Radio Polonia reaperis?!

Just when one thought the saga of Radio Polonia's Esperanto broadcasts ended back on Friday, December 15th, it seems that they had a sort of change of heart at the last minute. And so, on Saturday, Gabi Korsiarska was, amazingly enough, back at the microphone, as per yet another article from Libera Folio, whose editors have been closely following the saga.

This quick return to the airwaves was not without its problems, however. Those who access the archive recording will be greeted with a couple of false starts before the familiar signature, "Radio Polonia auxdigas elsendon en Esperanto." There will be glitches throughout the rest of the show, which may explain why the closing poem by Halina Poświatowska, "Cxiuj miaj mortoj" (read by its translator, Barbara Sokolówna), is cut off at the end.

I have no doubt that the rush to restore any sort of broadcast in la internacia lingvo was due to the unwelcome remarks by Polskie Radio's vice–president Jerzy Targalski (using Zamenhof's Jewish identity as an excuse to unplug the Esperanto bureau). If Libera Folio is correct, then we can thank someone higher than Mr. Targalski — Polskie Radio's president Krzysztof Czaba≈Ñski — for the intervention.

That said, Libera Folio has also reported that most of the Esperanto section of the website is gone, save for one page — the link to the archived broadcasts. Grab what you can, however you can, while you can — warts and all.

After the new year, who knows what will be greeting us?

For now, clearly, the roller–coaster ride for Radio Polonia's Esperanto listeners continues.

(One personal note: Just for the way they've managed to keep me updated on things, Libera Folio deserves some change from me to their UEA account. Hopefully once we're into January.)

(Update 2006–12–20: Yes, Virginia, yet another Libera Folio update: This item reports on Radio Vatikana (!) interviewing Barbara Pietrzak and Gabi Korsiarska on Sunday; the story includes a complete transcription of the interview itself.

And here is the link to the broadcast as a low–fi MP3 file.

There is a now a special note on the Radio Polonia streaming audio page stating that the regular Esperanto broadcasts will stay on the air until after December 31st, when an Internet–exclusive program will be introduced.

For now, Radio Polonia's streaming audio page [and one on the World Radio Network's own site] are the only way to hear the current broadcasts; I am sorry to report that the Esperanto Radio Arkivo is still recycling the October 28th broadcast. Does Scott Redd know about this?)