The Media Network Vintage Vault 2023-2024

The Big Bells contest results, we announce the prize winners. Radio Delta 171 having second thoughts about longwave. NASA has been flying a Boeing plane over the VOA Greenville transmitter site to understand electromagnetic interference. DJ Wolfman Jack wants recordings of his early shows from Mexico. Blue Danube Radio is cutting back. Wolf Harranth reports on its origins as the Blue Danube Network. Having a station labelling system.  We revisit the IDLogic idea from Pierre Schwab and a competing system called AMDS developed by Deutsche Welle.  Also, do you remember when stations were thinking of adopting single sideband (SSB) in order to save bandwidth on the shortwave dial? A few years later it was dead. Mike Bird reports we got the propagation forecast this week. Lovely signoff jingle from Jim Cutler. (Diana Janssen’s partner is a lawyer).

This programme examines the extensive floods that are threatening the Netherlands and the role played by Dutch local community radio. We also devoted a lot of time in this edition to an extensive report by Veronica Wilson from the AMARC Community gathering in Africa. It includes an interview with AMARC president Steve Buckley. We hear about plans to change the nature of VOA Europe and the launch in the UK of Talk Radio on mediumwave.

This programme starts with the first extensive interview we did with broadcaster, listener and genuinely nice guy Jim Cutler. How ISDN is revolutionizing the voice acting business? Jim explains the difference between jingles and sweepers and how he makes them in the new era of digital production. Goodbye to tape and Fed-Ex.  Jim also tells an amazing story about how ads need to be made on spec for a growing number of clients. We also talk with Candace Savage who lives in Canada has written a book about the Aurora – the Northern Lights. She did a wonderful job.

This programme gives a good overview of what people were tuning into on the new range of European broadcast satellite. We started with the news that BBC World  DW switched off the Amsterdam cable. WDR is now back instead. Several radio stations have now switched to digital distribution. Low power stations popping up including KIWI radio in New Zealand. Voice of Vietnam now being relayed from Russia. Andy Sennit reports on cutback at Kol Israel. The SPEEDX club has closed down. Malta and Moldova are also in the media news. Leo Schenk gets a prize for a documentary about euthanasia. There is a clandestine radio contest in April.  We also give a second chance to enter the Big Bells contest. Voice of Malaysia will add satellite subcarriers. SPUD is a new DX club. Thieves have stolen the shortwave antennas of a station in South America. BBC is relaying RAI Italy out of Singapore. WRTH Satellite Guide 1995 review with Bart Kuperus. Few extracts from the satellite dish in my garden. Astra 1D seems to be rather empty at the moment.

In their heyday, radio listener clubs did a lot to create awareness about international shortwave broadcasting. In this edition of Media Network from March 1998. This edition looks at the sign-off of Radio Portugal for the last time in English. The Oscars are being streamed on the Internet for the first time. We launched a PDF version of the Receiver Shopping List (anyone still want a copy?). Greg Hammond recalls listener to MW in the mountains. We test on the Sony Active Antenna ANLP-1. The second part of the programme looks at the annual gathering of radio listeners. Dr Harold Cones explains the Winter SWLFest, ODXA in Canada, and Bryan Clark helped us to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the NZ DX league. They found a fantastic spot to listen. We listen in to what they have been hearing at there campsite spot. The trick is partly due to the longwire station. We also talked to Anker Petersen who turned up in New Zealand for the event.

We included full plans for the 50th Anniversary Open day on June 7th 1997. We also made a TV documentary called Lifelines (available on line Zomer-TV will resume on July 1st 1997. We look at Voice of Hope via Tbilisi which is new. International Broadcasting Corporation Tamil. There is a special ham radio station PI9RNW . Andy Sennitt has a list of almost impossible URLs! We investigate Europe by Satellite. Will it become a European CSPAN? The new Austin Powers film uses the old DXJukebox theme. Arthur Cushen reports that Radio New Zealand is moving to a new location. New Zealand is considering filling the space being left by the cuts to the Pacific Islands service from Radio Australia.

Most of this programme was devoted to the looming threats Interview with former Radio Australia DG Peter Barnett. The station costs US10 million a year to run. Staff suspended some transmissions in protest. There are no votes in Radio Australia”. Book Review. Joerg Klingenfuss has a CD with 2 ½ hrs of various utility radio stations. Fred Osterman explains how they come up with an estimate of how much these receivers are worth. We review a new CD of Radio Atlantis, the station. Wonderful Radio London is planning to move their train carriage to Zutphen station and change the name to Q-FM.

Where was the old theme from DXJB used in a film? The photo may be a clue. Hilversum had a serious communications problem just at the moment President Clinton arrived in the Netherlands. We looked at the Baygen Freeplay Radio which has moved on from the days (1995) when Trevor Bayliss was involved. We also look changes to liberate the FM airwaves. There are 104 million radio households. AIR doesn’t reach the rural areas. Andy Sennitt reports about Radio Antilles which has been affected by the volcano eruption on Monserrat. Lots of great Jim Cutler jingles in this edition.

We visited Nethold to find out more about digital satellite television in Africa, Diana spoke with Jock Anderson in South Africa. Stocks and Shares has had its transmissions via Meyerton terminated. We look at a new analogue portable from Sony ICF-SW12. We think it is poor value for money. The time signal station Radio VNG may close shortly due to lack of funds. It costs 50,000 dollars a year to run. Alan Weiner has put out a new book. He was best known for starting Radio New York International.

The History of Offshore Radio Jingles was a brilliant collaboration between Keith Skues (photo credit Offshore Echoes) and the Society of Jingles and Themes in Breda. We take a listen. The top end of the shortwave receiver market has slowed. So, we look review the AKD Target HF-3.  We talked to the station manager of IBC, a new station aimed at Sri Lankan Tamils from London. They have hired airtime from World Radio Network. Victor Goonetilleke has other media news from South East Asia. The extensive Radio Australia budget cuts have been announced.

We follow-up on the Delta 171 Radio longwave project. They now have announced an address: P.O. Box 7065 Amsterdam has big plans. Radio Caroline may return from Ireland. Peter Moore also has plans. The DX-files. We plan to explain, We also look at Antarctica. 2020 update: The website penguincentral.com is still active. LRA36 from Antarctica. Letter from Nigeria about how Radio Netherlands is financed and the difference government and public service broadcasting. Is there a vintage market for old QSL cards. Value is limited because it is more of a personal experience. The Don’t Cry for Me Arthur Cushen jingle – Cushen explains the antenna’s he has in Invercargill. They will knock down broadcasting house in Wellington.  PNG wants Radio Australia to continue to their region.

Radio Netherlands opens a new satellite service to stations for 16 hours a day. Lee Martin has an office in New Jersey. Iran has opened a massive new shortwave site, though no-one is sure how many transmitters are ready. Radio Prague has announced possible cutbacks. Thieves have stolen a lot of copper from the Radio Mozambique. Jim Cutler explains the new RNW publication vault. All India Radio is making it into Europe on mediumwave. Radio London with 1 watt is being heard well. Radio Caroline is planning new broadcasts on 1278 KHz. Hans Knot updates us on offshore and “inshore” broadcasting. MV Communicator will be sold back to its owners. He reports 3 different ships off the coast of Israel. There’s a connection between Arthur Cushen and Peter Arnett – both born in Bluff, New Zealand. Arthur reports on a number of new stations that have been purchased. And there are developments in Bougainville. Lou Josephs has an update on Microsoft’s browser package – a huge 21MB (!) download. The Investment Channel has disappeared. They phoned the Dutch embassy to complain about our comments on the station’s owner. Turned out to be a scam.

A reportage from the International Audio and Video Electronics show in Berlin. This year was the launch for the DVD format, with a vast improvement on VHS. Philips has a rival system called MPEG-Multichannel audio. I remember Professor Doug Boyd was involved to set up the new DRM standard, which was a system designed to turn analogue shortwave broadcasting into digital. Glyn Jones of the BBC acknowledged that a lot of work still needs to be done before Walkman-style DAB radios become available. (Yes, I know, Photo is from a later Funkausstellung. I think I took slides in those days!)

Diana Janssen and Jonathan Marks arrived in Atlanta at the weekend. That was a big mistake – the centre of downtown Atlanta was deserted, except for people queuing to visit the Coca Cola museum on the Sunday afternoon. We talked to Ted Turner to discover his philosophy for international broadcasting. As we visited, CNN had hit some very low ratings. We compared the output with VOA and RFE. CNN Interactive is now one of the 9 networks. 150 people work for the Internet department. 3100 people work for all the networks put together. In those days Radio Netherlands would contribute weekly to the World Report programme. Andy Sennitt reports that Bloomberg TV has started distribution in Europe. Radio London is back on the air with a power of 1 watt. Jim Cutler wraps up the show in his extra special way

We report from the Cable and Satellite congress in London. Analogue is still alive in Holland and Germany. Digital is still very expensive. Rupert Murdoch has not announced which receivers he will chose for his BSKYB service. Increasingly satellite signals are scrambled. We explain the conditional access module which has considerably complicated the market for individual satellite enthusiasts. Professor John Campbell can’t imagine that viewers will want to edit their own programmes. He thinks that traditional radio is trouble. Remember that CBS started by importing Cuban Cigars. He also sums up exactly what happened to a lot of shortwave radio. Andy Sennit has also news about ASTRA. There is also news about Radio For Peace International in Costa Rica. Joseph M Costello has passed away on April 23rd at 56 so the future of WRNO. We looked at into the archives. Mike Bird has the propagation review. Radio Australia is having its budget cuts, with 80 staff to lose their jobs.

A salesman calls: It seems more than 800 people are building the new satellite service. It is getting ready for launch in July 1998. We also look at the work of AMARC in Africa. It seems the so-called Francophone countries are well ahead of other countries. Nigeria is well behind. The Catholic church is very active in arranging FM airtime. There are differing views from Sierra Leone and Prof. Kwame Karikari based in Accra in Ghana.

This programme was broadcast on the station’s 50th anniversary. We learned that World Service of the Christian Science Monitor is getting out of shortwave. Monitor Radio is going away on June 30th 1997. WCSN has already been sold. It cost them US$6 million dollars to run the service. TWR has expanded their facilities on Bonaire. The future of Radio Australia is in doubt and the domestic services of the ABC takes priority. Radio Austria International is running a special station OE1M. Lou Josephs explains that IE4 has been launched by Microsoft. Microsoft has announced their answer to Real Audio. It’s called Netshow. Radio Netherlands Latin American service is organising a special conference for its 500 partners. We present a quick overview of what it sounds like.

The main feature this week was on public radio in Alaska. In the news, it seems NHK is cutting some of its radio programmes. However, in Australia the situation is the opposite. Although cuts need to be made it seems Radio Australia is favoured by the government instead of the Australian external television.  We did a bit of digging to find out more about Jerry Hoffman. “Stocks and Funds” is a mystery SW radio station run by someone with a rather shady past. Our series on Radio in remote locations in Alaska, continues with Bert Oosterfeld visiting KHNS in Haines. Andy Sennit of the WRTH has news about low power stations in Kyoto. Irish Radio Ireland is in trouble before it even goes on the air. Radio Bayrak in Northern Cyprus is in the news again. North Korea appears to be having power problems.

Analogue satellite stations are scrambling as a result of the HBO Captain Midnight incident. Now the mystery has been solved. John Campbell reports that there are still pirate radio stations operating from Ireland, including Radio Rainbow. Richard Ginbey has new recordings of Voice of the Black Cockerel. Media Network’s research file looks at the Woodpecker Project. We discuss this in some detail with ANARC’s Robert Horvitz. There is a lot of publicly available now becoming available. It is amazing now to see how accurate Robert's research turned out to be. Youtube contains

Another news edition of the programme. We reported that VOA Europe has been saved. Director Frank Scott in Munich explains how they plan to save money. Plans in French and German have been shelved. A reporter from Radio Marti has been asked not to ask any more questions at US presidential press conferences. Dutch TROS public broadcaster announces a plan to go commercial. Laos is being heard in Europe via transmitters in the USSR. 11852 kHz is being heard from Caracas. Jeff White reports that Radio Discovery is back on the air. Also on 6245 kHz. Europa TV is in financial trouble. We did a feature on Radio Truth, a South African based clandestine. Rob Horvitz went to investigate a new US address being announced by the station on the air. It turned out to be home Ndabaningi Sithole (photo), former leader of ZANU, who was living in exile in Silver Spring, Maryland. We also did a feature on STAD Radio Amsterdam, interviewing Director Leo Jacobs, At that time the stations broadcast 3 hours a day from a converted house in the capital city. They had a curious way of doing bilingual programmes. They are waiting for the green light to becoming a provincial station. We can also hear a bandscan of some of the pirates on the FM bands heard in Amsterdam.