WRN ending Voice of Korea on-demand audio

130528-wrn-logoHigh-quality audio streams from the Voice of Korea, North Korea’s international broadcaster, will soon be gone from the web.

The recordings, which are available in five languages, have been offered by London-based World Radio Network since July this year, but the company is shutting down its on-demand service on December 15.

The move is part of an effort by WRN to refocus its efforts on its core service aimed at radio stations. WRN carries programming from major international broadcasters such as Deutsche Welle, KBS World Radio, Radio Prague and Radio New Zealand and redistributes them to AM and FM stations around the world. The online service was an offshoot of that.

When the WRN service closes, they’ll be two options for listeners that want to hear Voice of Korea’s daily hour-long broadcast.

The first is via a radio stream on the Thaicom 5 satellite. The satellite’s coverage area includes all of Asia and some of Europe, but requires a large satellite dish at least 2 meters in diameter. This is how WRN received the programming.

The other is via shortwave radio. The signal reaches most parts of the world, but suffers from interference and requires a good antenna in many regions.

2 Comments on "WRN ending Voice of Korea on-demand audio"

  1. Sorry to hear that! Hope someone else steps up and can rebroadcast these!

  2. This is extremely unfortunate. I used to listen to a lot of recordings on WRN and am very sad to see that feature of the website removed.

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