Thanks for listening to Media Network in 2012

Transmitter masts by the sea. The distant towers of Radio Netherlands Bonaire relay station in 1993.

I have been truly amazed at how many people have downloaded old radio programmes from the Media Network series.  I produced them for Radio Netherlands between August 1980 and October 2000, just over 20 years. I kept  a copy of many of the tapes - so glad I did because many were later wiped so they could re-use the tape. The dynamic range is actually very good because Radio Netherlands recorded their material at 15 ip/s (38 cms/sec) and used Neumann microphones in the studios. 

I know, all this stuff is pure nostalgia about the era of international broadcasting (mainly radio) from 1918-2000. I would argue that many of the issues discussed in these programmes (such as digital broadcasting, jamming, political clandestines, hate media) are still very relevant today. And we have a habit of ignoring the past as being outdated because we're often obsessed by the new and unknown. And as a creative person, my biggest fear is to be trapped by routine. 

My mobile in 1995. That number used to be the DG''s office at RNW

There are more than 120 hours of high quality MP3's on this audio site. All the programmes are free to download since they were made for public distribution over shortwave through the Dutch International Service, Radio Netherlands. I think it is a celebration of listener participation well before Facebook and Twitter were even dreamed of.

The Danish Lyrec editing machine revolutionised production at RNW. Journalists could edit tape themselves!

Please enjoy. I would love to hear your reaction, perhaps you remember hearing the first airing on shortwave? Or you have been asked to do a school project on political broadcasting? You can either put comments in below or go to my switchboard for more details of other blogs and activities that I'm doing at the moment.

The Grundig Yacht Boy 700 - one of the better shortwave portables in the 1990's

Some of you are curious as to who is listening to all this stuff. November 2012 was another good listening month. We had more than 3917 downloads, which I think is pretty amazing since this material is unashamedly specialist. The dismantling of Radio Netherlands Bonaire relay station and the Media Wars series were the toppers this past month.