Media Network Vintage Vault 2018-2019

We live in troubled times (again). Bumped into a Media Network programme recorded in December 1989. We were reporting on the media surrounding the US intervention into Panama to capture Manuel Noriega. Listener Al Quagleri tipped us off after monitoring airforce communications from  in Panama. Lou Josephs helped us unravel the media plan, which revealed the involvement of Pentagon backed Radio Impacto as well as extended broadcasts from the Spanish service of Voice of America. We also looked at the serious situation developing in Romania and the involvement of Radio Free Europe and the plans to build a 34 million dollar shortwave facility in Israel. Note the comment that people in Europe no longer listen to shortwave, so that FM was important. We called KNLS in, Anchor Point, Alaska and talked to Dave Stuart about the volcano that's been erupting. Arthur Cushen sent in Christmas greetings. And there are changes to report at Radio Australia. They were celebrating 50 years of their existence. Andy Sennitt was c

Interesting programme which revealed that Radio Vilnius, Lithuania was no longer using material sent to the station from Radio Moscow. We also profiled the early days of Voice of America transmitting station in Bethany, Ohio which recently closed down. 

This is a very early Media Network from the summer of 1983. Yes, the presentation is dated and it has nothing like the pace of later programmes in the series. But it is interesting none the less. I recall the indepth interview about what HCJB was building in Pifo, near Quito Ecuador. The photo shows the studio buildings in downtown Quito which I remember visiting years later in 1995. And Professor John Campbell had some excellent insights into the clandestine radio scene in North Africa. Enjoy.

On July 17th 2014, a commercial aircraft from Malaysian Airlines, flight MH17, was shot down over Ukraine. The exact details of who was responsible are still be determined. But 298 passengers were killed, many of them Dutch nationals. But this reminds me of an incident on September 1st 1983, when the Soviet government shot down a Korean airliner, flight 007. All 269 passengers and crew aboard the Korean airliner were killed, The aircraft was en route from Anchorage to Seoul when it flew through prohibited Soviet  around the time of a U.S.  mission. In this edition of the Media Network programme as broadcast in September 1983, we hear how Radio Moscow, the voice of the Soviet government reacted. Remember this is before the Internet...it took several days before an official reaction was forthcoming.  

This edition of the programme reports on a raid on Radio Bophutatswana. We also profiled Radio RIAS in West Berlin, which has announced TV broadcasts to East Berlin. The US government paid for the transmission costs. Cable systems in Holland have been cleared to carry Worldnet and CNN. Radio 10 has run into problems. STAD Radio in Amsterdam will be expanded to include the rest of Noord Holland. Philips have developed a new laser - which was later used to DVD. MV Communicator, home of Laser 558, has gone into Harwich, UK. Don Otis, announces plans to broadcast from Palau. NOS Hobbyscoop is still broadcasting Basicode transmissions. We interview producer Hans G. Janssen. Arthur Cushen has tuning tips from Invercargill, New Zealand. 

The date of this programme is only approximate. It contains an interesting interview with Pat Gowen, G3IOR, who has concerns about interference being caused to UoSAT by RAF s. We visit Reading to learn about the plans for a new Phase Track Receiver from Edward Vorster. Lou Josephs has spot on predictions about the AM Superradio from Denon. Dave Rosenthal reviews the Philips DC-777 for the in-dash reception of shortwave radio signals. He did an elaborate comparison while out on the open road. Corrections on the date? Please comment below.

We all sound rather young and hesitant in this early edition of Media Network, except Pete Myers. This was a regular edition of the programme with a lot of tuning tips, plus a short feature on the opening of the Netherlands Broadcasting Museum in Hilversum. Curator Cor van Driel explains that the Netherlands claims to have started the first regular series of broadcasts. Entrepreneur Hanso Schotanus à Steringa Idzerda not only broadcast from the Hague in 1919, he tried to make his own receivers to sell to the public. He also discovered the signals were crossing the Atlantic and even got sponsorship from the Daily Mail Newspaper for an English language programme.  This edition also contains a report by Stig Harvig Nielsen from Copenhagen about new legislation for local radio and TV stations. There have been pirate radio stations on the air complaining that the law is taking too long. This included a spoof takeover on the DR P4 network. Radio Enoch, a right wing pirate has returned from Coventry. Lady Jane Birdw

In 1989, satellite television was in its infancy. I remember watching events in China unfold on CNN, which had only just been added to the cable system in Holland. Then in the early hours of June 4th, shortwave listeners in North America started calling the Radio Netherlands answerline with an off air recording of Radio Beijing. Apparently an announcer at the English Service of Radio Beijing had spliced a short but very clear message onto the front of the transmission tape. A very courageous thing to do. When he'd finished, the programme continued with the usual political commentary. We rebroadcast out this clip. I've reprocessed it again for clarity. At the time, the story in Western Media (and later in publications) was that the voice you hear in this clip belonged to Li Dan, then Head of the English Service at Radio Beijing. He disappeared for a time, but did return later as on-air  Keith Perron, now living in Taiwan, supplies this version. Impossible for me to verify, but sounds more plausible. "Li Dan li

We got several hundred reactions after publicity on the BBC Radio 4 programme In Touch. This edition looks at launch of Ariane 6. Roger Broadbent reports from Noordwijk. Pat Gowen reports that one of the satellites on board, Oscar 10, was built by amateur radio operators. We also try to understand what ESA is doing with its ECS experiments. Radio Luxembourg's Benny Brown talks about the Earthlink programme. He tells a great anecdote about the great 208 (on 1440 kHz) from a flight engineer. And Rob Jones explains a new English language TV programme called "Before Our Next Programme". The programme concludes with a report from Andy Sennitt of the WRTH.

This edition has African Media News from Richard Ginbey. Mediumwave is expanding in Southern Africa. Parakou in Benin is being heard (later went to the transmitter site). We test a new automatic notch filter made by DATONG with a rather extensive demo. Grundig has announced the Yacht Boy 300.  The major part of the programme is an interview with propagation specialist John Brannigan based in Scotland. He was active in the amateur satellite sector. One of the few interviews I have ever conducted where there was virtually no editing. This is fascinating story about what we know and still don't know about the way the ionosphere works. Every heard of a equitorial aurora? Africa Number 1 in Gabon had problems with flutter fading which no-one expected. John explores what mother nature is teaching us. 

This news edition of the programme starts with a report that Radio Al Quds (The Holy One) is taking a far more active role. The station was first thought to be coming from Lebanon but our correspondent Joop Myers believes Southern Syria near to the Israeli border is more likely. The station is calling what they call "quizlings".  The station signs on with an electronic version of the song "Turkey in the Straw". In other news, Pete Myers reports on a new use for the Crowborough transmitter site which has now been dismantled and moved to Orfordness. We look at broadcasts to Cuba by the US, by a radio station called Radio Marti. An investigation has been launched into starting a TV Marti. Is Radio Marti thinking about FM? Ginger da Silva reports on a scientific expedition going between Russia and Canada. And we ended the show with a cryptic quiz using a number station and the news that TWR's has put away its musical box. Pat Gowen in the UK has a theory about CFC's and the ozone layer.

A news edition of the programme. TROS, AVRO and Veronica are thinking of going commercial in the Netherlands, TV-SAT is given up for lost, Deutsche Welle is experimenting with rebroadcasting its programmes via Radio Bras, and an intriguing arrangement with Radio Veritas. DW's service to Russia and Afghanistan are still jammed. Radio Caroline has gone back on shortwave on 6210 kHz. SW Radios have changed. We bemoaned the fact that many major manufacturers like Panasonic and Sony have now a confusing range of radios on the market. We link up with Nashville TN to found out why they are building a 100 kW shortwave transmitter, WWCR. Christian Zettl shares developments about broadcasting in Guatemala and we find out why Capital Radio is being heard on a subcarrier of a US satellite.

A collection of short news items in this edition of the show. Roy Neal reports on ham radio plans from Skylab with astronaut Owen Garriott. Pete Myers reports on satellite relay piracy. BBC broadcasts a documentary on Electromania. Andy Sennitt reports on changes at Vatican Radio. The Hungarian service of Radio Free Europe carries pop music in English.   Richard Ginbey made a feature on broadcasting in what later became Zimbabwe. (Some rather rare off-air recordings of broadcasting from Northern and Southern Rhodesia). Roger Tidy has items on China. Jim Vastenhoud explains whats going on in Geneva to regulate the shortwave broadcasting bands. Victor Gonnetilleke has his regular Asian Media News report.

The Ampies Broadcasting Corporation started in Paramaribo, Surinam in 1975. "It was a new station with influence in a new republic", said the founder André Kamperveen. But on 8th December 1982, André Kamperveen and a fellow journalist Frank Wijngaarde were among 15 people murdered by the military government which then ruled Surinam. Two stations, one of them the ABC, were torched and set alight. We spoke to one of André sons, Johnny Kamperveen (pictured) in September 1983, just before they went back on the air with a new station on December 6th 1983. Johnny passed away in 2003 at the young age of 56 from a bacterial infection. More history, in Dutch, on .  

Media Network was a radio programme on Radio Netherlands. We had no travel budget. But we did have enthusiastic contributors who were travelling around. Like Jeff White, who found himself on the island of Montserrat well before the volcano caused devastation to this Caribbean holiday destination. Radio Antilles was subsidized by Deutsche Welle, then in Cologne. And Radio Canada International also planned to use. Radio Earth has to move from the Netherlands Antilles to Florida. We also had news about US astronaut Owen Garriott, one of the crew on board Space Shuttle STS-9. They were using 145.55 MHz. This edition also has shortwave receiver news including on a voice chip to announce the frequency that you're tuned to. Richard Ginbey explains how Radio Botswana explains its shortwave schedule. Dan Robinson is now in Nairobi, Kenya and reports on what he can here. Sony 2001 costs 450 Dollars on the local market.  

In 1983, the UK pop group  released an album called Dazzle Ships.  OMD, then at their peak of popularity, opted for a major departure in sound on the record, using shortwave effects and off-air clips from Radio Prague. It was interesting to discover much later that Radio Prague announcers didn't know about it, but were actually quite flattered. We called up OMD to find out more - those analogue lines from London were ropey!

I believe that 1983 was probably one of the best years for listening to shortwave. All kinds of stations were popping up between 3 and 30 MHz on the radio dial. With the help of Bob Horvitz and Alfonso Montealegre, I compiled an overview of the political clandestine radio stations that were beamed into Latin America for a variety of reasons. Remember that this research was based purely on what had been monitored off the air. There was no Wikipedia. And many wirelesses still got hot!

In the 1980's you could find time signal stations quietly ticking away on the shortwave dial. WWVH from Hawaii, CHU from Canada, VNG from Australia. They were a useful beacon to tell you whether signals were coming in from a particular part of the world. In 1984 I compiled a feature with examples, mainly made by writing to the stations concerned and sending them a cassette. There was no Internet and phone lines sounded pretty terrible. We also included an interview with VOA who were busy building a new mediumwave radio station to improve the audibilty of their Spanish service in Nicaragua. And Victor Goonetilleke supplied us with news from his listening post in Colombo, Sri Lanka. His cassette machine was coming to the end of its life! By todays standards, this programme sounds incredibly slow. And it took ages to write on a typewriter with carbon copy in between. But the time signal recordings bring back memories.

This vintage Media Network programme looked at changes to the Time Signal Station  VNG in Lyndhurst Australia and we compiled a feature looking at how international broadcasters like VOA, Radio Australia, Radio Netherlands and BBC World Service handle the hundreds of thousands of letters that each was receiving. Most, in fact, were having a hard time. In fact if you wrote to the BBC or VOA you were not very likely to get a reply, except perhaps a programme schedule. Remember this five years before anyone thought of using the Internet for correspondence to a radio station in another country.

This edition of Media Network is just over 20 years old. I found myself in London and decided to visit the facilities of World Radio Network who had the idea of bundling international broadcasters by language rather than country. Karl Miosga (pictured) showed me round. I think the concept worked in the days before the Internet rather destroyed the business model of satellite delivered radio. Its so difficult to do on-demand. Which is obviously what you are doing now.