The Media Network Vintage Vault 2022-2023

I am gradually sorting out my off-air radio cassette collection. I realise that if I don't do it now, I will never get around to it. But I also realise that a lot of off-air recordings are disappearing, especially once the radio programme is made, and very few people keep the original interview or recordings. For some reason, I did. And 40 years later I am so glad I didn't throw things away. Today, I'm sharing an off-air recording of the Falklands Island Broadcasting Station during the Argentine invasion of April 2nd 1982. There are a few places where Patrick Watts, the station manager stops the tape. And in the end, it sounds to me as if the batteries are failing. But you tell me, you can't throw something like this away, can you? For more details check

This is the second edition of DX Juke Box that I hosted, having joined Radio Netherlands a couple of weeks earlier. The programme in those days was a mixture of music and tuning tips contributed by others. My goal, together with Wim van Amstel, was to do more investigative reporting. There was no production budget, but there were plenty of enthusiastic reporters. Before leaving BBC Monitoring I had also recorded several items with people like Richard Measham. In this edition we discussed how the Russian's had taken over Afghan media. Richard revealed that it all started with a tip off from Andy Sennitt. 

Look what I found. When I was working for the ORF Shortwave Panorama, BBC Monitoring Service and later Radio Netherlands, I learned the importance of taping everything I was listening to. Radio has no memory. And back in the 70's and 80's there was no Wikipedia, no Youtube, no means to check a story on the wires. If you wanted access to Reuters or the wire services you had to monitor radio stations for news. I was collecting media news, so I used to tape colleague broadcasters. Many of the cassettes have gone, but then I discovered a box of mystery cassettes including an edition of warmongers monthly with the familiar voice of Vasily Strelnikov. This is an edition from December 1987 I think. And this is Radio Moscow poking fun at the Americans. It was completely out of sync with the rest of the station's output.   

Another early edition of DX Juke Box, with input from my good friend Victor Goonetilleke. I sent him a tape recorder and plenty of cassette. I would phone him and he would record his answers on cassette and send them in. Phone lines were useless in those days. In this edition, Victor was still sending contributions on reel-to-reel tape, recorded at the studios of TWR. Photo when Victor visited RNW about 15 years later.

A little over a month after taking over the programme, I was starting to phase out the music in DX Juke Box and bring in more equipment tests to replace the construction lessons. I got a lot of help from Wim Van Amstel. Basically just fooling around. And learning that editing was supposed to be done electronically in studios. So I found an old machine on the 1st floor and pirated it.

For some reason this trip up North to Friesland to visit Radio Fryslan was digitized but never uploaded to this Media Network collection. So time to put that right. The picture is the modern studio centre. Very much smaller back then.

Going through some cassettes on the last day of February and I discovered several cassettes of BBC's programme for shortwave listeners. World Radio Club and Waveguide. The earliest recording turned out to be from July 1977 which I recorded while at a DX camp in Austria. Nice to hear the voices of Peter Barsby and Henry Hatch. 

This edition had another Longwave update. We talk to John Ross Barnard about the attempts to get longwave radio out of the Isle of Man. Delta 171 seems to be a non-starter though. Web TV has challenges too. A personal computer program has been launched for the Lowe HF-150.  Phil Murphy has comments about the program we did from Shanghai. Harald Kuhl sent a post-script on his trip to Shanghai. Long-distance trains have their own radio station. Lots of announcements discouraging spitting. And Jonathan picked up a Chinese wind-up radio - no spring like the Baygen version though.

In this edition, Lodewijk Bouwens launches DRM at a conference in China on behalf of other Western broadcasters. (This is the earliest announcement we know of concerning digital shortwave radio). We also look at USA Digital Radio. Some good signals came out of RCI in Montreal this week on their 53rd anniversary. Bryan Clark has news that Tahiti has suddenly returned on 15170 kHz. The second half of the programme features an extended interview with Professor Doug Boyd, who is a specialist on Middle East Broadcasting. Satellite Television is booming. But what happened to the BBC's attempts? When the first attempt failed, it spawned the launch of Al Jazeera. Radio is becoming increasingly FM orientated.

Ignore all the email address and phone numbers mentioned in this edition of the programme. They are all obsolete. However, we have revived a new email address for reactions on these vintage editions as well as new video editions of the programme for 2021 - please email We started the Feb 1998 edition by previewing the results to the Big Survey. We investigate the first Audible Player (yes they are still going strong). In this case, the 1998 Audible player had a built-in FM radio. Fred Osterman will be in our Lightning special at the end of February 98. Andy Sennitt has news from Paraguay, where a military uprising was reported as a joke. Community radio has the go-ahead in Brazil. Radio Astronomers are complaining about interference from broadcast satellites.  Professor John Campbell has an update on increasing bandwidth but network operators have responded. Campbell had some interesting predictions on the future Microsoft. He thought it would go the way of IBM. (I think he is right – in 2021 look at the popularity of Zoom compared to Microsoft Skype and Teams). Jonathan tells the story of the big bang at Flevo. And we were amazed at how many pirates had a transmitter ready to transmit on 5955 Khz. John Campbell has news about the pirates in the Eastern part of the Netherlands and North America. 6955 kHz is a popular channel.  There are 500 new satellite transponders. We talk to in New Zealand about the Euro bouquet and what it costs to get into satellite. He had some very disparaging comments about Australian satellite TV. I am delighted to note Bob's website is still around.  

During the lifetime of Series One, we had a great relationship with Steve Whitt of the UK's Mediumwave Circle. They were kind enough to host our receiver reviews when the radio show ended. And they are . (If you think we should archive those reviews and other DX Publications, please tell us at ) In this programme, at the end of a cold, dark January, it was an excellent time to return to the topic of long-distance AM (Mediumwave) reception. Steve reported some strange conditions in the UK, normally only possible for listeners much further North in Finland and Norway. Even in 1998, some stations were closing down. But things were starting to go full circle. And there was excitement around the expanded band with stations like WJDM on 1660 (later ), WCMQ on 1700 kHz. There is plenty more coming about mediumwave – check out the which we posted on YouTube 10 years ago. The programme also deals with the failure of Asiasat 3, with expert commentary from Bob Cooper.

  This edition of Media Network covered updates on the numbers stations. But we started with news of unusual FM reception in New Zealand from Bryan Clark. Moscow has made a historic cutback to its output. We talk to Elizabeth Fox about broadcasting in Latin America. It was also time to renew the phone line to UK Numbers Station specialist Simon Mason to find out the latest on mysteries like the Lincolnshire Poacher, the Buzzer, and The New Star Station. This is an extensive interview with many off-air examples. Simon tells me (January 2021) that some are still running right now! . 

Happy New Year 2021. This is THE place for vintage editions of Media Network, the weekly communications programme as aired on the English Service of Radio Netherlands. This edition broadcast on January 2nd 1998 was unusual in that it was just under 50 minutes long because it fell on a holiday when the current affairs programme “Newsline” was missing. Diana Janssen and Jonathan Marks used the time to share the results of a major survey we conducted into sales of shortwave radios. In the early days of DX programmes from Radio Netherlands, it was often cheaper to build your own set. DX Juke Box even sent out plans to make them. But by 1998, it was much better to buy one. Which is why we compiled the “Receiver Shopping List” with quite a comprehensive guide as to what was on the market. In this programme we spoke with dealers like Bob Grove, Martin Lynch, Fred Osterman,  Jack Summers, and contributors Mike Bird and Lou Josephs. These days there are some excellent sites dealing with restoration of these old radios. We recommend , and in particular. Please remember to support them.

Christmas and New Year were traditionally quiet times at Radio Netherlands, with a lot of pre-taped specials. We didn't really know whether anyone was listening. But apparently, they were because we had plenty of feedback to report on in this last Media Network of 1996. So join us for some time travel, back to the birth of the Internet.

I was delighted to discover in December 2020 that Neil Carleton of  Almonte, Ontario, Canada remembers us. We remember him. We originally got in touch with him because of his fascination for stamps connected with radio and his spot on HCJB, Quito. He must have owned the world's more comprehensive collection. But he also used shortwave radio for teaching. Here are some links to his more recent work. RADIO IN THE CLASSROOM    Making connections across the curriculum with shortwave listening and amateur radio was a grand adventure each year during my teaching career.  Early one morning nine students, one each from kindergarten to grade 8, had their questions about space answered by the Commander of the International Space Station as the crew passed high overhead in orbit.     COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER    During my retirement years I've enjoyed volunteering with a variety of community organizations.       Creative pursuits and amateur radio have also been special interests.       We also talked to Fred Vobbe of the US National Radio Club in more detail about AM DXing in the winter months. And Lou Josephs has been reviewing the new book from "shock jock" Howard Stern. 

So whatever happened to the world's first green radio station, Radio Safari? In late 1996, we followed up on a and met up with Andre Waters who had clearly identified a need for such a station in South Africa. But apart from that article and our report 12 months later, I can find no record of what happened to that project. Did it run out of money? Or is it around today under a different name. The same programme reports that Radio Canada International has been saved (again). Kiwi Radio in New Zealand is going to try another international test. We also discuss our methods in testing receivers. Especially figures for the dynamic range are a hot topic for debate amongst other reviewers. 

This programme includes a visit to the shortwave transmitter site at  a small town lying 15 km north of  in , . But the Wikipedia entry doesn't mention the radio towers that once broadcast the external service of Radio RSA during the apartheid era. Later it turned into Channel Africa, and spare airtime was rented out to other stations who wanted to reach Southern and Central Africa with a reliable signal. The trip to Meyerton was fascinating. So imagine my horror when the track with the interview I had done with Blackie Schwartz showed up as only 3 seconds long. Did I eject the disc too quickly? I sent the disc to Sony to see if the recording could be recovered. And 4 months later, they said they had recovered the file. Sure enough, it plays perfectly. These days the towers in Meyerton are silent, though recent time-lapse photos by would indicate that the towers are still there. So what will happen from 2021 onwards?

I remember this edition of Media Network like it was yesterday. It was edition 750. We had many greetings from around the world. And we reminded people that the programme's success was due to a great deal of help from people like Jim Cutler, John Campbell, Lou Josephs, Mike Bird and Victor Goonetilleke. And we celebrated the milestone by going to Las Vegas, NAB. Diana asked me a bit about how it all got started. Internet just starting to roll out to consumers. Big questions were being tabled about t the future of AM radio. We talked to Fred Vobbe, who was producing the monthly DX Audio Service. I'm delighted to discover that they have kept many of those fine programs  We also discovered a station in Melbourne, Florida which was one of the first to try broadcasting into the Internet instead of into the ether. We did a bandscan to discover that Las Vegas means "the meadows" and how to tip. The weather station was actually programmed by an automation company called WeatherRadio in Iowa. It uses 10,000 small audio files recorded by Tom Churchill. And I even found some of the early photos we took. Enjoy. 

The main part of this edition of Media Network is a rather unique portrait of the Bhutan Broadcasting Service. Thanks to a duty trip by Radio Netherlands producer Dheera Sujan, we were able to visit the national broadcaster in Bhutan, the BBS. I remember the reason the station had a ping-pong table rather than a bar. Bhutan has an interesting policy on Tourism and there was no regulation in place covering broadcasting law. The radio is aimed at the rural population and at the time of Dheera's visit it had no TV station. They have technical challenges with only a 50kW shortwave transmitter. In winter this landlocked mountainous country had reception problems. They get QSL requests from places but have not printed a QSL as far as I know. They have an interesting policy about the ownership of satellite dishes. For more recent information, check out the page. In 2012, I remember showing a delegation from BBS around one of the Dutch regional broadcasters, Omroep Brabant in Eindhoven.

Satellite Radio is going to happen in the US, despite opposition from the NAB. Q-FM is the new name for Radio London. There is the first of many features on the (now defunct) HAARP project. This segment is probably the most extensive feature we did on the HAARP tests in Gakona, Alaska 99573.  We interview both those who are pro and against the military project. In fact, the HAARP project was discontinued in 2014. Don't Cry for Me Arthur Cushen turned out to be a Jim Cutler joke that went further than we expected. We have new publications. Mike Bird says we got the propagation forecast wrong.

We start we extensive tuning tips. High Adventure Ministries Has started transmissions to Europe and opening a postbox in the US. Carl Kruger is hearing Costa Rica. Captain has heard a time signal station from Venezuela on 5 MHz while in the Dominican Republic. BBC. Austria is to resume test transmissions from Bisamberg on mediumwave 1476 kHz. Channel 5 has started up in the UK with test transmission. We test the Yacht Boy 207 and 217 portable receivers. DAB has entered a new phase of testing in the Netherlands. Radio E is also part of the mix. DAB is rolling out in Germany, with the addition of L-Band. WRN's Jeff Cohen explains the DAB tests that have started in the UK.  He explains what could happen with football communities. South Korea says their broadcast system will convert to digital by 2010. Mike Bird says the prediction was wrong this week.

Lots of calls from listeners at the start of this Media Network.  David Ward tells us about a new wind-up radio from Morphy Richards. We compare it with the Baygen motor. Andy Sennitt reports a comprehensive website on AFRTS. http://afrtsarchive.blogspot.com/ . Us backed Radio Free Asia is now on the air targeting Vietnam. Victor Goonetilleke reports that the jammers are active again. Up to 5 transmitters are being used. RFA is using transmitters in Russia(!) and Palo. Esther van der Pluim helps out with the results of Media Quiz 1997. Martin Hadlow of UNESCO reports on the line from Alma Ata in Kazakhstan, Central Asia. Lack of newsprint is a problem. Internet access is 12 dollars an hour! Satellite television is important. They are trying to start Silk Road Information Radio between the countries of Central Asia. We cross to a boiling hot Mike Bird in Melbourne.

Channel Africa will lose its funding. The future of the Meyerton. The first Ariane 5 self-destructs. There were four satellites called CLUSTER which were lost. In the end they were rebuilt and launched. Dr Richard Thompson from IPS reports we are passed the end of  solar cycle 22. We visit Montreaux to understand what is happening with EuroDAB. Hans Bakhuizen says that satellite DAB receivers are expected soon. Arthur Cushen and Mike Bird have reports and so does Diana on her Italian holiday.

We often spoke with Jemstone founder Tudor Lomas. This was the first time he explains what is happening between Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. BBC World Service Arabic TV service has gone off the air because of a break with its partner ORBIT-TV. Professor Doug Boyd says he was surprised that it lasted so long. VOA is also experimenting with Arabic TV. Austria will operate a special Marconi radio station OE1M1M  this weekend. CHNS in Halifax, Nova Scotia has a low power station on 6130 with an official callsign of CHNX. The CH used to stand for the Carlton Hotel. Victor Goonetilleke has news about Burma and Vietian, Laos. SLBC has joined the WWW on June 9th 1996 with a celebration including Arthur C Clarke.  

We get a reaction on what we should be looking for in radios for visually disabled listeners. Sony is trying to boost its MiniDisc system and has a new SW receiver, the ICFSW40. Sky Radio is furious with the Amsterdam cable system for charging too much. The new 16 by 9 format is starting to take off. We look at some endangered sounds. Dutch VPRO programme OVT has launched a campaign. Andy Sennitt has been playing with Real Audio software. Luckily we don't need to say http:// in URL's any more. We look at Ni-Cd batteries Nickel Metal Hydride. We visited Nethold in Hoofddorp. There is a huge push to switch from analogue to digital broadcasting. We learn about near video on demand and plans for the pay-TV movie market. I remember seeing some VERY expensive 1TB hard drives. How times have changed. And we conclude with the sounds of very strong signals from Indonesia.  

This programme paints an interesting picture of Southern African broadcasting. Gene Reich provides a different opening to the programme which comes from Johannesburg, South Africa. We look at both the domestic and shortwave external services. We include a bandscan from 1995 as we scan the FM dial in Johannesburg. We also did an extensive scan of the shortwave dial. Joe O'Connell explains that the federal budget problems are causing problems at VOA. The purpose of the meeting in South Africa was to discuss the future of satellite television and DAB. Delegates from Channel Africa thinks that radio is still relevant to rural Africa. We recall the old Radio RSA and how Channel Africa updated it. 

We discuss two new communications receivers from AOR , the 7030 and AR5000. We talk with Roger Hillier from AOR UK. The rest of the programme is a major feature we did about the science behind Instore Radio and how music can influence people's buying habits. The instore networks are still around, but you don't seem to notice them as much these days – perhaps that's good thing.

We started the show with some mid-season frequency changes and some reception problems. Maybe the Russian relays of RNW may work better? Hans Bakhuizen reports that 1200 have gathered in Geneva where they are trying to simplify the radio regulations. European international stations want just two schedules a year, instead of 4. Bill Gates has sent a project proposal called for Big LEO. In 2002 it was suspended. Radio astronomers are not happy. We did a feature on the review of Radio Australia Budget. Quite a lot of money will be taken away from RA's distribution budget. The transmitter site at would be closed. Radio Australia's  Nigel Holmes explains the consequences. Ra's Managing Director Derek White also has some views on replacement systems for shortwave. Listeners don't want the snap, crackle and pop of HF broadcasting. Dave Porter reports that Bessmer Broadcasting. GG Little and Andy Sennit report that Indonesia has made a number of changes. Bhutan is having transmitter problems. Jonathan has found a weather blooper. Netherlands was the first country to start an extended weather forecast every 20 minutes.

Jan Willem Drexhage tells us about new satellite subcarriers. Listeners ask us to explain the Luxembourg Effect which turned out to be a natural phenomenon. We look at the first Boundless Sound conference in Amsterdam, with a memorable montage explaining why TV cannot deal with ideas. Chris Greenway of BBC Monitoring has heard a revived station on 8127 kHz USB Israel Defense Forces Radio. Willem Bos joins us to explain why point to point communications are still around on shortwave. Modern techniques like spread spectrum can hide military communications. Paul Ballister reports on temporary stations in North West London.  

The programme starts with tuning tips from Arthur Cushen. We went to the Evoluon in Eindhoven to hear about the future of CD Interactive. With Nintendo and Sega switching to hardware cartridges the future for CD-I seemed rather bleak. Andy Sennitt reviews on a book called Tumano . The author is Oleg Tumanov who worked for 20 years at Radio Liberty in Munich. Andy is rather critical of the account. There will be a special shortwave station to coincide with the EDXC meeting in Denmark this year.

This is a mainly news edition of the programme covering the news that PA6RHN from Eindhoven was a success. will increase its power to 500 watts. Radio Charlie is a special station in Berlin. BFBS in Germany is busy with an anniversary gala in Hamburg. HD TV in the US has hit a snag. We look at the 20th anniversary since Vietnam was reunited. We remember the Robin Williams film Good Morning Vietnam. And we tell the real story of Hanoi Hannah. Our correspondent Arthur Cushen was also involved in monitoring North Vietnam. We listen to the answerline. Brampton, Ontario has new multicultural station CIAO 530. The Signals radio programme is running on RTE. The answerline number is changing. Agostino Pendola asks about weather satellites. Is Media Network getting too elite? David Ward passes on details on Radio Austria International. Andy has frequency changes to report from the WRTH. Mike Bird explains some figures.

In previous editions of Media Network we mentioned the strange Japanese religious station Aum Shinrikyo. They had hired a huge number of transmitters in Russia, while the broadcasts came from a DAT tape in Moscow. Things changed dramatically in this week in March 1995 when the sect was connected with a .  Chris Greenway helped us with more details from BBC Monitoring. The doomsday cult is still around, though it changed its name. . Most of this programme takes an extensive look at the setting up of DAB networks in The Netherlands. We hear about the plans from NOZEMA, but also why the US IBOC system will not be used. You will hear many familiar voices including Maggie Ayre and Bert Steinkamp.

This is a mainly news edition of the programme covering PA6RHN from Eindhoven was a success. will increase its power to 500 watts. Radio Charlie is a special station in Berlin. BFBS in Germany is busy with an anniversary gala in Hamburg. HD TV in the US has hit a snag. We look at the 20th anniversary since Vietnam was reunited. We remember the Robin Williams film Good Morning Vietnam. And we tell the real story of Hanoi Hannah. Our correspondent Arthur Cushen was also involved in monitoring North Vietnam. We listen to the answerline. Brampton, Ontario has new multicultural station CIAO 530. The Signals radio programme is running on RTE. The answerline number is changing. Agostino Pendola asks about weather satellites. Is Media Network getting too elite? David Ward passes on details on Radio Austria International. Andy has frequency changes to report from the WRTH. Mike Bird explains some figures.

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.