Happy (belated) World Radio Day!

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you'll hear the answer to the question about the new Austrian chancellor and his coalition partner. You'll hear  World Radio Day greetings from your fellow listeners all over the world, great music – and of course, the new quiz question. Just click on the “Audio” arrow above and enjoy!

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. You'll hear the winner's names announced and the week's quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you've grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.

Send me your music requests! I'll make programs of your favorite music when I can't be in the kitchen to cook something up new for you … write to me at  [email protected]

For our DX enthusiast and shortwave listener friends: I am sad to announce we no longer have a shortwave frequency; we have severe budget constraints which no longer permit us to broadcast via shortwave.

"Paris Live", our afternoon news program, is on-the-air Monday – Friday, from 13:00 to 14:00 UTC/GMT. You can hear "Paris Live" on our website, rfienglish.com, or on  World Radio Network.

For North America: WRN broadcasts the quotidian RFI English programme three times a day from Monday to Friday, from 05:00 to 05:59, from 09:00 to 09:59 and from 15:00 to 15h59 UTC/GMT.

For Africa and Asia: WRN broadcasts the quotidian RFI English programme three times a day from Monday to Friday, from 05:00 to 05:59, from 09:00 to 09:59 and from 15:00 to 15h59 UTC/GMT.

For Europe: WRN broadcasts the quotidian RFI English programme three times a day from Monday to Friday, from 06:00 to 06:50, from 11:00 to 11:59 and from 19:00 to 19:59 UTC/GMT.

In Paris, you can hear us on World Radio Paris on DAB+, Monday to Friday from 16:00 to 16:59.

To listen to our features (now podcasts only), go to our website and click on the three horizontal bars on the top right, choose Listen to RFI / Features, and you've got 'em ! You can either listen directly, or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

Teachers, take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is [email protected]

Did you know there's an RFI English newsletter? If you subscribe, you'll receive our newsletter every day. Just click on Newsletters, fill out the form, and you'll stay up-to-date with RFI English.

RFI Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni ([email protected]) and Chrystelle Nammour ([email protected]) from our Listener Relations department on all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me ([email protected]) when you write them so that I know what is going on, too. N.B. You do not need to send them your quiz answers! Email overload!

We've made a Facebook page just for you, the RFI English Clubs. It is a closed group, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven't yet asked to join the group, go to the Facebook link above and fill out the questionnaire!!!!! (if you do not answer the questions, I click “decline”).

Welcome to our new RFI Listeners Club members, who are sisters! A hearty welcome to Srija and Shraddha Nomula from Hyderabad, India.

So glad you have joined us!
You too can be a member of the RFI Listeners Club – just write to me at [email protected] and tell me you want to join, and I'll send you a membership number. It's that easy. When you win a Sound Kitchen quiz as an RFI Listeners Club member, you receive a premium prize.

RFI's Planet Radio department is sponsoring an e-POP (e-Participatory Observers Project) competition. It's a video contest, with some really great prizes! This is the first year that English speakers have been invited to participate, so let's show RFI how many of you are out there, and are an active part of the RFI English service!

It's a really cool project: Planet Radio is looking for two-minute videos about climate change, told by the humans who are experiencing it first hand – the people we rarely get to hear from. Your grandfather. Your aunt. People in your community. Your video should be inter-generational: interview an older member of your family or in your community who has lived the changes climate change has brought. This project is about humans; that's the whole point of ePOP, how climate change has affected the “ordinary” citizen – the people we rarely hear from. Your video can be in any language – you just have to provide the translation into English to Planet Radio. And it can't be more than two minutes. It's open to everyone, although there is one prize for women under the age of 25 (Young sisters! Get to work!).  Most of the prizes involve a trip to Paris, and I would get to meet you! Plus there's video equipment to be given away – as noted, the prizes are great!

Here's the link for the guidelines.

The deadline for entries is 15 March. I fully expect Planet Radio to be bombarded with entries from you, the RFI English service listeners!

This week's quiz: On 11 January, I asked you a question about Austria. Earlier that week, the leader of the country's conservatives was sworn in as chancellor, following a union with a party which had never before been in government. You were to tell me the name of the very young man who was (re) sworn in on 7 January as Austria's chancellor, and the name of the party with whom he made an alliance.

The answer is: Sebastian Kurz, and the Greens.

In 2017, 33-year-old Sebastian Kurz became the world's youngest democratically elected leader. Originally aligned with the far-right FPO party, the alliance fell apart when Heinz-Christian Strache, the FPO leader and vice-chancellor of Austria, became engulfed in a graft scandal. That led to the fall of the coalition and snap elections.

As chancellor, Sebastian Kurz will preside over a union that gives the Greens power in Austria's government for the first time. Green party chief Werner Kogler serves as the country's vice-chancellor.

The winners are: Mrs Kousalya Nomula from Telangana, India; Miroslav Síleš from Košice, Slovakia; Royse Cramton from Oak Park, Illinois in the US; Asifa Riaz – a member of the RFI Listeners Club in Sheikhupura City, Pakistan, and Sultan Mahmud Sarker, the president of the Shetu RFI Listeners Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh.

Congratulations winners!
Here's the music you heard on this week's program:“Se e Tarde Me Perdoa” by Ronald Boscali and Carlos Lyra, arranged by Quincy Jones and performed by the Quincy Jones orchestra; “Alaska Walzer”, a folk song from Austria performed by Vierklee; “Inde” by After In Paris; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cuckoo” by Louis-Claude Daquin, performed by György Cziffra, and “Blue Light Yokohama”, written by Jun Hashimoto and Kyohei Tsutsumi, and sung by Ayumi Ishida.

Do you have a musical request? Send it to [email protected]

This week's question ... You'll have to listen to the show to participate. You have until 16 March to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 21 March podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address in with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:
[email protected]
or
Susan Owensby
RFI – The Sound Kitchen
80, rue Camille Desmoulins
92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux
France
or
By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country's international access code, or “ + ”, then 33 6 31 12 96 82. Don't forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or to form your own official RFI Club, click here