Media Network Vintage Vault 2018-2019

A very early Media Network covering what we could hear about the worrying developments in Warsaw. On December 12–13 1981, the Polish regime declared , under which the army and ZOMO riot police were used to crush the Solidarity movement. The  that Jaruzelski pacify the opposition with the forces at his disposal, without direct Soviet involvement or backup. Virtually all Solidarity leaders and many affiliated intellectuals were arrested or detained. The United States and other Western countries responded by imposing economic sanctions against Poland and the Soviet Union. With no Twitter, or even Internet at the time, one of the few ways of monitoring developments was to listen to Polish radio. 

This is the edition of Media Network where we looked at the future of Radio Berlin International, the Voice of the GDR. We had visited the broadcast centre on Nalepastrasse on the banks of the River Spree. RBI was part of the much larger domestic operation, Stimme DDR. Many people don't know that the studios in  are now a cultural centre, often used by musicians for rehearsals. We also phoned the owners of ELWA in Monrovia, Liberia to find out what was next for the station. We also had an update from Radio St Helena's Tony Leo, one of the rarest catches from the South Atlantic Ocean. 

I note some recent discussions about the future of DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale - not digital rights management). The current discussion makes it sound like DRM is new. In fact, the tests go back to 1996. This programme in September 2000 was probably the most comprehensive programme we did, letting people hear the difference between analogue and digital shortwave. I personally believe that the window of opportunity closed shortly afterwards. Of course, putting it back on shortwave defeated the object, but we knew that there might be opportunities later (though we didn't foresee podcasting). This was also the programme where I announced that Media Network was to end as a radio show. Got some immediate reaction via e-mail that it sounded like a bombshell. I recall about 1500 reactions in total. Co-host Diana Janssen had left Radio Netherlands for a career with Forrester Research and I could see the international sound broadcasting business was fading fast. We decided it was better to end the radio show on a high

The first part of this programme comes from Earls Court, from what used to be called the Cable & Satellite convention. We explain why broadband DSL is going to revolutionize the Internet experience. Victor Goonetilleke joins us in the second part of an indepth interview, this time looking at Internet access in South Asia. 

Found this pre-broadcast montage which comes from two different Media Networks, one aired in the 1990's and one in June 1981. No prizes for spotting the join. Both montages survived longer than the transmission tape. One is an interview I did with Tony Leo (pictured), station manager of Radio Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. For many years the station made special broadcasts on shortwave for a small group of dedicated fans around the world. The medium and shortwave transmissions went off the air in December 2012, to be replaced by a government run FM network. Within three weeks, a group of islanders had formed a committee to revive the station It was their intention to re-launch it as a charity, but this status was declined, hence it now operates as a community enterprise. Councillors', some of whom had voted to launch the rival, are now in full support of the people's own radio station. This was expressed when one of these councillors, allowed a transmitter to be clamped to his home, to assist in ge

Found this example of the Media Network safari to Capetown in May 2000. We answer listener questions to gadget guru Bob Tomalski who explains about the challenges facing SuperVHS and the expected switch to DVD recording. He turned out to be spot on. Then we talk to Zane Ibrahim (pictured), head of Bush Radio, the mother of community radio in Capetown. He holds the deal makers feet to the fire!. There is also a bandscan we made in the hotel in Johannesburg which captures the flavour of radio there at the start of millennium. We also talk to others working professionally in the radio licensing sector of South Africa, specifically the future of community radio stations.

Following a promo about a documentary on Pearl Harbour, we start a news edition of the programme. There are updates on Radio Caroline running aground, Radio Moscow reduces the output in its English servive due to budget cuts, Radio Luxembourg fixes the last day for English broadcasts on 208 metres, 1440 kHz. Radio Baghdad may resume programmes in English to Europe and North America. We then had calls about radio receivers from Madrid and answered questions about directional antennas. We worked with Mike Villard of SRI Research in Calfornia to produce a pamphlet Reducing Skywave interference. Victor Gooneilleke has an extensive South Asia radio report. VOA's Bill Whitacre reports on how they are restoring coverage to Africa after the loss of their relay station in Monrovia, Liberia. Two shortwave transmitters will beam North-West from Botswana (pictured). Mike Bird rounds off with propagation news.

Back in 1984, many of us in Hilversum bought an NTSC compatible TV. That wasn't easy because it had to be specially ordered, ordinary TV's only had PAL. The reason was to be able to watch the TV programmes from the American Forces base at Soesterberg, around a 20 minute drive from Hilversum. In this edition of the programme, I went down to Soesterberg to find out how it all worked and why it was in NTSC. The programme also carries a report from Rolf Lovstrom about why the US military wants a radio station in Norway, and there's a profile of other Hyperlocal radio stations like London Greek Cypriot radio in London. The programme includes an interview with Hans Bakhuizen who had been looking at shortwave as a back-up plan incase of a nuclear war that wiped out satellites. Ironically, that is exactly  in Flevoland.  This edition also includes an African media report from Richard Ginbey and an interview with David Hermges, Head of the English Section at Austrian Radio, later renamed as Radio Austria International

May 2022: This is a re-issue of a file first published in 2012, but which was buried on this archive site. Following comments on Facebook, I have re-released it. This is what you get if you take three production CDs that I used in the Media Network studio from 1995-2000 and fire them off one by one. It turns into 85 minutes of nostalgia with the daft jingles and promos we made to parody international broadcasting in the nineties. Ised the Dalet Workstation to make most of these - because it was the only way to do multirack mixes at Radio Netherlands. Before that we made jingles in the studio using complicated mixes of bit of tapes spliced together using razor blades. Was it efficient? No. Was it fun. Yes. Radio Netherlands had a broadcast licence to use commercial music, so that made it possible to make these kind of jingles. We weren't trying to make any money out of the montages. We tended to use new music, the idea being that new music would pop up on commercial stations later and that might trigger some p

This edition of Media Network from 30 years ago looked at how the International Committee for the Red Cross set up its communications system based on ham radio equipment. We witness the launch of the satellite network Music Box and Bob Chaundy scans the bands to see what's been audible in Hiversum. 

An early Media Network from 1983. We looked at the construction of KNLS in Alaska. There were also plans to build a mediumwave station KBQN on American Samoa. This was a Pacific version of the Caribbean Beacon. There were plans to build a 500 kW shortwave transmitter as well. The Surinamese government complains about Radio Netherlands broadcasts to their country. Victor Hafkamp explains the background. Radio New Zealand International may cancel its shortwave service. Radio Dublin is back on shortwave on 6910 kHz. We review the ICOM ICR-70 in great detail. Remember this was in a period when no website existed to share this kind of consumer information. Richard Ginbey does a profile of broadcasting in Swaziland. Victor Goonetilleke has been hearing KYOI beaming to Japan. 

No apologies for my high voice. Media Network was just a few months old and I had been at Radio Nederland for just over a year. This program was recorded 33 years ago when having a radio with a digital readout was a luxury. People were also trying to develop the dream shortwave receiver, which included Karl Braun, a specialist receiver manufacturer in West Germany.

With every major disaster there are always those willing to set up a hoax, often to attract attention to themselves. Nowadays Facebook, Twitter, Liveleaks and Tumblr are popular as well as countless parody sites. Back in 1986, the only electronic outlets were traditional radio and TV stations. We look back at the hoaxes surrounding Chernobyl. Bob Horvitz looks at the Over the Horizon Radar proposals in the USA. We investigated an early 1.5 metre home satellite dish called Patronix. It wasn't easy. 

This was a news review, one of the early editions with Diana Janssen. We talk about the Philips Transmitter Site Christmas Tree. Radio Luxembourg ceases 6090 kHz for its French programme. Victor Goonetilleke reports on the delays to VOA transmitter site in Chilaw, Sri Lanka. He is hearing Radio Fana, targeting Ethiopia. RIAS on 6005 kHz has closed down, Radio Volga has also shut. In Austria all mediuumwave transmitters have closed down. There will be no central media archive for the time being. Radio Netherlands expands its Papiamentu service. BBC World Service relays in New Zealand on 1386 kHz have been replaced by VOA, much to the surprise of local listeners.

We didn't stray that often from covering the news around international broadcasters. But we did do the occasional feature about other signals that could be heard montiored. This edition looked at weather satellites, with a visit to Hans Doeven at his shop in Hoogeveen.

This programme looks at the WRLI, Wonderful Radio London International from Arlington Texas, Radio Veronica runs a radio series to celebrate its 25th anniversary, Paul Ballster notes that several offshore radio DJ's are on UK legal stations. Dennis Powell looks at the battle for listeners in Cuba. Baseball is seen as Radio Marti's secret weapon. Feedback via Pete Myers on the content of Media Network for South Asia. RTV Hong Kong will broadcast briefly on shortwave for the yacht race. Saipan is testing. Perspective feature, with the retirement of Joop Acda. He looks back on what had changed during his tenure as Director General. He also talks about the challenges of international broadcasters working together. He recalls the text they broadcast during a hostage taking in Central America. We talk to the lawyer representing Radio USA which will beam jazz music and news to Central America.

Updated description; December 2019. This early edition of Media Network starts with the news that a postal strike in the Netherlands is delaying listener mail. We carried an interview with Owen Garriott, the first amateur radio operator in space.  While attending the World Telecom Expo in 1983, Jonathan Marks walked down the hill to the Palais de Nations, the UN HQ in Geneva. The goal was to solve the mystery of SSB transmissions in Russian on 14500 kHz USB emanating from the gardens of the building. We spoke with Anthony Kernow of the UN to find out what goes on "radiowise" in the building. This edition also includes an interview with a former producer and translator in the English section of Radio Netherlands, the American Robert Haslach. In 1983 he published his account of Dutch World Broadcasting (still available via Amazon) which traces the early years of PCJJ and PCLL with transmitters in Eindhoven and Huizen. His book is quite critical of one of the early announcers/hosts on the radio station, Eddy Sta

This is a studio recording of the announcements put out by Radio Canada International around 2004 when I last visited Montreal.

This vintage Media Network from March 1986 includes a visit to Maastricht, which was then home to a regional station called ROZ, (Regional Broadcaster South). The station's head was Armand Sliepen, who years later joined Radio Netherlands, mainly to run the expansion of the BVN project. The programme also includes news of a bombing at Radio Veritas in the Philippines. 

More time travel, this time 32 years!. Welshman Tony Jones, who lived in South America at the time of this recording, later went on to help with editing Passport to World Band Radio. He made a series of talks about broadcasting in several countries in Latin America. We didn't have much in the way of recordings to illustrate the piece. You can see the restrictions 12 years before the we had access to the Internets. This programme also includes the voice of John Campbell explaining the Radio Beauvais hoax. He also talks about the tradition of Sunday morning pirates and the Radio Freedom broadcasts towards apartheid South Africa.