Media Network Vintage Vault 2018-2019

There used to be a programme on Swiss Radio International called the Name Game. It was a travel show which told you everything about a place except the name, We tried something similar on Media Network, except I told the story by doing bandscans in the area where I went on holiday. Fascinating listening to the airwaves after so many years. 

Is high power HF dangerous for your health? In the mid nineties there were certainly concerns expressed about the long-term exposure. Many shortwave transmitting centres were originally built well away from population centres, but local housing projects often encroached. Later we discovered that in Russia transmitting towers of the Voice of Russia could be right next door.

This programme from December 1994 was made at the time that reports of the media's role in the Rwandan genocide were starting to emerge. The full horror would only be uncovered much later during the trials in Arusha. We also heard from Frans Suasso, the former programme director at Radio Netherlands, who had been around the Voice of Russia. This was the "new" name for a station we had called Radio Moscow. Now it was possible to get a glimpse inside. 

Professor John Campbell was the Professor of Computing Sciences at Univerity College London. He contributed several columns and reports to Media Network in the early eighties because of his fascination with clandestine radio stations. He was a brilliant storyteller. We lost contact until he came through The Netherlands on a lecture tour and we had a chance to sit down and talk about computers and the media. We ended up talking about how computing might look in 2010. Check it out for yourself. I believe John was spot on in describing what would happen to applications. Remember you heard it first on Media Network.

This news edition of the programme also includes a featurs that examined the United Nations media in Cambodia, with the huge UNCTAD programme being set up to ensure fair elections in that country, 

Thirty years ago, the business of international broadcasting was very different. I would argue to that do the job well, you needed to understand two cultures rather than just one. The best form of international broadcasting is always a comparison. This early Media Network programme phoned several international broadcasters to find out if they were in a "recruitment posture" as VOA described it.  How we laughed all the way to the studio on that one. 

The second part of Media Network's safari into Silicon Valley 16 years ago. So what's changed in Palo Alto? Just about everything. We start off with a visit to the Philips Multimedia Center on Sand Hill Road, on the outskirts of Palo Alto. It was originally set up as a outpost of the Philips Research facility Natlab in Eindhoven. But they quickly discovered that consumers in San Francisco were 3-4 years ahead of consumers on the West Coast of Europe. So it quickly became a consumer test facility. At the time of our visit they were testing their equivalent of the Palm Handheld computer and an early smart phone. In the end I believe that with Philips' shift away from consumer electronics and more towards healthcare, the facility in Palo Alto was shuttered. We also drove up to Redwood City to meet the head of Grundig USA. He was bullish about the future of shortwave radio - and had developed a great business through Sharper Image, airline catalogues and camping magazines. 

In the summer of 1997, Diana Janssen and I spent the best part of a week in Silicon Valley. This was a period when Netscape was hot, and Google had yet to be launched. We made two shows from San Francisco and Palo Alto. Not bad, bearing in mind there was only enough budget for gas. We first spoke with Spencer Reiss, who at that time was working for Wired Magazine in the SFO offices. He discusses the future of media and how things are converging. He turns out to be spot on!  We also went to Cupertino. But we didn't go to Apple. We went to Audiohighway. explained what was really an early iPod. He is regarded by some as the father of the MP3 player industry. The huge problem with AudioWhizz was the bandwidth restrictions.  Andy Sennitt and Mike Bird add contributions including what ever happened to the Investment Channel.

UPDATE: August 16th 2020. The programme file was updated with a better quality copy of the programme. Things are very cold in Holland, which is essential for the Eleven Cities Skating Tour in Friesland. We learn about changes at Radio Prague. The programme also contains an interesting interview at the start of Radio Kudirat. This was a Nigerian clandestine radio station which operated via the World Radio Network in London. Articles have appeared subsequently explaining that the station was set up after the Nigerian military annulled the election in June 1993. We also interview the boss of Talk Radio, a shortlived station on 1395 kHz that operated out of the Radio Netherlands building. We talk to Julian Isherwood in Copenhagen to find why Danish Radio has stopped broadcasting in English.    

In the weekend on February 1985, we misued the new Flevoland shortwave transmitter site by connecting ham radio gear to the giant Shortwave antennas outside the building in Zeewolde. This year, 2013, the same thing is happening on 26/27th January. But this time the shortwave broacast transmitters are no longer active. The site belongs now to the Netherlands Ministry of Defence. The ham station we ran in 1985 had the callsign PA6FLD.

This programme features the start of WRMI from Miami Florida, a commercial station aimed at Cuba and run by entrepreneur Jeff White. We also profile broadcasting in Fiji in the Pacific.

A news edition of the Media Network programme. This programme kicks off with a super-fast Morse test. The Goddess of Democracy ship leaves France for the coast of China and Lithuania proclaims its regained independence. Ironically, the broadcast came via transmitters in Russia.  Richard Ginbey sends in news about Radio Namibia where he was working. 2MInternational launches, as the first private TV channel in North Africa. Thieves break into HCJB's transmitter site in Pifo and steal equipment. Venzuealan National Radio plans programmes in other languages. Radio Nacional de Venezuela also has plans for expansion. Julian Clover (now editor of Broadband TV News) compiled an item on Incremental Radio. Radio Romania International is the new name for Radio Bucharest. New programmes are being broadcast from Southern Iran beamed into South Asia. Big ionospheric storms hit shortwave reception.

We had no idea that behind the station we reported on in this programme would later be responsible for a Sarin gas attack in Tokyo. But that was three years later. Spanish Foreign Radio is working on a relay station in Costa Rica. Radio Miami has done a deal with a station in Honduras. The Megaphone Newsreel marches across the continent. Radio Vilnius is worried about its relay in Moldova. Baltic Radio International is going to make money, so Paul Rusling claims. AWR Europe's World DX News signs off. Radio Norway plans special transmissions for Burma. Radio St Helena may return to the airwaves. Paul Ballster has found a new station in Wimbeldon. Radio Free Asia cancels a visit to Beijing.

This programme included a visit to the radio station across the Central Station in Amsterdam. It was the idea of Ronald Jan Heijn, the former international hockey player who decided to become a spritual entrepreneur. Son of Gerrit Jan Heijn, he set up a centre called Oibibio. By the time we visited, they were on the verge of financial collapse. The programme also looks at a financial crisis within the BBC Internet department, which has overspent its 1998 budget already.

Radio Prague returns as the country of Czechoslovakia ceases to exist. Jim Cutler goes mad about our phone number. Radio Sweden changes its output. Changes are afoot at Radio Luxembourg, with the ending of English broadcasts. Wolfgang Schultz reports from Hamburg. Radio Monique is revived on Euronet via SkySports. Euronews is launched from Lyon. Dutch public broadcasters scorn the channel. We remember LM Radio out of Mozambique. Victor Goonetilleke remembers hearing it. Moldova is testing, as so is Radio Australia.

Found a whole batch of programmes that are just over 20 years old, from an era when international broadcasting was grappeling with the arrival of satellite television, but had not heard of the Internet. In January 2013, the structure and functioning of US International Broadcasting in again under discussion...just like back in 1992 when Radio Free Asia was first suggested. No progress for decades it would seem. The budget for the radio broadcasts into China were similar then to the budget for Russia Today today. Radio Netherlands was expanding its output. Italy approves 500 local FM stations. We look at slow changes in the media in South Africa, despite the change of government. Radio RSA is no more - changing its name to Channel Africa. The ICF-SW33 is coming from Sony. Marcel Rommerts reports on the new High Adventure Ministry's station on Palau during his trip to Asia. 

This is a really old edition of Media Network, from November 1986 when I visited what was then called Stad Radio Amsterdam. Since then, I don't believe Amsterdam has really been the success story of local public broadcasting. Stations in Rotterdam and Eindhoven sound a lot closer to the people than AT5. And why they put Radio Noord Holland out in an industrial park remains a mystery to me (in the picture). Radio stations need to be seen operating as well as heard. Look at the success of campaigns like the Glass House or the Radio 2 cafe in Holland. Out of site means definitely out of mind. And these days it means out of business.

A radio Christmas spent in the Media Network studio way back in 1996. Sounds like we were having fun! I look back on this period as perhaps one of the golden years for Dutch external broadcasting, producing a range of documentary productions in English and Spanish and recording great concerts, both classical and jazz.  This programme focussed on answering listeners letters on subjects like satellite television in Australia (DW was organising a bouquet of signals) and the major changes to the commercial radio scene in New Zealand. The auction of FM frequencies in the Netherlands and shortwave stations that sold radios were also topics for discussions. RBI archives have, for the most part, been destroyed. Swiss shortwave listeners were quizzed on their listening habits. The 410 ft tower formerly used by AFN has been dynamited out of existence. Capital Radio in South Africa is in trouble. 

This is the last chapter in the 8 part series telling the story of Radio Netherlands focusing on the English language department. With Pete Myers as your guide we focus on our present decade as it draws to a close. This final episode for was broadcast by several stations, including Radio Netherlands, on December 3rd 1997. It is presented here purely for academic interest. The programme was researched and presented by Pete Myers and Luc Lucas. I supplied some of the recordings from the Media Network archive. At the end of the 19th century, Oscar Wilde wrote that the only duty we have to history is to re-write it. When this decade is done I wonder what will have changed in the perception of Radio Netherlands in 1990's and the role it played in international broadcasting. The English service signed off in 2012. Let me draw your attention to the last part of this programme, where we projected what might happen at the start of the new Millennium. In fact, it all came to pass. I still firmly believe that great int

This is edition 7 of the 8-part documentary series on Radio Netherlands focuses on the 1980's and what it meant to the English language department in particular. It was a decade in which many women producers arrived, breaking through what had been a mainly male dominated radio station. Names such as Veronica Wilson, Dorothy Weirs, Dune Porter, Ginger da Silva, Martha Hawley, Marijke van der Meer and Anne Blair Gould. News to Africa and Asia was regionalised. The decade started with a coronation in the Netherlands and a speech by US President Reagan about the evil empire. The massive delta-works were completed, making Zeeland less vulnerable to flooding from the North Sea. Taboos were broken in Rembrandt Express and the decade ended with fall of the Berlin Wall. The series was written and presented by Pete Myers, with research from Luc Lucas and audio contributions from the Media Network archive. This programme was originally broadcast by several stations, including Radio Netherlands, in October 1997. It is r