator would be “Radio Onda” – they would like to sign on to shortwave, but they are facing the same problem as those interested in medium wave: nobody is in charge of dedicating frequencies on shortwave to anyone, writes “L’Avenir”.

After all this sad news, here’s a fun fact. “Medium Wave” is a Chinese given name. Granted, it could also mean “Chinese-Polish”.

Talking about Poland, Polish Radio’s German programs on medium wave – 1386 kHz – are now fading out in my place. The program airs at 17:00 UTC in winter and 16:30 UTC in summer, via Lithuania’s Viesintos relay.