Friends to the South
Falkland Islands, is located 300 miles from the coast of Argentina, and 584 miles north of the British Antarctic territory.
The Islands, whilst not a 'dependency of St Helena', is called home by a few hundred St Helenian's currently working there.
On Friday, 1st September 2006, Saint FM, with the help of KTV Ltd , officially began a 24 hour FM
re-broadcasting service in Falkland Islands capital, Stanley and eventually expanding the rebroadcast to include Saint's living and working in Mount Pleasant >>
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Word of the station
re-broadcasting on the Falkland's spread fast and during a week of test transmission leading up to the official 'launch date Saint FM received dozens of calls and emails from Saints living and working on the Falklands.
With a 3-4 hour time difference between the Islands Saint FM has since reworked it's overnight schedules to accommodate Falkland Island Listeners and we currently do late night news bulletins and Advertisements. >>
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Reception in this far flung destination has proved problematic at times for Falkland Islanders but through sheer determination and dedication by KTV, the station re-broadcast is continuously adjusted and reconfigured to try and ensure full coverage.
The longest endured silence being for two months in 2008 as Falklands experienced problems with their satellite reception. At the time out of Saint FM and KTV's control eventually the situation was remedied and KTV was able to resume re-broadcasts.
Falkland Islanders currently enjoy a 24/7 broadcast of Saint FM.
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We welcome stories, news items and articles to Saint FM/St Helena Independent.
Learn more about Falklands:
How it all started for KTV:
"The idea of a
television service in Stanley first came about in 1981. I presented
the proposal to the then Governor, Sir Rex Hunt, who rejected the
proposal as he considered it too far ahead of its time and thought it
could not be achieved on such a small budget of only £32,000.00.
The
1982 conflict and the subsequent reconstruction disrupted many ideas and
plans of mine, including the thought of getting into TV or radio
broadcasting.
My wife, Sharon, and I realised there was a need for
live news and sport amongst other things and decided to form a company, KTV
Ltd, and started hiring three channels, a cartoon channel, a movie channel
and a news channel, CNN.
At the time these were the channels that had the strongest signal. Although we used a 5m diameter dish to receive them, because of the signal being only analogue, in certain weather conditions reception was not perfect. The transmitting equipment for these three channels was all manufactured by ourselves locally during evenings and weekends. >>
By the time ESPN was available for reception in this part of the world we were able to purchase our first fully factory built transmitter and after this came HBO and Discovery channel. Then soon it was time to change over the receiving equipment to the new digital format. This improved signal quality dramatically and enabled us to receive extra channels. With the availability of more channels became a possibility to introduce BBC World TV. We were the first wireless cable TV operator in the region to subscribe to this channel once it became available. After this followed People and Arts, Warner channel, Sony Entertainment Television, The History Channel and most recently, Nickelodeon and VH1.
In parallel to our TV service in Stanley we introduced the BBC World Service
Radio and thus forming the 'Radio Nova' division of KTV.
Radio Nova was also the first to receive the BBC World Service in the South American region on the new digital format. >>
In 2006 a friend suggested that it would be a wonderful idea to introduce a radio station with a difference; with news, greetings, requests, music and voices from "a home away from home" that would identify a large proportion of our community.
Thus Saint FM, can now be heard in Stanley on 93.1FM.
Re-broadcasts of Saint FM were than expanded to include listeners in the Mount Pleasant area ensuring the majority of Saint Helenian's that live and work at the complex will enjoy Saint FM.
KTV Radio Nova provides three stations all of which
are self-funded and without any outside subsidy and completely independent.
Communication technology progresses at a rapid pace and it
is for the benefit of us all and KTV has always been and will be quick to
embrace it in order to bring to the Islands more choice and in the most cost
effective way possible for all to enjoy."
Mario Zuvic,
KTV Ltd,
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STFM Falklands Today:
Most evident during the festive season, Falkland Island Listeners, like Ascension are eager to interact with the station. >>
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