A: This week, we got a lot of feedback from listeners about our programs during the lunar New Year festival. We’re glad to hear that you enjoyed them. From England, regular listener Gerry Neumann wrote an email on January 31st: “I hope it’s not too late to wish you a Happy New Year. Over the past week or so I’ve enjoyed the variety of special features on the English service of VOV and the songs about spring. For example, on January 28th, the 6th day of Tet, I heard about the new strategy for tourism from now to 2015 and Vietnam’s hope to receive 6.6 million visitors this year. The next day, one of the features was about the tradition of going to pagodas on the first day of Tet, and another about Vietnam’s sporting achievements last year. I wish VOV another successful year of broadcasting and all the staff a happy, healthy year.”
B: Many thanks to you, Mr. Neumann, for spending time on our channel throughout the Tet holiday. The Lunar New Year is celebrated in Vietnam more jubilantly and longer than the solar New Year. The atmosphere of Tet lingers all through the first lunar month. In these days, if we meet someone we haven’t seen since the beginning of the year, we’ll wish each other a happy and successful year. Your new year’s wish for the VOV staff comes just in time. We also wish you and our other listeners a year of good health, joy, and luck. We hope to continue to enjoy a regular correspondence with all of you.
A: From India, Neelakandan Visvanathan sent us his first reception report of the year. He tuned in to our January 28th program, on which we discussed Vietnam’s tourism plans for this year – like developing eco and cultural tourism. Visvanathan wrote: “I’m very happy to listen to VOV again after a pause. It’s really interesting to hear about your new tourism strategy. Keep it up.” Thank you for your encouragement and we surely will strive to obtain our goals. Despite enjoying advantages of nature, history, and culture, we know we will have to improve our services to live up to the slogan “Vietnam – timeless charm”. We hope someday, you’ll come to Vietnam to see with your own eyes the tourist attractions you’ve heard described in our broadcasts.
B: Here I have an email from Ian Morrison, a listener in Beijing, China. Along with his first reception report of 2012, Mr. Morrison also sent his best wishes for happiness and prosperity in 2012 to all VOV staff and all Vietnamese people.
B: Thank you for your nice wish. We also hope everything goes smoothly for you this year. We know that in China, people celebrate the Lunar New Year as we do in Vietnam, so we hope your family had a joyous holiday.
B: Mr. Morrison wrote: “We took the opportunity of the holiday to spend nice times with friends, enjoy some leisure time and visit one of the Temple Fairs in Beijing. I have been really interested in hearing about the Lunar New Year festivities in Vietnam on your broadcasts.” Mr. Morrison comments about our Tet features were interesting and informative. He went on to say that VOV’s reception in Beijing was very good. He rated SINPO at 54544 on the frequency of 12020 khz using a Grundig Yacht Boy 80 with a five-meter wire antenna.
A: Thank you, Mr. Morrison. We’ll send you our QSL card to confirm your report. Alex Klauber of the US caught our February 6th program on 6175 khz and rated SINPO at all 5s. He operates a Sangean 909 receiver with a long wire antenna. Alex said of the content: “the woman hosting the show was knowledgeable about the songs, their meaning and where the songs came from in Vietnam. I enjoy the music of your country very much.” After the English program, Alex continued to listen to VOV’s broadcast in Spanish. He said it was fascinating to hear non-traditional Vietnamese music that sounded like jazz piano as well as patriotic songs.
B: Thank you, Mr. Klauber for your detailed reception report. We’ll issue a verification card to confirm it. Many of our listeners, like Mr. Klauber, love to tune in to VOV’s programs in different languages, as we tailor our features and musical selections to our target audiences. Mr. Fumito Hokamura of Japan says he regularly listens to VOV’s Japanese section. But he wants to know more about Vietnam, so he tries the English broadcast for different features and music. Dmitriy Kotuzov of Russia is a regular listener to VOV’s English and Russian programs.
A: I’m reading a post mail from James Camilli who says he was glad to hear that we received his book and DVD on Evans Carlson. In addition to a reception report, he enclosed a drawing of a “Gilligan’s Island” radio. As he describes it: “This radio was featured on many episodes of that U.S television series from the 1960s. However, it was also a real radio actually sold in stores at the time. The design is unusual in that, although large sized, it covered the “AM” or medium wave band only. It had a luggage style cabinet which came in a variety of colors, including powder – blue and white, both with silver trim. Sound quality was excellent due to large, front-firing oval speaker. It was powered by C or D batteries.”
B: That’s a good description of the Gilligan’s Island radio and a nice drawing of it, Mr. Camilli. Thank you very much. We hope our other listeners will tell us something about their favorite receivers. James asked us: “Are there any companies, native to Vietnam, that manufacture shortwave or other radio receivers? I’m not aware of any Vietnamese brands on the world market, but I could be wrong.”
A: Emico, an affiliate of VOV Radio, which specializes in manufacturing, exporting and importing communications equipment, has produced an FM receiver. The 100% made-in-Vietnam receiver is sold domestically only. There are some locally manufactures radios produced by joint-ventures with Japanese or Korean companies like Sony and Samsung.
We welcome your comments at:
English program,
Overseas Service
Radio Voice of Vietnam
45 Ba Trieu street-Hanoi-Vietnam
Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.org.vn
If you miss any of our programs, please log on to www.vovworld.vn to hear a recording.