Media Network Vintage Vault 2018-2019

This programme includes a feature about the US clandestine station targeted at Cuba called . Declassified documents from the CIA reveal how the station was involved in the Bay of Pigs attempted invasion. We hear from a Media Network correspondent at a Blutooth conference in Monaco. Radio Netherlands works with Bush Radio to produce a CD for AIDs awareness. We also look at the MP3 and start the discussion about the best codecs and copyrights. We try to understand how Napster works. Love the parody on the MTV song.

This show is shorter than usual because it was prepared in Johannesburg and fed to Hilversum. I can't find the original show which would have had propagation news and listening tips as well. But the 20 minute feature on broadcasting in South Africa as it was at the start of the Millennium is interesting in itself. I get the impression that community stations in South Africa have not embraced the new media as well as had been hoped. That's strange in a country where mobile has become so important.

This news programme starts with a call from Fiji (the furthest we ever got), and we investigate all the various radio projects that CLT is involved in. This included a rather obscure radio service in French on shortwave towards Quebec. CLT was also planning a classical music station as well as Atlantic 252, together with RTE, from County Meath, Ireland. All India Radio tests shortwave out of Port Blair. Pete Myers reports on hopes that HDTV plans will expand. We also looked into the problems of frequency announcements on shortwave, including the parody from Radio Morania and some bloopers from BBC World Service. Radio Australia spends 2.5 minutes announcing their schedule and have decided to get rid of references to "metre bands". Remember Radio Moscow with announcements that just mentioned metre bands - they had some many tranmitters they didn't need to be more specific. Kim Andrew Elliott, a researcher at Voice of America, had been doing research into receiver coverage. Andrew Piper explains why they add m

We didn't go to many offshore radio conventions on Media Network, but those that we did attend were fascinating. I realise now that it is over two decades ago since I last visited Blackpool, the holiday resort in NW England. I remember climbing the tower and that the weather was actually superb for early September. Fortunately, I found this report from Communicate 1988 the seaside. Remember that this was an era where the off-shore radio ships like Laser 558 were still fresh in the minds of many European listeners. I also believe I found where the presenters for the spy-number stations were trained. John Catlett was involved in Laser 558. By the time of the Blackpool conference, he was the consultant to Radio Tara, the name of the project that was later to become Atlantic 252. It was a joint project between Radio Luxembourg and RTE. BBC Radio 1 was changing to FM! So were'nt they trying to flog a dead horse with using longwave?. We also heard that AFTRS (American Forces) signed off from shortwave. A new statio

Pete Myers would often come up with great ideas towards the end of the year when the production budget in the English section was running low. Wednesday slots had to be filled. There was no money for in depth documentaries. Each producer was asked to make a 30 minute programme grabbing music from the record library and explaining what it meant to you. I confess that I did my best to get rid of just playing records in DX Juke Box. But those early days working in a foreign country for an international broadcaster was certainly the source of adventures. So this isn't a Media Network, although there are radio stories in the show.

On April 17th 2012, my late friend and former colleague Pete Myers would have been 73 years old. Sadly, this great broadcaster passed away all too soon on December 15th 1998. It still seems like yesterday and partly because the Media Network programme now only exists as a nostalgic collection on the Internet I thought it appropriate to add this documentary tribute I made with Luc Lucas in 1999 shortly after his passing. It is called A Talent to Amuse. Pete Myers was a regular voice on many editions of Media Network. He made his name at the BBC External Services in Bush House with a programme called Good Morning Africa. He was one of the early presenters on BBC Radio 1 in 1967 and from 1976 onwards one of the regular producers on Radio Netherlands English Service. He was the engine behind many magazine programmes but also excelled at making radio documentaries. As we busy ourselves with Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat I just wanted to put this documentary tribute back on the web for everyone to enjoy. Here are

This was the final Media Network audio show of all, broadcast in October 2000 just before we went back to winter time. It was really a thank you to the audience for sharing so much time with us over 2 decades. We certainly had worked out the pace of the programme by that time - and I believe it's strength was that it was a true listener participation show. It wasn't live - it was alive. Don't worry, there are still more programmes in the Media Network collection. It just seemed appropriate to issue them now as Andy Sennitt is retiring from Radio Netherlands, and the Media Network weblog will close on March 24th 2012. The final programme contains a rather comprehensive survey of the media events surrounding the Falklands Malvinas conflict of April 1982. Remember Radio Atlantico del Sur? We also looked at black propaganda stations in Asia, notably those along the Soviet-Chinese border.

I thought I'd post these two shows as a pair. This was the last but one Media Network which contained extracts from the WRUL/WNYW with Lou Josephs and the Prague story 1945/1968. We were celebrating the strength of the documentaries.

This was another milestone, at least for me, hosting the 1000th edition of Media Network at the start of March 2000. We used the programme to share some of the behind the scene stories and celebrate anecodotes with our contributors. Andy Sennitt, the retiring editor of the Media Network blog in 2012, explains how he got involved with the programme. And there are plenty of memories from the loyal audience too. Enjoy!

This was my first programme as a host and producer on Radio Netherlands. It is August 7th 1980. I had arrived a few days before from the UK and was on the air within 48 hours. You can hear that I'm already trying to reduce the amount of music, which is why the name of DX Juke Box morphed into Media Network. As the Media Network Blog ends its run on Radio Netherlands this month (March 2012), I decided to share a few milestones from this collection. Don't worry we'll still be digging in the archives even though Media Network is no more.

We start with news of changes in ownership in Soviet media. Victor Goonetilleke reports on a mysterious station calling itself Colombo International Radio. Radio Ulan Batar now on 22 metres, VOA announced that Radio Marti and Worldnet are to be merged. Albanian refugees in Italy demand loudspeakers to listen to VOA Albanian. BBC is planning to start a BBC World News. Tony Barratt reports hearing HCJB from Quito on SSB. A strange story from Vietnam about cable radio and TRT expands. Arthur Cushen has tuning tips including WWCR and Brazzaville. We called Algerian radio to find out more about the Voice of Palestine. Very quiet conditions on the sun, reports Mike Bird in Melbourne.

I owe a lot to Wolf Harranth (pictured), former DX editor at Radio Austria International and now the curator of the world's largest radio documentation centre in Vienna. I made a with him just before they moved the centre.  This show starts with a summary of news in brief including clandestine radio into Nicuragua, Over the Horizon Radar in the US. We then launched the Media Network SW Car Radio Investigation. Remember the Grundig converter? We then looked at the cancer scare risks near the Delano shortwave transmitter site owned by VOA. Wolf Harranth talks about plans for commercial radio in Austria.  He explains that many stations from across the border are audible. Richard Ginbey reports on developments in African Media including Angola, Botswana and Mozambique.

The programme kicks off with a review by Jeff White of what a range of international broadcasters have been doing to reach their nationals in the Middle East following the invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi forces. Frans Vossen reports on changes expected to the French language network RTBF-4. Pete Myers and I review the . The reviews were later hosted by the UK Mediumwave Circle when the Receiver Shopping List on Radio Netherlands site was discontinued. We wonder what South Shropshire communications is doing on 1512 kHz. BBC 648 changes it's name to BBC for Europe. Andrew Taussig explains that mediumwave is no longer the only way to get a signal across. He also argues why they do their coverage in three languages.

The programme starts with an analysis of a major solar flare on the sun (like the one this week) with the late David Rosenthal (still miss him). We preview a special programme coming from Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles. Remember the voice of Bruce Parsons. And a call from Rich in California triggers us to experiment with a Heil receiver connected to a satellite dish. We look at a clandestine station which pretended to be Radio Tehran so it broadcast extracts from the Satanic Verses. Wolf Harranth joins us with an explanation of how private radio is trying to get established in Austria. We learn about a summer school for radio in Bregenz, Austria. A snake switches off Radio Uganda and Andy Sennitt has been exploring harmonic signals. Remember VOA Europe? This programme recalls the lesser known VOA Pacific.

More time travel into the past, to a time when shortwave broadcasting was expanding. This programme starts with the news of a major solar disruption on the sun (like the one we're experiencing as this is being uploaded). We then catch up on two US shortwave stations KVOH and KYOI, we called Vincent Monsey in New York to find out why Radio Caroline is being heard on shortwave. There's a flashback to the West German pirate station Radio Valentine. We talked to Dick Robinson who at that time was the boss at Electronic Equipment Bank in Virginia. He talks about modifications to filters and the specialized world of the high end of shortwave receivers like the ICOM ICR-71. Paul Ballister phones in with news about Radio Essex. Andy Sennitt has more news about NDXE. Radio Earth hires time from Radio Milano International.  HRRI in Honduras is on the air. If you're interested in propagation maps, check out from NASA. 

This programme looks at how amateur radio helped in the aftermath of the two earthquakes which hit El Salvador in October 1986. Around 1000 messages were sent on behalf of official organisation. 14313 kHz is the emergency frequency to monitor. Bob Horvitz reports on the political clandestine stations beaming into the area, including Radio Venceremos. FMLN has declared a truce.  The programme also looks at stereo mediumwave tests in China. On 10870 kHz Radio Iran Toilers is being heard from transmitters believed to be in Afghanistan. Receiver Development Update deals with Escom 500. Eddy Visser is working on modifications for ICOM receivers with a Phase-locked system. We also looked at what happened to Radio West, an updated AM filter on a Philips D-2935 and a new communications receiver, the SRX-351 from Germany. We investigated why there is a pitch change to the Radio Netherlands interval signal and changes at RCI for SWL Digest. 

This programme was one of several in the period to look at clandestine radio broadcasting. Although there were later programmes that went into detail about number stations, the remarks by Professor John Campbell of the University of London Computer Science Dept were spot on. I wonder if there is any on-line evidence of that oil company using numbers for communications with Nigeria? He also reviews the book Nish No Kaze, Hare by American writer Robert Haslach. I can still see copies of the book listed in antique book shops here in the Netherlands, though I don't know of any English language translations. Robert worked at Radio Netherlands, when it was "Radio Nederland" and later wrote a history of the station. The programme also includes the news of the start of , a new educational TV network for Africa.The English language pages of the current CFI website must have been done by a machine! We also discuss the rather confusing Sony shortwave line of 7600 receivers. Sony is launching the ICF7601.  You can proba

What were ANARC meetings like 25 years ago? ANARC was the Association of North American Radio Clubs, coming from an era when groups would organise around their passion for listening to distant radio stations on AM, FM, and/or shortwave. I think their peak was in the late 80's, when there were still plenty of stations on the tropical bands of 60 and 90 metres, the Cold War was still on (with all the mystery of clandestine stations) and receiver technology was experimenting with digital processing to dig out weak signals from the noise. I recall this hotel in downtown Montreal because I ended up using the fire-escape a couple of times to get down to breakfast. And on the last day, my pyjamas disappeared from underneath the pillow. I remarked about it in an off-hand way during an edition of the show and a listener in India sent me a new pair!

The photo was taken outside Polish Radio in Warsaw in 2005. The programme that accompanies it was made in August 1988, a difficult time for Poland. There were at least 15 illegal FM stations on the air, trying to combat the official government voice coming out of the Polish Radio building.  Do you remember international reply coupons? If you were trying to get a reply out of a radio station, sometimes enclosing an IRC would help out. In theory, such a coupon could be exchanged for postage stamps in another country. However, in my experience, they often turned out to be an expesive proposition. We discuss IRC's in this programme.  This was also the week that General Zia was toppled from power in Pakistan and IRRS was preparing broadcasts from Northern Italy. If you've arrived at this page from Thomas Witherspoon's SWL Blog, then you may like to know that Media Network's Pubspot talks to John Bryant of Fine Tuning about 9 minutes into the programme. Professor John Campbell looks at clandestine antennas and rev

This news edition of the programme included news of the WRTH award scheme. We examine Jim Frimmel's computer program which will record audio off air, and talk to German reviewer Rainer Lichte about the Grundig Satelliet 500. There's a short extract from the DX Window programme on Radio Denmark. Jorgen T Madsen explains that they will be hiring airtime on Radio Norway International. For Media Quiz 1989 we invented a spy station and asked you to crack the code. David Monson, then working for the Belgian external service, BRT, explains about his international broacasting conference in Berlin. We were shocked to hear that David Monson passed away in March 2010. He was not only an accomplished musician, he was a master of ad-lib. Dave Rosenthal explains the work of the Space Environment Services centre in Boulder, Colorado.