Media Network Vintage Vault 2018-2019

A year after I joined Radio Netherlands, I remember making a feature on the different kinds of music you could hear on Indonesian radio stations. Thousands of stations were operating on the lower shortwave bands in those days, which meant the signal would often spill over to other parts of world. Victor Goonetilleke would often report hearing stations, but also Dan Robinson on the US East Coast. I got tape back from some of the stations in the RRI network and compiled the feature you can hear in this release. In fact this was a one-off repeat broadcast via Bonaire to the Pacific. There had been a transmission failure during the original broadcast, and we got letters asking to hear it again. The answer was to do the second of the two Pacific broadcasts live. So that explains why I sign-off the transmission at the end. I wonder if there is interest in posting the brochure "DXing Indonesia" which I still have?

The feature producers at Radio Netherlands were always given the task of making extended pre-recorded Christmas and New Years Day programmes because there were no current affairs magazines like Newsline aired on those days. So Media Network suddenly became 46 minutes long. I'm glad I found this Christmas Day show from 1997 in time for Christmas 2015. It includes a feature about offshore radio. You will hear the voices of Jim Cutler, Lou Josephs, Vasily Strelinikov, Andy Sennitt, Bryan Clarke, Esther van Pluym, Willemien Groot, Ray Anderson et al, Victor Goonetilleke, Katherine Farnon and Mike Bird. Please don't write to those addresses or call the answerline. Although it sounds fresh, this is time travel back to 18 years ago.  Christmas was always a special time at Radio Netherlands, especially for kids of staff and freelancers. The visit of Sinterklaas a few weeks before at the start of December was always a highlight. Wherever you are this year and whatever you celebrate, I wish you peace, happiness and joy

This edition of Media Network includes details of Radio Netherlands summer transmission schedule, an interview with the late Joop Heintz about the project together with Radio Benidorm and Director General Lodewijk Bouwens on the setting up of the BVN Television service. I see that BVN is finally streaming its for viewers outside the Benelux, though I am not sure why they are using a rather old-fashioned Flash-based player.

In 1981 we experimented with live special editions of Media Network directed to South Asia. There was a lot of mail coming in from India and Sri Lanka (mainly postcards) which we couldn't handle in the regular show. It was always a balance too - we were talking about technology that was not readily available in South Asia. But the feedback we got was that was an excellent reason to listen. This programme is 34 years old - from an era when phone calls were very expensive and mail sometimes took up to 3 months to arrive in Hilversum. 

This early edition of the Media Network programme has details of proposed cuts at BBC World Service with a call to Douglas Muggeridge, the Director General. There was a feature on ethnic stations like 2EA in Sydney and short-term holiday stations in New Zealand. 

In June 1995 we decided to borrow some airtime from Robert Chesal and broadcast a live programme from the Netherlands broadcasting museum. The premises were on the South side of Hilversum on the Oude Amerfoortse Weg 121 in what looked like a warehouse in those days. This was a decade before they moved to brand new on the Media Park, although much of the collection of old equipment didn't move with them. Since it was 60 years of the Dutch transmission authority NOZEMA we put on a ham radio station from the broadcast museum, in line with similar experiments we did on the Flevo polder in 1985. The shortwave transmitter site still stands on the Flevo polder, and Peter Veenendaal has posted a lovely  which is now owned by the Dutch Ministry of Defence. We're told it is a backup system in case satellites fail or get hacked. One thing about analogue shortwave radio, it is difficult to block. This programme was one of several live segments Jeff Clayborn and I did during the day marking 100 years of radio, 60 years o

This extended edition of Media Network broadcast on January 1st 1998 contains an extensive international survey on the state of the international shortwave receiver market. This was probably the peak of the shortwave listening period, when more than 60 receivers were available on the market. This was probably the most extensive survey we ever completed. Presenters Jonathan Marks and Diana Janssen. Enjoy! 

There used to be an annual hi-fi and TV exhibition at the RAI Amsterdam called FIRATO. It gradually died out as organisers realized that going to see pop stars dancing on stages next to gadgets didn't sell any more gadgets. The acoustics in the vast halls bear no resemblance to what it sounded like at home. When we visited in 1982, the show was already passed its peak. I was always surprised that a new shortwave radio was often shown there, though seldom on the market until months after. Back then DAT was the big story. In 2015, the only show in Europe left is IFA in Berlin, but I seriously wonder for how much longer. 

More editions of Media Network from a very turbulent year -1982. Malta and Libya had entered into a Friendship and Cooperation Treaty, in response to repeated overtures by  for a closer, more formal union between the two countries; and, for a brief period, Arabic had become a compulsory subject in Maltese secondary schools. German international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, was forced to shut down its relay station on the island under the Foreign Interference Act. Mike Barraclough gives a plus for the popular Reading Meetings for SWLs. Voice of Greece and RTBF Belgium are being heard well at the moment. Tony Jones (pictured) gives us a feature about the return to shortwave of several Bolivian stations. We speak with George Otis, who has built the religious station the Voice of Hope that we're hearing on the 49-metre band. Professor John Campbell reports that some clandestine radio stations are replying to listeners letters. Radio Venceremos has an address in Mexico City. Richard Ginbey has an item about Radio

We started with an interview with Patrick Humphreys (pictured) who explains the demise of Voices magazine - an attempt to start a listening guide about the programmes on international broadcasting. Financially, it turns out to have been a disaster. This edition includes a profile by Richard Ginbey of broadcasting in Botswana as it was in 1982. There was also an oblique reference to the World and Rhodesia programme which the BBC broadcast from a transmitter site in Botswana. It would be 1995 before we discovered exactly what BBC's Douglas Muggeridge . We rang up the charming Andrew Piper, programme organiser at the BBC who explained about new series they were launching. We interview an author on new propagation theories. Victor Goonetilleke rounds out the edition with recordings he made of a coup in the Seychelles. 

Paul Ballister reports from London on a Polish clandestine radio station supporting the Solidarity movement which has popped up in London. And Radio 4 Today's programme has been talking about pirates. Media Network was a labour of love for all those who contributed on a regular basis. Richard Ginbey, at that time a media enthusiast working in broadcasting in South Africa, compiled a series of radio portraits using his own extensive recordings taken off air. I think that they are probably some of the only surviving recordings of radio stations in places like Angola. Also, check out of the . This edition also contains an interview with Michiel Schaay, the Dutch author and publisher of many utility books. 

The programme starts with news of a clandestine radio station, Radio Solidarity, broadcasting within Poland. The country is under marshall law. And BFBS has started a special programme of requests to the UK Task Force heading to the Falklands. In fact, those broadcasts from BBC Ascension Island were monitored in Buenos Aires and later used by an Argentine propaganda station to address the same UK troops. Sarah Kennedy was giving out names so the Argentines knew who was on which ship. We also asked the BBC World Service about their extended coverage in English and Spanish to Latin America. Beverley Wakeham has news on the fate of the Radio New Zealand shortwave service. And we solved the mystery of that strange Spanish language radio station reported back on April 1st. 

Remember the TV ship  broadcasting off the Israeli coast? Neither did I until I revisited this edition of Media Network and an interview done by Kas Van Iersel. There was also the on-going discussions about Radio Marti to Cuba. We talk with the late Willem Bos about Citizen's Band Radio on 27 MHz. He's set up a magazine to serve this new audience of radio enthusiasts. Dennis Powell has news about clandestine broadcasting in Afghanistan. Radio Caroline is promising to return over Easter. No mediumwave frequency has been announced. Arthur Cushen reports on Australian pirates. And we conclude with a unique recording of a strange Spanish language radio station. Professor John Campbell had some interesting theories.

We start this edition with news about clandestine radio stations being set up to broadcast to Afghanistan, currently occupied by Soviet troops. Dennis Powell reports on concerns in the US about vastly expanded Cuban mediumwave stations and possible interference. Andy Sennitt reports about the legendary format change for WABC in New York to all talk. We phoned RTV Hong Kong to find out why they were going on shortwave for a brief period. Richard Ginbey presents Part 2 of his illustrated feature on radio in Mozambique. Those recordings of Radio Free Mozambique must be unique these days. No-one else has kept this material. Sadly, Richard was killed in a car accident. Not sure what happened to his cassette collection of those radio recordings. Dan Robinson has been hearing Radio Portugal and Radio Singapore with very strong signals.  

This edition of the programme involved phoning more than 9 different shortwave stations in the USA as non-government licences to broadcast internationally were dished out by the FCC, following the lead of WRNO in New Orleans. We also tested the Philips AC739, one of the few car radio shortwave receivers with more than the 49 metre band on them. I guess there are probably no surviving examples for this set left on the planet. I remember using it for a couple of years, but it was incredibly fiddly to change stations. Not recommended while driving.

From time to time we mentioned the low-power Canadian shortwave relays on the Media Network programme. These transmissions were originally intended for listeners in the far North of Canada as a way of hearing some of the commercial stations. But when part of the antenna came down in the storm, the owners decided to switch to an omnidirectional pattern. CFRB/CFRX in Toronto was featured in this 1984 edition of Media Network. The photo is of Harold Sellers, one of the founders of the Ontario DX Association, who still responds to  for those lucky enough to hear the station. In the end, these stations lasted longer than Radio Canada International.

In July 2004 I decided it was time to use the summer to reorganise the Media Network archive. By that time, there were around 180 shows which I had made, plus several DX Juke Box specials from previous presenters. We were also getting correspondence from listeners in North America asking us to cover home computers and do less on antennas and build-your-own equipment like aerial preselectors. We decided to revamp the consumer guides like the Receiver Shopping List. Looking back on it, these were probably some of the most comprehensive publications of their day.   This edition was also the first time we profiled the Radio Netherlands Training Centre. Started in 1969 in combination with Philips, the training centre became very important to Radio Netherlands strategy in Africa and Latin America. I find it fascinating to listen to the philosophy of Jaap Swart, the centre's first managing director because I think it still applies more than 30 years later. 

This programme includes news of the rebuild of Radio Australia's facility, following damage by  in 1974. Barry Seeber reports that 3 250 kW are being tested. The English language broadcasts will be relayed by Darwin once the station is fully operational. We also had news of shortwave tests from KFBS Saipan. They were using a 100 kW transmitter. Both Arthur Cushen and Victor Goonetilleke report good reception. The BBC has announced plans for a satellite TV service. Sinclair computing is interested in producing receivers for the home. We review the ICR-71 communications receiver - and the fact that the radio has 32 memories! Bill Whitacre reports from Washington DC that stations in Honduras are being heard well on the US East Coast. Following a tip from Roger Tidy, we picked up Laser 729 kHz in Hilversum is back on the air.  

This edition of the programme looked at  a religious radio station in Bethel, PA USA. YouTube now has video from the transmission site we're talking about in the programme. We also talked to UK listener Gordon Bennett about receiver specifications and the lack of standards in measuring radio sets. Pete Myers reports on the FRG-8800 from Yaesu. It can be controlled by a home computer. The ICOM ICR-71 interface has disappointed some. We review the book Harrier at War by Alfred Price about the radio side to the Falklands Conflict in 1982. This book looks at electronic warfare and the huge amount of money spent on deliberate interference. Richard Ginbey has a Mediaview feature on broadcasting in Rwanda. As usual it has some rather unique off-air recordings. We talk with Nevil Gray, who used to work with Deutsche Welle about the "Publicity in Africa project" which turned out to be a tax dodge. Andy Sennitt has news about King of Hope in Lebanon. Radio Netherlands new transmitters on the Flevo polder are testing on

These days it would be daft to broadcast long technical reviews of radio receivers over the radio. But in 1984, there were few sources of independent information about the performance of shortwave radios. So we used to send out lots of copies of our on-air reviews. This edition contains our summary of the ICOM-ICR71E, a communications receiver which was around until the mid-90's.