Radio Moscow

Radio Moscow (Russian: Pадио Москва, tr. Radio Moskva), also known as Radio Moscow World Service, was the official international broadcasting station of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. At its peak, Radio Moscow broadcast in over 70 languages using transmitters in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and Cuba.

Radio Moscow's interval signal was 'Wide Is My Motherland' (Russian: Широка страна моя родная, tr. Shiroka strana moya rodnaya).

History

Early years

Its first emission in a foreign language was in German on 29 October 1929, and later in English and French. Previously, Radio Moscow broadcast in 1922 with a transmitter station RV-1 in the Moscow region, and a second broadcasting centre came on air at Leningrad in 1925. By 1939, Radio Moscow was broadcasting (on mediumwave and shortwave) in English, French, Indonesian, German, Italian and Arabic. Radio Moscow did express concern over the rise of German dictator Adolf Hitler during the 1930s, and its Italian mediumwave service specifically was jammed by an order of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini during the late 1930s.

Moscow

Moscow (/ˈmɒskaʊ/ or /ˈmɒskoʊ/; Russian: Москва́, tr. Moskva; IPA: [mɐˈskva]) is the capital and the largest city of Russia, with 12.2 million residents within the city limits and 16.8 million within the urban area. Moscow has the status of a federal city in Russia.

Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as the largest city entirely on the European continent. By broader definitions Moscow is among the world's largest cities, being the 14th largest metro area, the 17th largest agglomeration, the 16th largest urban area, and the 10th largest by population within city limits worldwide. According to Forbes 2013, Moscow has been ranked as the ninth most expensive city in the world by Mercer and has one of the world's largest urban economies, being ranked as an alpha global city according to the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, and is also one of the fastest growing tourist destinations in the world according to the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index. Moscow is the northernmost and coldest megacity and metropolis on Earth. It is home to the Ostankino Tower, the tallest free standing structure in Europe; the Federation Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Europe; and the Moscow International Business Center. By its territorial expansion on July 1, 2012 southwest into the Moscow Oblast, the area of the capital more than doubled; from 1,091 square kilometers (421 sq mi) up to 2,511 square kilometers (970 sq mi), and gained an additional population of 233,000 people.

Radio

Radio is the use of radio waves is to carry information, such as sound, by systematically modulating some property of electromagnetic energy waves transmitted through space, such as their amplitude, frequency, phase, or pulse width. When radio waves strike an electrical conductor, the oscillating fields induce an alternating current in the conductor. The information in the waves can be extracted and transformed back into its original form.

Radio systems need a transmitter to modulate (change) some property of the energy produced to impress a signal on it, for example using amplitude modulation or angle modulation (which can be frequency modulation or phase modulation). Radio systems also need an antenna to convert electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. An antenna can be used for both transmitting and receiving. The electrical resonance of tuned circuits in radios allow individual stations to be selected. The electromagnetic wave is intercepted by a tuned receiving antenna. A radio receiver receives its input from an antenna and converts it into a form usable for the consumer, such as sound, pictures, digital data, measurement values, navigational positions, etc. Radio frequencies occupy the range from a 3 kHz to 300 GHz, although commercially important uses of radio use only a small part of this spectrum.

Voice of Russia

The Voice of Russia (Russian: Голос России, tr. Golos Rossii) was the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service from 1993 until 9 November 2014. Its interval signal was a chime version of "Majestic" chorus from the "Great Gate of Kiev" portion of Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky.

History

On 22 December 1993, Russian President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree which reorganized Radio Moscow with a new name: The Voice of Russia.

A popular feature of Voice of Russia was Moscow Mailbag, which answered listeners' questions in English about Russia. Until 2005, the programme was presented by Joe Adamov, who was known for his command of the English language and his good humour.

On 9 December 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a presidential decree liquidating Voice of Russia as an agency and merging it with RIA Novosti to form the Rossiya Segodnya international news agency.

Several reports published in 2013 claimed that Voice of Russia was to cease its shortwave service as of January 1, 2014 due to budget cuts, however service continued into the new year.Margarita Simonyan, editor in chief of the Rossiya Segodnya, said in March 2014 that "We will stop using obsolete radio broadcasting models, when the signal is transmitted without any control and when it is impossible to calculate who listens to it and where." Voice of Russia ceased shortwave and European mediumwave broadcasting effective 1 April 2014. The service had continued to be available worldwide via the internet, in selected regions on satellite, and in several cities on FM, AM (in North America) or local digital radio.

Brain Cycles

Brain Cycles is the second studio album by American psychedelic rock band Radio Moscow. Released on April 14, 2009, the album was the first to feature bassist Zach Anderson, who replaced Luke McDuff in 2007. Issued by Alive Naturalsound, Brain Cycles was recorded at Sound Farm in Jamaica, Iowa and produced by band members Parker Griggs and Anderson.

Composition and recording

In an interview with The A.V. Club, frontman Griggs explained that "The first album Radio Moscow was written all-instrumental, and the singing was just sort of [an afterthought] ... This album was written more with the vocals in mind." On the subject of self-producing the album, Griggs noted that "I wanted to use the tape again and try to get an old-school sound ... [and] this time around I just tried to give it my all and be more comfortable with that." The frontman also noted that "We recorded this [album] at Sound Farm in Jamaica, [Iowa] instead of Ohio this time. We put a lot more time into it and really focused on the mix to give it a kind of classic psychedelic feel. It's still real bluesy but we tried to make it more psychedelic than the last one."