Winners of the contest “Radio Romania 85”

România Internațional, 09.09.2013, 16:21

Dear friends, Radio Romania International invited you, until June 30th, to participate in a general knowledge contest called “Radio Romania 85”, devoted to the anniversary, to be marked on November 1st 2013, of 85 years of Romanian radio broadcasting. The Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation is a leader on the Romanian radio market with 4.7 million listeners daily reach at national level and a cumulated market share per national and regional stations of 30%.

It seems that the contest has aroused your interest as we have received 515 complete and correct answers for which we thank you very much.

The grand prize for the winners is a 10-day trip with full board for two between 15th and 24th of September 2013, in 3 areas of Romania covered by Radio Romania’s Regional stations – namely the counties of Gorj (in the south west), Timis (in the west) and Cluj (in the north west).

The sponsors of the contest are the Oltenia Energy Compound and SC Boca Junior SRL of Timisoara. The partners of this contest are the Gorj County Council, the Association ‘Cluj Napoca 2020-European Capital of Culture’, the Timis County Council, the Cluj Napoca City Hall, the Cluj and Gorj branches of the Fine Artists Union, and the Association of Cluj Traditional Craftsmen.

From our shows, from RRI’s website, Facebook and Twitter profiles you could find the answers to the contest questions. Before announcing the winners here are the questions again:

1. What is the date of the first official radio broadcast in Romania? Correct answer: November 1st 1928 17.00 hours local time.

2. What is the market share held by the public radio service in Romania? Correct answer: 30%.

3. List no less than three radio stations under the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation umbrella. You could have chosen from among Radio Romania News and Current Affairs, Radio Romania Culture, Radio Village Antenna, Radio Romania Music, Radio Romania International, regional and local stations grouped under Radio Romania Regional, with headquarters in the cities of Bucharest, Cluj Napoca, Timisoara, Iasi, Craiova, Targu Mures, Resita, Constanta, Sibiu, Brasov, Sighetu Marmatiei and Arad, the on-line stations Radio3net and Radio Romania Junior and also Radio Chisinau, a station of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation, covering two thirds of the Republic of Moldova.

4. Who is considered to be the father of Romanian radio broadcasting? Correct answer: Dragomir Hurmuzescu.

10 of the 30 honorable mentions offered by RRI went to the following listeners and Internet users, who tuned in to RRI’s English language broadcasts: Bandar Alhazmi, of Saudi Arabia, Nasir Aziz and Rawal Khan from Pakistan and Dewan Rafiqul Islam from Bangladesh, Juan Franco Crespo of Spain and Miguel Angel Lahera Rivero from Cuba, Robert C. Ackx and Maria Ackx Blom, from the Netherlands, Chinmoy Mahato and Gurmeet Singh Meeta, both from India and Nizzam Uddin Nayan of Bangladesh.

RRI offered 30 3rd Prizes who went, among others, to the following English programs’ listeners and Internet users: Mitul Kansal, Mohammad Shamim, Najim Uddin and Eyamin Hossain, all 4 from India, Marek Pis of Poland, Christer Brunstrom from Sweden, Keith A. Simmonds from France and Christopher Akpai of Nigeria, Nazmus Sadat and Erfan Sazid, both from Bangladesh.

Our old friend from Sweden, Christer Brunstrom wrote the following: “I discovered international radio in 1962 and I have listened daily ever since. I write monthly columns on international radio for a Swedish magazine. I listen to RRI because Romania is such a fascinating country what with the incredible ethnic diversity and interesting history. I am also enchanted by Romanian folk music. Romania is struggling with many issues and RRI is an essential tool in finding out what is happening in the country.”

There were 30 2nd Prizes of which some went to the following listeners of the English Service programs: Amy-Felicia Hodge of the US, Martin Rogan and Michael Whing, both from Great Britain, Henk Poortvliet from the Netherlands, Hans Verner Lollike of Denmark, Debaki Ranjan Biswas and Surendra Kumar, both from India and Jaroslaw Jedrzejczak from Poland.

We also have 30 1st Prizes which were won by RRI’s faithful listeners of whom the following are friends of RRI’s English Service: Mogire Machuki from Kenya, Costa Constantinides from Cyprus, John Eberle, John Rutledge, Jim Holthus and Roberta Selesky, all 4 from the USA, Grant Skinner and Brian Kendall, both from Great Britian, Master Jaydeep of India, and Thein Soe from Malaysia.

Here is what Mogire Machuki wrote to account for his participation in the contest: “Greetings from Kisii Kenya. Very much elated to be part of this great event since I have grown up with RRI over the years. I am 34 years old third born in a family of nine. Both of my parents never went to school but to ensure the future of their nine children was bright, all of us have studied well on various fields. For me I went through school quickly and through my education period I never had the opportunity to listen to the radio though my father owned one, precious it was. Indeed it was treasure and he never ever allowed us to touch it. During my high school years 1990-1993 my passion for radio and journalism as whole took its roots and this was because of the short-wave radio power of those yester years. Everybody was after any breaking news, wars and other disasters. In school I came up with the idea of forming a journalism club and since social clubs were given ago but with limits, one was born. It was on that note that I developed the niche of radio DX-ing and indeed it was so impressive in that after school in 1993 I managed to have free time of tuning in to short-wave station broadcasting far from my country Kenya. Somewhere in that year I managed to get in contact with various SW radio stations like the BBC, VOA, DW and later I was able to discover RRI. I joined the RRI family fully in 1997 and what inspired me to stay close to this station was its closeness with listeners, letters were attended to in the shortest time possible with surprise gifts and impressive contests a tradition that RRI still sticks to. RRI is a crucial source of information and morale for those living abroad. Even though the existence of a radio station cannot be really evaluated in terms of human life, there are moments to reflect and draw comparisons. Providing listeners with unbiased, comprehensive and incisive data about Romania and the rest of Europe, as well as mapping its past and discovering the cultural foundations on which the Romania country was built is no easy task but I marvel at RRI because it has managed to achieve this. RRIs the ideal mirror of a true Romania.”

Another friend of the English Service, Costa Constantinides of Cyprus wrote the following: “I am listening to Radio Romania since I started this great hobby in 1969. At that time I was living in Apartheid South Africa and we were forbidden to tune into communist Radio Stations from the eastern bloc. Once I had a visit from our BOSS Bureau of State Security (South Africa.) I was 15 years old at the time…and had a fright but still kept listening to this day tuning to short wave radio. Since 1995 I live on the island of Cyprus and I still have the thrill of hearing many strong signals of Radio Romania on my short wave receiver. The positive images are there to hear, we are both free and long live Radio Romania. I have many QSL cards of your station dating back to those days in my album under Europe.”

Another old friend from UK, Grant Skinner, wrote this: “The reason I am a listener of Radio Romania International and a fan is listening to RRI is a very fascinating, interesting and rewarding hobby. A minimal investment has brought me hours of enjoyment. Once I began receiving letters and other goodies I became hooked. Where else can you keep up with world news and events, sports, music, culture and language through a single medium available at my fingertips”?

We also have 11 special prizes that went to the following listeners and Internet users of RRI’s foreign language broadcasts: Natalia Zabolotna of Ukraine, Abdel-Kader Khalil, from Algeria, Xu Wenjuan, of China, Andreas Karger from Germany Germania, Valeri Lugovski, from Belarus, a listener of the Russian language programs, Jacques Augustin and Paul Jamet, both from France, Daniel Meinardi, from Argentina, Marc Ferrer Ferrando, from Spain, Jayanta Chakrabarty, from India, and Weldon Walles of the US.

This is how Jayanta Chakrabarty motivated his participation in the contest: “I think that being a listener of Radio Romania International and an online fan is both an honour and privilege. I am also a gainer in the sense that I am able to enjoy quality programmes with excellent audio and video clarity. I dont have to hunt for other radio stations for my daily quota of the latest news and reports on Romania, Europe and the world. RRI is dependable and unbiased in projecting Romania in its true perspective. Imparting valuable information on the socio-political, economic, scientific, cultural and historical affairs is a special treat of RRI. Its English Service is a boon for those listeners, like myself, for whom English is the second language. My family and myself are appreciative of the fact that RRI has given us various programmes over the years that are educative, absorbing, entertaining and interesting. Isnt it exciting that we can expect so much by the flick of a key in browsing RRIs well-structured website. With Romanian music in my heart, RRI is friendly source of music of various genre – be it traditional folk, classical, jazz or popular. To me, the hardworking staff members of RRI with their full dedication and with a lot of interest for its listeners have made RRI one of the best loved radio stations in Europe.”

The other winner of a special prize, also a friend of the English Service, Weldon Walles wrote the following: “It gives me great pleasure to enter the Radio Romania 85 Contest. Part of the enjoyment of short wave listening is the ability to interact with the stations like Radio Romania that put their audience first. I always look forward to your broadcasts and contests which are not only enjoyable, but are also educational. Thank you for the many years of pleasure you have given me as an avid listener.”

And now the long-awaited moment…the winners of the grand prize are…. Elena and Igor Kurbanov, of Turkmenistan, listeners of the Russian language programs. Congratulations! Upon finding out the news that she and her husband are the winners of the grand prize of Radio Romania 85 contest, Elena Kurbanova wrote: “I thank you for including my essay on the list of potential winners. Igor and I have dreamt of discovering the beauties of Romania and of meeting its wonderful people! We have been dreaming of feeling the atmosphere of Romania”.

We will be trying to mail the prizes and honorable mentions to their winners as soon as possible. We kindly ask you to confirm reception of the prize and its content through a letter, by fax or e-mail. We once again thank you for participating in Radio Romania 85 contest and we urge you to continue to participate in the future contests launched by RRI.