No fooling: The Voice of Russia — the former “Radio Moscow” — will end its shortwave broadcasts on Tuesday, April 1. After contradictory announcements and reports last December, it appears the international broadcaster is indeed pulling the plug on its HF transmissions.

SWL Tom Witherspoon, K4SWL, contacted VOR. As he reports on his blog, Voice of Russia’s Elena Osipova told him, “This is to thank you for your message and confirm the information about the upcoming cancellation of the Voice of Russia’s short- and medium wave transmissions as of April 1, 2014.”

Effective December 9, as a result of a decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Voice of Russia radio company officially ceased to exist and merged with several other state-run news agencies as part of Rossia Segodnya, a Russia-based international news service. From the 1950s through the 1980s, the station, as Radio Moscow, was a virtual beacon for short-wave listeners (SWLs), many of whom gravitated into Amateur Radio.

“I remember when the Voice of Russia and Radio Moscow absolutely dominated the shortwaves, especially in my early years as a radio listener,” Witherspoon remarked on his blog. “Times have changed for this broadcaster, who has been the mouthpiece for Russia and the Soviet Union.”

In 2003 VOR was among the first major international radio broadcasters to launch daily broadcasts to Europe in Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM).