Radio Samoa, Auckland 1593

Radio Samoa was heard on 1592,98 kHz on 15 October 2007 during the great New Zealand conditions we experienced on the KONG17 DXpedition. Radio Samoa broadcast for the Samoan Community in New Zealand, and its philosophy is: "a well informed community is an empowered community". The station broadcasts predominantly in the Samoan language with English commercials and music from time to time. They have a nice web at http://www.radiosamoa.co.nz/
My email probably didn't reach Radio Samoa (I might be wrong - read on), and my two reception reports via air mail didn't get much attention either. Late September I contacted Bryan Clark, who now has retired to his 'antenna farm' in Mangawhai, 110 km from Auckland. He said he would go to Auckland in November, and offered to bring my reception report and recording and see if he could locate the offices of the station.

Here is the very interesting email Bryen sent me yesterday: "I visited the broadcasting studios of Radio Samoa 1593AM on Friday. I located them in an old nondescript building in Mount Eden, an inner city suburb of Auckland, about 6km from where I am staying.
The administrative offices are located in South Auckland, about 25km south (this is where your original letter went to), and I thought my chances of finding a sympathetic staff member would be greater at an operational studio.There was minimal signage to direct me to the Radio Samoa studios but I could hear noise upstairs, so I climbed some stairs and found a large 1593AM sign plus some very small signs for Radio Southern Cross – I think this is an Asian language broadcaster that buys air time on 1593AM.
After tapping on a window, a Samoan man came out and I explained my mission to him. His English language skills were only average but he seemed interested, taking me into a small studio to play the CD recording I had made of your MP3 clips. Another technical person was in the studio (a European) and he said he was aware that the station had received some emailed reports from Europe in the past.
The music in your recordings was confirmed as Samoan, and as soon as he heard the spoken announcements he said, yes, that’s us!
I asked ‘Do you have a letterhead or car sticker or other station literature that we can write a short message of confirmation on?’ Unfortunately the answer was no, so the only option left was to get him to write a short statement on your own letter. I told him to keep the CD and reception report -he said he was sure that the station manager would be interested to hear the recording.
As a DXer, I was disappointed that I couldn't secure a better form of QSL for you, but the station and its niche ethnic audience are not wealthy. We return home tomorrow, so I will organise the mailing of your 'signed letter' later in the week."

Bryan scanned the letter and sent it by email as well, giving me one of the better QSLs from the great KONG17 DXpedition. Thank you very much, Bryan, for your efforts in helping a fellow DX-er. Anyone can learn a lot from this.