Tag: Listener’s Corner

“I just finished listening to another delightful broadcast of Radio Romania International. I can’t begin to tell you how many times over the years I have tuned in to your station. But, I can tell you I first heard Radio Bucharest in the early 1970s, and haven’t stopped listening since. Even after 40 years I still find Romania exotic, and this is coming from a guy who has travelled around the world and lived in much of the US, England and Malaysia over his 60 odd years. Why exotic? I suppose it is the way you describe Romanian culture, the varied selection of Romanian music, old and new, and the profiles on Romanians themselves. Romania is indeed much more than Transylvania and, the equally more famous, Nadia Comaneci. I learn so much each time I tune in to RRI.

Timm Breyel, Malaysia

“I very much enjoyed todays program. I found todays program more informative and knowledgeable. Quality of the program was superb.

Debakamal Hazarika, India

“Technically, the broadcast was pretty good. I had no problems hearing most of the program details. During the last twenty minutes, noise slightly increased, but was not disruptive. I heard this particular broadcast in Ulan Bataar, the capital of Mongolia. However, over the course of the five previous days, I listened every morning while traveling through eastern Mongolia and the broadcast quality was consistently excellent. So it seems that in Mongolia you come in loud and clear. At the moment, I really cant add anything new to what Ive said before. Excellent and interesting programming, no real complaints. Of course, I personally prefer more business news and history, but understand Im just one of many regular listeners. Keep up the good work and Ill keep on listening.

John Rutledge, China

“News mentioned Romanias gold medal in the Olympics, congratulations! A question to win CDs was mentioned, I want to do this. The future Starts Today discussed terrorism, DAESH and their organizing attacks in Europe, interesting discussion. Roots mentioned the Feast Day of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary and Romanians fasting. I love to hear these cultural facts and traditions. Beautiful classical violinist music played. Living Romania discussed Peter Hurley who works in advertising and organizes festivals. Through the Looking Glass described a village in the South Carpathians with a forest road, butterflies and the Yellowstone of Europe. Sounds like a lovely place! The show had informative news and commentary and educational cultural segments. The music was beautiful. RRI has great programming. Thanks for the show and your support of shortwave!

Richard Nowak, USA

“It’s time for the reception reports on R.R.I.’s English broadcasts in July and August. The report for July is on the transmission on the 31st of the month at 20.30 U.T.C. on 6170 kHz. Reception was good with SINPO of 55444. The main news items included the consequences of corruption allegations concerning the National Bank; N.A.T.O. exercises in Romania; Romanian opinions on what are the major problems facing the E.U.; the continuation of the U.K.’s strategic partnership with Romania; and the Pope’s message on World Youth Day in Krakow. There was information on the latest R.R.I. listeners’ contest then the Cooking Show concentrated on picnics and barbecues. After a song there was Inside Romania which was about a play day for parents and children then Visit Romania was all about Covasna county in the center of the country. The report for August concerns the transmission on the 8th of the month, again at 20.30 U.T.C. and still on 6170 kHz. Reception conditions had changed little and SINPO was again 54444. The main news stories this time concerned Queen Anne’s funeral which her husband was too ill to attend; a reduction in the rate of inflation; regulations on absent voting for Romanians abroad; a film festival; and the Olympic games in Brazil. There was a commentary on additional overtime payments to doctors then information on the listeners’ contest was again given. The History Show was about archery both in battle and for hunting then there was a song followed by Think Green which was about saving forests from illegal logging. I hope these reports will get me two more of your wonderful QSL cards and I also hope you will excuse the brevity of this message. The weather is great (for once!), the football season has started and I’ve a million things to do…one of which is, as always, finding time to listen to R.R.I.

Martin Rogan, Scotland

“I just finished listening to another delightful broadcast of Radio Romania International. I can’t begin to tell you how many times over the years I have tuned in to your station. But, I can tell you I first heard Radio Bucharest in the early 1970s, and haven’t stopped listening since. Even after 40 years I still find Romania exotic, and this is coming from a guy who has travelled around the world and lived in much of the US, England and Malaysia over his 60 odd years. Why exotic? I suppose it is the way you describe Romanian culture, the varied selection of Romanian music, old and new, and the profiles on Romanians themselves. Romania is indeed much more than Transylvania and, the equally more famous, Nadia Comaneci. I learn so much each time I tune in to RRI.

Timm Breyel, Malaysia

“I very much enjoyed todays program. I found todays program more informative and knowledgeable. Quality of the program was superb.

Debakamal Hazarika, India

“Technically, the broadcast was pretty good. I had no problems hearing most of the program details. During the last twenty minutes, noise slightly increased, but was not disruptive. I heard this particular broadcast in Ulan Bataar, the capital of Mongolia. However, over the course of the five previous days, I listened every morning while traveling through eastern Mongolia and the broadcast quality was consistently excellent. So it seems that in Mongolia you come in loud and clear. At the moment, I really cant add anything new to what Ive said before. Excellent and interesting programming, no real complaints. Of course, I personally prefer more business news and history, but understand Im just one of many regular listeners. Keep up the good work and Ill keep on listening.

John Rutledge, China

“News mentioned Romanias gold medal in the Olympics, congratulations! A question to win CDs was mentioned, I want to do this. The future Starts Today discussed terrorism, DAESH and their organizing attacks in Europe, interesting discussion. Roots mentioned the Feast Day of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary and Romanians fasting. I love to hear these cultural facts and traditions. Beautiful classical violinist music played. Living Romania discussed Peter Hurley who works in advertising and organizes festivals. Through the Looking Glass described a village in the South Carpathians with a forest road, butterflies and the Yellowstone of Europe. Sounds like a lovely place! The show had informative news and commentary and educational cultural segments. The music was beautiful. RRI has great programming. Thanks for the show and your support of shortwave!

Richard Nowak, USA

“It’s time for the reception reports on R.R.I.’s English broadcasts in July and August. The report for July is on the transmission on the 31st of the month at 20.30 U.T.C. on 6170 kHz. Reception was good with SINPO of 55444. The main news items included the consequences of corruption allegations concerning the National Bank; N.A.T.O. exercises in Romania; Romanian opinions on what are the major problems facing the E.U.; the continuation of the U.K.’s strategic partnership with Romania; and the Pope’s message on World Youth Day in Krakow. There was information on the latest R.R.I. listeners’ contest then the Cooking Show concentrated on picnics and barbecues. After a song there was Inside Romania which was about a play day for parents and children then Visit Romania was all about Covasna county in the center of the country. The report for August concerns the transmission on the 8th of the month, again at 20.30 U.T.C. and still on 6170 kHz. Reception conditions had changed little and SINPO was again 54444. The main news stories this time concerned Queen Anne’s funeral which her husband was too ill to attend; a reduction in the rate of inflation; regulations on absent voting for Romanians abroad; a film festival; and the Olympic games in Brazil. There was a commentary on additional overtime payments to doctors then information on the listeners’ contest was again given. The History Show was about archery both in battle and for hunting then there was a song followed by Think Green which was about saving forests from illegal logging. I hope these reports will get me two more of your wonderful QSL cards and I also hope you will excuse the brevity of this message. The weather is great (for once!), the football season has started and I’ve a million things to do…one of which is, as always, finding time to listen to R.R.I.

Martin Rogan, Scotland

“Hi, RRI-English! Since recently I often hear at the end of the week RRI English broadcasting, for me The Week in Review will be saved. In addition, “World of Culture and “Roots, because there are a lot of great content in the 30 minutes. Ive been listening to this broadcast for the Pacific as much as frequently to the broadcast for Japan. Thank you!

Satishi Nishimoto, Japan

“Thank you for a nice QSL cards that you kindly sent to me. I enjoy listening to your radio program, and will send you feedback and reports. I appreciate great programs!!

Koji Nakayama, Japan

“Always nice to hear and to write friends! I hope you are OK and ready for the dark period of the year. Here I am, all well, and so is my family. Just one main problem: time goes so fast. You would like to do this or that, and then is too late. Many and warm wishes to all of you!

Hans Verner Lollike, Denmark

“Hello Romania, sorry I havent been able to catch your show for a while. The reception wasnt great, but I hope it will steadily improve, because RRI is the best foreign broadcast in my and my husbands opinion.

June Guernsey, US

“Dear RRI, Im writing to include my reception report for September for the Listeners Club. Reception has been good and bad over the last month. Some nights your broadcasts have been very clear but on others I could barely hear you and some nights not at all. Mostly just noise and static. Hopefully reception will improve in the coming months. I hope everyone at RRI had an enjoyable summer and is ready for the fall season.

Henry Zapatka, US

“Hi, RRI-English! Since recently I often hear at the end of the week RRI English broadcasting, for me The Week in Review will be saved. In addition, “World of Culture and “Roots, because there are a lot of great content in the 30 minutes. Ive been listening to this broadcast for the Pacific as much as frequently to the broadcast for Japan. Thank you!

Satishi Nishimoto, Japan

“Thank you for a nice QSL cards that you kindly sent to me. I enjoy listening to your radio program, and will send you feedback and reports. I appreciate great programs!!

Koji Nakayama, Japan

“Always nice to hear and to write friends! I hope you are OK and ready for the dark period of the year. Here I am, all well, and so is my family. Just one main problem: time goes so fast. You would like to do this or that, and then is too late. Many and warm wishes to all of you!

Hans Verner Lollike, Denmark

“Hello Romania, sorry I havent been able to catch your show for a while. The reception wasnt great, but I hope it will steadily improve, because RRI is the best foreign broadcast in my and my husbands opinion.

June Guernsey, US

“Dear RRI, Im writing to include my reception report for September for the Listeners Club. Reception has been good and bad over the last month. Some nights your broadcasts have been very clear but on others I could barely hear you and some nights not at all. Mostly just noise and static. Hopefully reception will improve in the coming months. I hope everyone at RRI had an enjoyable summer and is ready for the fall season.

Henry Zapatka, US

“Radio Romania International on 9730 kHz, often makes it to the New York area with complete ease for the duration of each and every broadcast on this frequency at this time of year. This broadcast was no exception to that, and aside from some mild fading and some mild local noise, the broadcast was heard with good signals and was a pleasure to listen to. Radio Romania International is by far one of my favorite stations to listen to on shortwave, I have been listening to Radio Romania International since 2013 regularly and this station is always such a pleasure to hear. It’s great that I am able to hear this station with ease, and the English Service is always informative and entertaining, and I always enjoy the music programs which are included in the English Service.

“There is nothing in Romania like RRI, it just promotes the country big time. Your news and opinions have definitely the best form, and not many stations have such good opinions and such good format on topics that are really hard to talk about and discuss. I love your radio, and coverage is just amazing. You cover everything – from sports, news, actualities in the world, society in Romania, tourism, economics…it just really gives Romania a great promotion. Without any overphrasing, RRI just shows the Romania like Romania is. Romania is proud of you, as well as shortwave radio, so thank you for making interesting reports.

“It was good to hear those old recordings of Enescu as a violinist. You often, of course, present us with his compositions. I have heard him on the violin before but what is good is always worth hearing again. Thank you for today’s historic recordings.

“I was interested to hear of drought and heatwave warnings for your part of the world. We have no such problems here in what has been one of the coldest and wettest summers in living memory. Still, it means more time spent with the radio than with outdoor activities so here are the reception reports for July and August.

I hope these will get me the next two QSLs in this year’s series and that you are surviving what sounds like an excessively hot summer. Some people would gladly swoop our weather for yours but I’m not so sure myself.

Martin Rogan, United Kingdom

“Very surprised to tune in your English programme today on 21500KHz at 0530-0558Z. I just had repaired a receiver and there you were! I am retired (71 years young) from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation working in Television and Radio Australia as an engineering officer. At Radio OZ I supervised our overseas monitors and answered technical questions via post or via our ON- AIR programmes. Any interference/bad propagation I would investigate by frequency choices and liase with fellow shortwave broadcasters for a mutual solution. If your Engineering Department is interested in getting reception reports from me I would be happy to oblige. My first QSL card from Romania dates back to 1961 would you believe?? I am also an active amateur radio operator (VK3DBF) and understand both English and Dutch.

Arie Schellars, Australia

“Radio Romania International on 9730 kHz, often makes it to the New York area with complete ease for the duration of each and every broadcast on this frequency at this time of year. This broadcast was no exception to that, and aside from some mild fading and some mild local noise, the broadcast was heard with good signals and was a pleasure to listen to. Radio Romania International is by far one of my favorite stations to listen to on shortwave, I have been listening to Radio Romania International since 2013 regularly and this station is always such a pleasure to hear. It’s great that I am able to hear this station with ease, and the English Service is always informative and entertaining, and I always enjoy the music programs which are included in the English Service.

“There is nothing in Romania like RRI, it just promotes the country big time. Your news and opinions have definitely the best form, and not many stations have such good opinions and such good format on topics that are really hard to talk about and discuss. I love your radio, and coverage is just amazing. You cover everything – from sports, news, actualities in the world, society in Romania, tourism, economics…it just really gives Romania a great promotion. Without any overphrasing, RRI just shows the Romania like Romania is. Romania is proud of you, as well as shortwave radio, so thank you for making interesting reports.

“It was good to hear those old recordings of Enescu as a violinist. You often, of course, present us with his compositions. I have heard him on the violin before but what is good is always worth hearing again. Thank you for today’s historic recordings.

“I was interested to hear of drought and heatwave warnings for your part of the world. We have no such problems here in what has been one of the coldest and wettest summers in living memory. Still, it means more time spent with the radio than with outdoor activities so here are the reception reports for July and August.

I hope these will get me the next two QSLs in this year’s series and that you are surviving what sounds like an excessively hot summer. Some people would gladly swoop our weather for yours but I’m not so sure myself.

Martin Rogan, United Kingdom

“Very surprised to tune in your English programme today on 21500KHz at 0530-0558Z. I just had repaired a receiver and there you were! I am retired (71 years young) from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation working in Television and Radio Australia as an engineering officer. At Radio OZ I supervised our overseas monitors and answered technical questions via post or via our ON- AIR programmes. Any interference/bad propagation I would investigate by frequency choices and liase with fellow shortwave broadcasters for a mutual solution. If your Engineering Department is interested in getting reception reports from me I would be happy to oblige. My first QSL card from Romania dates back to 1961 would you believe?? I am also an active amateur radio operator (VK3DBF) and understand both English and Dutch.

Arie Schellars, Australia

Elijah Henyel, Scotland: “I wish to express my greetings and good wishes from the highlands of Scotland. I have been listening to your broadcasts since the end of April 2014 – except for a couple of months when I moved from my house – and thoroughly enjoy the change your shows provide from the local stations. (I found last years show on Romanian traditions particularly interesting.) Keep up the good work!

Christer Brunström, Halmstad, Sweden: “It was interesting to hear about World Children’s Day (which I had completely forgotten). We had Mother’s Day yesterday. May 29-31 I took part in this year’s DX-Parliament, a get-together of members of the Swedish DX-Federation. This year’s edition took Place in Falkenberg just North of Halmstad. We had the AGM of the Federation but also talks on shortwave radio from the USA, Pirate radio, a visit to Radio Wake Up, Falkenberg’s local radio station. It all ended on Sunday with a visit to the historic Grimeton Radio Station, a UNESCO heritage site.

James Obrien, Cardiff, GB: “Hello Radio Romania, Your transmission I received this morning to western Europe for half an hour on 9.700 Khz. Newsreel was listened to intently for the latest update of news and information, as was the feature that followed, regarding the Romanian health system and how it is in a modern day Romania. On business club you touched on a switch over from the Romanian Lei to the Euro, a plan that seems to may possibly be going ahead come the 1st of January of 2019, this would I am sure be a huge step forward for many Romanians but also not so for others maybe who may wish to hold on to the current currency of the country. I know that here in the UK we ourselves appear to be split on the same subject when the topic has come up of adopting to the EU currency or keeping hold of the British. I also heard on this broadcast a pleasant song on hit of the day entitled I love you and Cultural Event. Please do keep up your hard work in supplying us, your listeners, with what you do best, and I shall be looking forward to report in to you again soon. Best regards.

Alan Gale, UK: “Hello, friends at RRI, As always, I enjoy hearing all of your broadcasts, and listen every day, and enjoy hearing about life in Romania. Amongst the many features covered this month, one that caught my attention was the piece about the Pegas bicycles, which I hadn’t heard of before, looking at some of them on the internet they look quite impressive. It’s good to hear that they are back in production again, and I hope the manufacturers sell lots of them, and we even see some in the UK one day. It’s the 1st of June here today, but it feels more like the 1st of March, and I wonder if summer will ever arrive here. I hope that Romania is much warmer and drier. My best regards to you all till next time, I always enjoy listening to RRI, and thank you for all your work on making the programmes interesting to us.

Peter Boek, Germany: “Dear friends, I still try to listen to your station from time to time, beside my job which sucks a lot of my power and energy. Is my view correct, that after President Klaus Iohannis came to his office, the political atmosphere did change? Before he took over the presidency of Romania we could hear more about rivalry between the political parties. Or is it the silence before a big storm is heading to your country? I hope President Klaus Iohannis will lead your country to a better future. Kind regards.

Henry Zapata, CT, USA: “Dear RRI, Im including my May report for the Listeners Club. Reception has been very good most nights at 0000 UTC and even pretty good at 0300 UTC. I continue to listen often and as Ive probably said in the past: thank you for being one of the few stations that still broadcasts on shortwave from Europe. Best wishes to the English Section at RRI.

John Fisher, MA, USA: “As always, I enjoy your broadcasts. It is fun to listen to the listeners letters. You never know if one will be read by a person who lives in your town. Yes, it has happened before… years ago, and we are friends now. I wish to thank you for your time, I look forward to hearing from you soon.

John Cooper, PA, USA: “I really enjoy listening to RRI as I always do. The economic news was good and shows that Romania is growing nicely and meeting its economic targets. This is important for stability. The news announcers speak English very well. One problem I do have is in understanding their names as they usually say their names very fast. This is probably due to my not being able to pronounce Romanian. Other than that the whole program comes through very well and it is interesting to me. Your station has always been one of my favourites, and will continue to be. My only wish is that the program was longer than 30 minutes as it seemed to go by very fast with all the great information that was given out. Once again thanks.

Elijah Henyel, Scotland: “I wish to express my greetings and good wishes from the highlands of Scotland. I have been listening to your broadcasts since the end of April 2014 – except for a couple of months when I moved from my house – and thoroughly enjoy the change your shows provide from the local stations. (I found last years show on Romanian traditions particularly interesting.) Keep up the good work!

Christer Brunström, Halmstad, Sweden: “It was interesting to hear about World Children’s Day (which I had completely forgotten). We had Mother’s Day yesterday. May 29-31 I took part in this year’s DX-Parliament, a get-together of members of the Swedish DX-Federation. This year’s edition took Place in Falkenberg just North of Halmstad. We had the AGM of the Federation but also talks on shortwave radio from the USA, Pirate radio, a visit to Radio Wake Up, Falkenberg’s local radio station. It all ended on Sunday with a visit to the historic Grimeton Radio Station, a UNESCO heritage site.

James Obrien, Cardiff, GB: “Hello Radio Romania, Your transmission I received this morning to western Europe for half an hour on 9.700 Khz. Newsreel was listened to intently for the latest update of news and information, as was the feature that followed, regarding the Romanian health system and how it is in a modern day Romania. On business club you touched on a switch over from the Romanian Lei to the Euro, a plan that seems to may possibly be going ahead come the 1st of January of 2019, this would I am sure be a huge step forward for many Romanians but also not so for others maybe who may wish to hold on to the current currency of the country. I know that here in the UK we ourselves appear to be split on the same subject when the topic has come up of adopting to the EU currency or keeping hold of the British. I also heard on this broadcast a pleasant song on hit of the day entitled I love you and Cultural Event. Please do keep up your hard work in supplying us, your listeners, with what you do best, and I shall be looking forward to report in to you again soon. Best regards.

Alan Gale, UK: “Hello, friends at RRI, As always, I enjoy hearing all of your broadcasts, and listen every day, and enjoy hearing about life in Romania. Amongst the many features covered this month, one that caught my attention was the piece about the Pegas bicycles, which I hadn’t heard of before, looking at some of them on the internet they look quite impressive. It’s good to hear that they are back in production again, and I hope the manufacturers sell lots of them, and we even see some in the UK one day. It’s the 1st of June here today, but it feels more like the 1st of March, and I wonder if summer will ever arrive here. I hope that Romania is much warmer and drier. My best regards to you all till next time, I always enjoy listening to RRI, and thank you for all your work on making the programmes interesting to us.

Peter Boek, Germany: “Dear friends, I still try to listen to your station from time to time, beside my job which sucks a lot of my power and energy. Is my view correct, that after President Klaus Iohannis came to his office, the political atmosphere did change? Before he took over the presidency of Romania we could hear more about rivalry between the political parties. Or is it the silence before a big storm is heading to your country? I hope President Klaus Iohannis will lead your country to a better future. Kind regards.

Henry Zapata, CT, USA: “Dear RRI, Im including my May report for the Listeners Club. Reception has been very good most nights at 0000 UTC and even pretty good at 0300 UTC. I continue to listen often and as Ive probably said in the past: thank you for being one of the few stations that still broadcasts on shortwave from Europe. Best wishes to the English Section at RRI.

John Fisher, MA, USA: “As always, I enjoy your broadcasts. It is fun to listen to the listeners letters. You never know if one will be read by a person who lives in your town. Yes, it has happened before… years ago, and we are friends now. I wish to thank you for your time, I look forward to hearing from you soon.

John Cooper, PA, USA: “I really enjoy listening to RRI as I always do. The economic news was good and shows that Romania is growing nicely and meeting its economic targets. This is important for stability. The news announcers speak English very well. One problem I do have is in understanding their names as they usually say their names very fast. This is probably due to my not being able to pronounce Romanian. Other than that the whole program comes through very well and it is interesting to me. Your station has always been one of my favourites, and will continue to be. My only wish is that the program was longer than 30 minutes as it seemed to go by very fast with all the great information that was given out. Once again thanks.

“I am a student and also an enthusiastic shortwave listener from India. It has been almost a year that I have been listening to RRI. English. I will be very pleased to be a member of the RRI Listener’s Club. It would be great if you could communicate me the procedures. At first there was short discussion on evolution of jet packs, facts & figures on automobiles. Music heard at 04:20 UTC. There was commentary about foreigners who choose Romania as their home and interview with an Italian jazz musician who has settled in Bucharest, Romania. Music was heard again at 04:26 & 04:29 UTC with the end of a program. Station ID was heard at 04:30 UTC followed by “Listeners’ Letterbox”. There was information about the ongoing prize winning contests organised by RRI. Letters from different listeners all over the world were read. Romanian rock and roll song was heard at 04:35. It was followed by the frequency change announcement and the new frequencies for summer 2015 were read out. Station ID was again heard at 04:45 UTC. The last program of the broadcast was ‘All that Jazz’”.

Abhirikshma Nandi, India

“At first accept my heartful compliments. As a regular listener of your wonderful station, I had listened todays World of Culture program. In todays program you had broadcast about the Fine Arts from Ramnicu Valcea. In todays program the guests are Petti Velici,Sergiu Pop and Marcel Dutu. They have mounted lots of solo exhibitions at home and abroad. I came to know about their paintings through this program. I really appreciated your wonderful program. I very much enjoyed todays program. I got to know a lot more about the paintings through this program. I found todays program very knowledgeable and informative.”

Karobi Hazarika, India

“Reception of your transmission in DRM on shortwave was very good, sounding like FM quality in mono. Thanks for transmitting your program on shortwave, it provides some interesting information one would not get on local media here”.

Hrald Kuhl, Germany

“I am currently working and living in London. Back on January 4, I sent you my reception report through your form, but so far I have not received a reply. So I am sending you my second reception report. I hope this time my mail finds you well. After listening to ‘Traveler’s Guide’, I really want to visit Romania some time soon. I have wanted to see National Romanian Ballet ever since Johan Kobborg became artistic director, because I am a big fan of Alina Cojocaru. And I became interested in Sighisora after today’s programme”.

Norihiko Ide, Japan

“I have checked reception of some of your other broadcasts to Europe and reception is generally very good. I have included a report on RRI in English to Europe in my column on international radio in the May issue of QTC. Romania has featured on national TV here recently. The other day there was a one-hour very serious report on prostitution and human trafficking in Europe. Sure enough many of the women came from Romania and in some cases it was their families who was behind it all. There was a long interview with a Romanian woman who had established an organisation to help some of all these victims. She said that in 75 % of cases they could not help return the girls or women to their families as they were in fact seriously implicated in the trade. There was also a long interview with the owner of a brothel in Stuttgart, Germany, where prostitution is legal. The clients are Germans but almost all the women come from Romania and other East European nations. Spring has come to Sweden but in recent days we have had quite a lot of rain and strong winds. This is not really what we normally associate with spring although at least here in Sweden we often associate spring with very unreliable weather conditions.”

Christer Brunstrom, Sweden

“During my school-hood I have heard the name of Nadia Elena Comăneci, winner of three Olympic gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics and wondered that she was the first female gymnast who scored a perfect 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event, moreover she was a Romanian! In youth I have gone through the thriller of Dracula, originated from Romania! You may know being an inhabitant of West Bengal (India) I have brought up with the communist environment, thus I have some natural curiosity about the Romania history of communism. Obviously all these tempt me to follow RRI programs on air or online. And to me Radio Romania International is a wide-open window to know Romania better. This time just to judge my knowledge about the “DACIA” present-day Romania I have competed in the contest!”

Binarani Mondal, India

“I am a student and also an enthusiastic shortwave listener from India. It has been almost a year that I have been listening to RRI. English. I will be very pleased to be a member of the RRI Listener’s Club. It would be great if you could communicate me the procedures. At first there was short discussion on evolution of jet packs, facts & figures on automobiles. Music heard at 04:20 UTC. There was commentary about foreigners who choose Romania as their home and interview with an Italian jazz musician who has settled in Bucharest, Romania. Music was heard again at 04:26 & 04:29 UTC with the end of a program. Station ID was heard at 04:30 UTC followed by “Listeners’ Letterbox”. There was information about the ongoing prize winning contests organised by RRI. Letters from different listeners all over the world were read. Romanian rock and roll song was heard at 04:35. It was followed by the frequency change announcement and the new frequencies for summer 2015 were read out. Station ID was again heard at 04:45 UTC. The last program of the broadcast was ‘All that Jazz’”.

Abhirikshma Nandi, India

“At first accept my heartful compliments. As a regular listener of your wonderful station, I had listened todays World of Culture program. In todays program you had broadcast about the Fine Arts from Ramnicu Valcea. In todays program the guests are Petti Velici,Sergiu Pop and Marcel Dutu. They have mounted lots of solo exhibitions at home and abroad. I came to know about their paintings through this program. I really appreciated your wonderful program. I very much enjoyed todays program. I got to know a lot more about the paintings through this program. I found todays program very knowledgeable and informative.”

Karobi Hazarika, India

“Reception of your transmission in DRM on shortwave was very good, sounding like FM quality in mono. Thanks for transmitting your program on shortwave, it provides some interesting information one would not get on local media here”.

Hrald Kuhl, Germany

“I am currently working and living in London. Back on January 4, I sent you my reception report through your form, but so far I have not received a reply. So I am sending you my second reception report. I hope this time my mail finds you well. After listening to ‘Traveler’s Guide’, I really want to visit Romania some time soon. I have wanted to see National Romanian Ballet ever since Johan Kobborg became artistic director, because I am a big fan of Alina Cojocaru. And I became interested in Sighisora after today’s programme”.

Norihiko Ide, Japan

“I have checked reception of some of your other broadcasts to Europe and reception is generally very good. I have included a report on RRI in English to Europe in my column on international radio in the May issue of QTC. Romania has featured on national TV here recently. The other day there was a one-hour very serious report on prostitution and human trafficking in Europe. Sure enough many of the women came from Romania and in some cases it was their families who was behind it all. There was a long interview with a Romanian woman who had established an organisation to help some of all these victims. She said that in 75 % of cases they could not help return the girls or women to their families as they were in fact seriously implicated in the trade. There was also a long interview with the owner of a brothel in Stuttgart, Germany, where prostitution is legal. The clients are Germans but almost all the women come from Romania and other East European nations. Spring has come to Sweden but in recent days we have had quite a lot of rain and strong winds. This is not really what we normally associate with spring although at least here in Sweden we often associate spring with very unreliable weather conditions.”

Christer Brunstrom, Sweden

“During my school-hood I have heard the name of Nadia Elena Comăneci, winner of three Olympic gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics and wondered that she was the first female gymnast who scored a perfect 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event, moreover she was a Romanian! In youth I have gone through the thriller of Dracula, originated from Romania! You may know being an inhabitant of West Bengal (India) I have brought up with the communist environment, thus I have some natural curiosity about the Romania history of communism. Obviously all these tempt me to follow RRI programs on air or online. And to me Radio Romania International is a wide-open window to know Romania better. This time just to judge my knowledge about the “DACIA” present-day Romania I have competed in the contest!”

Binarani Mondal, India