Yawnaro Radio Council

The Yawnaro Radio Council is the radio and television broadcaster of the Flarlandian overseas territory of Yawnaro.

History

The YRC was founded in 1957 and began broadcasts on March 7th of the same year. Broadcasts were on Thursday nights and ran for half an hour. The public was now used to radio and within less than a year broadcasts were now Tuesdays and Thursdays for one hour. Week-long radio wasn't a reality until 1985. During this period, broadcasts were for six hours a day.

The YRC expansion period for radio went like this:

• 1960: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 18:00 to 20:00
• 1962: Tuesdays and Thursdays 18:00 to 20:00, Saturdays 18:00 to 21:00
• 1966: Tuesdays and Thursdays 17:30 to 21:00, Saturdays 16:30 to 22:00, Sundays 16:30 to 21:30
• 1973: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays 18:00 to 20:00
• 1974: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays 16:30 to 21:00, Sundays 18:00 to 20:00
• 1981: Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays 16:00 to 21:00, Saturdays and Sundays 16:00 to 22:00
• 1984: Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 16:00 to 22:00, Saturdays and Sundays 15:00 to 22:00
• 1985: every day 15:00 to 23:00

Initially the YRC broadcast limited programming in Yawnaroan, much of the content available at the time was in English. Policy changes in 1973 (owing to energy cuts due to the oil crisis of the time) led to the YRC assigning Tuesdays and Saturdays for English-language programming and Thursdays for Yawnaroan-language programming. After the reforms of the following year, the YRC started adding Yawnaroan programming on Tuesdays, and ending the "designated day schedule" policy for the service.

Television started in 1987, symbolically on March 7th. Broadcasts were constrained to Saturdays and Sundays from 7-9pm due to "economical and leisure issues". The news of the television service have surprised the Eumoritonian Broadcasting Corporation, who hasn't even started work on its television service at the time. In 1990, a report came that television was being shown four nights a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays between 7 and 9pm and Saturdays and Sundays between 6 and 10pm. Programs were "imported" from duplicates of recordings of TVB and pasted onto the local broadcast center.

In 1994, the YRC was broadcasting in exile due to the rebuilding of the facilities, completed in November of 1994. The YRC now had two radio stations, link to Voice of Flarland and Flarland Television International and week-long television, four hours on weekdays and six on weekends. This meant that new habits had to be created, for instance broadcasting The People of the Valley on a daily basis rather than putting two or more episodes in one night.

In 1996, YRC gained its first award for a local documentary on former Yawnaroan president Stuart James Risham. Since then, YRC has gained a further two awards: in 2004 for its Yawnaro Wildlife documentary series and in 2013 for the Underground Band series.

The YRC initiated a website in 1998, until 2000 it was hosted in Eumoritown.

HD broadcasts started in 2014 for the South Bulungi World Cup and later imported programming. Local programming in HD didn't start until 2016.

The Yawnaro Radio Council currently produces up to fifty weekly hours of programming on radio and up to ten weekly hours of programming on television. Most of its radio programming is made for Radio 1. YRC Television produces a daily ten-minute newscast at 7:15pm, preceding a Flarland TV weather report.

On January 15, 2021, the YRC adopted an emergency plan to cut the length of its daily schedule, with exceptions for certain days where events like the Flarland Day cerimonies, the Eurectivision Song Contest and international sports competitions are held. The law affects both the standard definition channel and the HD channel. The goal was to cut costs amidst "the current situation of the outside world" and to cut energy. The average time for television consuption in Yawnaro, according to studies conducted early in 2021, is of less than one hour, and the YRC proceeded to a rougly 90-minute period at first. Currently the allotted time on average days is 108 minutes.

In November 2021, the YRC issued a request to reconvert the entity to a corporation, therefore changing the name from Yawnaro Radio Council to Yawnaro Radio Corporation. The aims are to improve some of the broadcaster's infrastructure and increase the number of hours of its daily broadcast.

Some YRC programming is also relayed in Eumoritown. In 2022, the OBF TV channel will begin its operations and YRC is a member. This means that its local productions will be seen freely in the mainland territory and in the other overseas territories.

Regardless of the delays of the ambitious OBF TV project, the legal name is set to change to Yawnaro Radio Corporation effective September 12, 2022.

YRC gained TV competition in 2022.

Operations

Radio

• Radio 1: An emulation of FBC Radio 1 with some elements of Radio National. Local programming from 7-9am, 10am-2pm, 4pm-7pm and 8pm-midnight. The station goes off-air between midnight and 5am. The remaining slots are filled in by live or pre-recorded programs from Flarland.
• Radio 2: An emulation of FBC Radio 2 mixed with UW Radio Arts and UW Radio Active. Programming consists of a variety of themed content, mostly local or imported from Flarlandian radio. Broadcasts 24/7 with overnight slots being comprised of automated Flarlandian programs.

Television

• YRC Television: Broadcasts weekdays 3pm-midnight and weekends 10am-midnight. Only local television service in Yawnaro. It broadcasts little local content, most of the content comes from the mainland and abroad through deals shared with neighboring overseas broadcasters.
• YRC HD: Practically since its inception, YRC HD was used as more of a tandem channel for the corporation rather than just simulcasting the extant YRC channel.