Media Network Vintage Vault 2018-2019

This was a regular news edition of Media Network covering items from the Pacific, we interviewed Bob Edminston (pictured below), the multimillionaire owner of Christian Voice about their purchase of Radio Australia's Darwin shortwave transmitter site. Radio Australia's Jean Gabriel Manguy hopes they will get access to the station. We also looked at the hate radio station Radio Milles Collines in Rwanda and how Western observers didn't understand the influence it was having. This week broadcasters on the stations have been found guilty of genocide. Bryan Clarke has been following the difficult situation in the Solomon Islands. He has been monitoring the SIBC. Lou Josephs has been looking at Low Power FM stations in the USA and we've been looking at how Holland hopes to raise money by auctioning off the FM licences. Bob Tomalski explains DVD regional coding and NTSC/PAL - his advice is still valid. 

In 2003 the British Forces Broadcasting Service made an excellent hour-long documentary celebrating six decades of Forces Radio. I was sent a copy as part of a promotional package during the celebrations and kept it because it's the best overview I have heard of what BFBS was trying to do. It contains several well-known voices too who really got their start on Forces Radio, before joining UK commercial or public broadcasters. If you find this show as interesting as I did, you might want to watch a I made with the late John Russell who played a key role in BFBS at several locations, but especially in Cyprus. That video contains pictures I made in Cyprus a year after this radio programme was made. 

On July 12th 2012, the BBC leaves Bush House for the last time, with a world news bulletin at 11 hrs GMT. That iconic building on the Strand has been the home of the World Service since 1941. There have been various tributes in BBC programmes on the network in the last few months. As a World Service listener since 1969, I watched this organisation for the outside looking in. I was pleased that Newshour honoured the late Pete Myers by including his famous "Goooooood Morning Africa" call in their sign-off piece. I often thought he must have inspired Adrian Cronauer's famous call in Good Morning Vietnam, although,the film was largely fictitious. Pete later came to Radio Netherlands to start Afroscene and Mainstream Asia. I remember him showing me his scrapbook of newspaper cuttings compiled during his days in Ghana and at the BBC African Service. My fear is that these great stories of an intriguing building will get lost and separated in cyberspace as they move down the vast archiving system. It's already happen

Just found a couple of CDs with examples of Media Network jingles and montages that were used in the programme between 1985 and 1996. They feature the voice talents of Bill Mitchell, Lou Josephs, Jim Cutler, Gene Reich (ex VoA), Pete Myers, Nevil Gray, Peter Barsby (the presenter of BBC's World Radio Club in the 1980's), Rob Groen and that mysterious lady who worked on Radio Tirana. Let me know if you want to hear more. Boy we were having fun then. Radio Netherlands may be a memory now, but they were strong memories weren't they? Photo of Lou Josephs, Jonathan Marks and Jim Cutler was taken in August 2001. We've all got much younger and wiser since then...

More photos of Friday's closedown are  on my Flickr account:  Dropped by Radio Netherlands building for the last few minutes of their broadcasts in English. Did an interview with Jonathan Groubert, host of the State We're In, as he prepared a few words to add to the final broadcast towards Africa. Then went downstairs to an almost empty newsroom where Rob Kievit, producer of the last day, was making a few last minute preparations. Then, we all joined Jonathan Groubert in Studio Booth Number 4 where English programmes (including news bulletins) have originated for decades. After Dheera's last words, Jonathan added one final thank you. I left a small audio recorder running to capture the moment for the history books. And so a bottle of champagne was opened, knocked back rather hurriedly, and then we all headed for the last train home. So ends an era. This recording captures the moments....before, during and after the final signoff. I added a stereo copy of the Radio Netherlands interval signal, played on the

Just got back from watching the very last hour of broadcasting in English from Radio Netherlands Worldwide, Holland's external broadcasting service which signed off today on shortwave, satellite, in fact the radio station is no more. Holland has no external broadcasting service as from July 1st 2012. Dheera Sujan presented this final show, which was a farewell and thank you to listeners worldwide. 

We kicked off the show with news from Dennis Powell in New York about Radio Marti. We fantasize about Radio Delta, a scheme to start a joint MW/LW project with Belgium and Netherlands. The late Bert Steinkamp explains the plans. Radio Polonia has gone off the air after the declaration of martial law in Poland a few days ago. Warsaw 1 on longwave is the only way of hearing what is going on. African Media News - Richard Ginbey has a profile of media in Bophutatwana. In receiver news there is follow-up to our test of the Panasonic RF-3100. Dan Robinson has North American tuning observations from Washington DC. 

This was an example of a listener driven show. We start with changes to Radio Netherlands, Pete Myers talks about Hidden Holland - Emporer's and Engineers. Listener complaint about elitist digital radios! We're printing special QSL cards for a special test transmission 9860 kHz. Satellite news from Paul Balster. Quality Europe FM starts satellite transmissions. Hallmark isn't a new brand though. Sunrise Radio is back on Astra. Holland FM is also active. Eclipse FM is to operate from Jersey! Arthur Cushen has news from New Zealand, including Japanese from RNZI. RNW sends out 15000 QSLs a year. Wolf Harranth explains what the ORF Radio Austria International are doing to keep an archive. Jim Cutler does a promo for Booklist edition 13. Plans have been announced for a large SW station on behalf of the Eternal Word Television Network. Lou Josephs has a transatlantic tip for us and news about 530 kHz in the Caribbean. Gordon Darling phones in from Papua New Guinea. WWV Time announcements have changed.

Just before the influence of Enver Hoxha collapsed in Albania, the external service Radio Tirana was one of the largest broadcasters in Europe, with a massive megaWatt transmitter operating on 1395 kHz. My colleague, Wolf Harranth of ORF Vienna, wrote to them and managed to get hold of a studio tape of part of one of the last English broadcasts under the old guard. The Albanian English language announcers had never been abroad. They were apparently trained by an Australian Marxist, which explains their strange Australian accent. This 5 minute tape consists of the opening, a very funny Lets Learn Albanian lesson (what were they thinkiing?) and the grand sign-off. Haven't heard this for years. Anyone else remember this stuff? Makes a change from Glee.

Before Media Network, there was a show on Radio Netherlands (or Radio Nederland as it was called) entitled DX Juke Box. For the period August 1980 until May 1981, Jonathan changed the format of DX Juke Box bit by bitso that it morphed from purely a hobby show into a programme that answered the why of broadcasting rather than just the where and when. In October 1980 we took the show to Brussels for a few days to examine the pirate scene in the Belgian capital. Paul Renard was the DX editor for the RTBF and he introduced us to the pirate stations operating from apartments in the heart of Brussels. By today's standards this programme is rather corny, but it shows how we were trying to push the envelope from very "scripted" shows into something that came from a location. Remember this is 31 years ago!!. Enjoy 

Broadcasters in Germany are not really promoting DAB. Radio Norway returns for a brief period. Bernt Erfjord joins us to explain. 675 kHz. Victor Goonetilleke is hearing Radio National from Angola. Bryan Clarke tells us about an early long distance experiment. I note that the he mentions is still active. Bryan also explains special tests by club. Bob Tomalski is disappointed in CD recordables, the CDR765. It has a bug which Philips refuses to admit the problem.

This programme starts with the media situation in Serbia and Kosovo with Andy Sennitt, includes various extracts from stations like B92. We try to follow up with the facility. The Haarp website seems to be in suspended animation these days. Photos date from 2004 and the website has recent updates from 2007. The Truman Show seems to have been inspired by shortwave radio. Victor Goonetilleke explains progress on the shortwave site in Sri Lanka. IBB is also using a network of shortwave receivers and sharing these interested listeners. He is hearing Bhutan this way. Harald Kuhl explains MP3. DAB has been switched off in parts of Germany. Astra Digital Radio is doomed.    Update: April 2014. NPR in Alaska  is to be closed.

This programme had the news that the  was returning (website still up), AMARC starts a special webcast and radio marathon, Jim Cutler explains the new safari series, Steve Whitt talks about how mediumwave is being down graded in favour of FM. In the UK there have been more low-power special event licences. Radio Caroline though, would not qualify. Frequencies such as 999 kHz. Media Network's MW Test lab: we've been testing the radio. 

This was a consumer oriented edition. We did a lot about high solar activity and the effect it can have on satellites, especially as there were several satellite failures and the topic came into mainstream news coverage. It started with the temporary loss of the SOHO spacecraft studying the sun. Joe Allen has discovered more than 10,000 examples of satellite failures. So there is no terrestrial back-up for most satellites. We also talked about new recycling projects which were just starting in 1999. Bob Tomalski has story of a digital dogs dinner. Pay-TV set-op boxes have been plagued with teething troubles.

This programme starts with the news about Chris Carey was caught in New Zealand connected with pirate decoders. There's a rather ironic item about public service broadcasting. Steve Whitt generated a nice response about earthing rods. Feb 1st was a landmark day in the end of Morse Code for maritime use. We talked about a Atlantic Hop experiment using Morse Code and involving the old Kootwijk shortwave site in Holland. We also looked at why Radio Luxembourg is still remembered, even though its been off the air for years. Shaun Tilley talked to us from Swansea. He argues that Luxy hasn't really been replaced. There are also the results of the Christmas contest to guess how many hits we had on RNW.nl in 1998. Alan J Knapp got my 1999 copy of the WRTH.

Search for Common Ground opened Studio Ijambo in 1995, a year after the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda. For years Burundi media had helped fan the flames of hatred between Hutus and Tutsis. By 1995 more than 200,000 Burundians had been killed in the conflict and it seemed that the country was following Rwanda’s lead in destruction. The transformation in Burundi was painful and slow, beginning in a small studio known as Ijambo, meaning “wise words” in Kirundi. “Studio Ijambo would become a place where Hutu and Tutsi journalists, writers, producers and broadcasters would together create programs to dispel the rumors, stereotypes, and hate messages that had permeated the Burundian public sphere. While most media reported atrocities committed by the “other” side, Ijambo journalists covered them all. Teams, one Tutsi and one Hutu journalist, ventured together into conflict zones, refugee camps, and devastated lives, seeking to make sense of events and share their knowledge with their fellow Burundians. By 1999, F

This programme includes updates from Kosovo, the Swatch watch company cancels its Beatnic project on 2 metres from space after protests from amateur radio operators. Bryan Clarke has his report from the South Pacfic. David Smith reports from Bangui on how the project Radio Minurca is going. He explains the problem with the shortwave transmitter. Harry Helms, a popular US radio author, retires and makes an interesting comparison between international broadcasting and railroads. He expects the web to eat shortwave radio's lunch! (Not a bad prediction!)

This was a listener driven edition of the Media Network, asking questions about DAB. We talk to Roberts Radio and World Radio Network in the UK. There's also a link to Professor Doug Boyd (pictured) who has comments on the Worldspace radio system and why it might have difficulty try to fly. They estimate that the potential audience globally is around 16 million listeners, not the 4 billion claimed by Worldspace. Andy Sennitt has a bumper bundle of listening suggestions.

More time travel. This programme starts with the news of a fire in the TV tower in Moscow, a blaze that later turned out to be very serious indeed. Vasily Strelnikov went off to investigate and was surprised at the extent of the blaze. We talk about security on the web comparing it with spy number stations! Love the Marconi radio joke. Also the Lincolnshire Poacher recording was crystal clear. We also talked to Bryan Clarke in Auckland about the BBC Calling the Falkands programme. Bob Tomalski talks about a new Onkyo hi-fi system. The DVD player with have a digital video output. Onkyo had no clue about copyright issues. Philips announces a delay to its DVD+ recorders.

This was the last programme in the Media Network series that looked at pirate radio and the offshore stations. It featured the late Bob Tomalski who, at the time of the recording, was Media Network's UK gadget inspector.