MN Island Montage Radio St Helena & Easter Island

Found this pre-broadcast montage which comes from two different Media Networks, one aired in the 1990's and one in June 1981. No prizes for spotting the join. Both montages survived longer than the transmission tape. One is an interview I did with Tony Leo (pictured), station manager of Radio Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. For many years the station made special broadcasts on shortwave for a small group of dedicated fans around the world. The medium and shortwave transmissions went off the air in December 2012, to be replaced by a government run FM network. Within three weeks, a group of islanders had formed a committee to revive the station It was their intention to re-launch it as a charity, but this status was declined, hence it now operates as a community enterprise. Councillors', some of whom had voted to launch the rival, are now in full support of the people's own radio station. This was expressed when one of these councillors, allowed a transmitter to be clamped to his home, to assist in getting the signal relayed across the island’s mountainous terrain. The station renamed Saint FM Community Radio, commenced broadcasting live on 10th March 2013, and was back Internet streaming the following month. read more about Saint FM

But it was fun listening to the most remote station on the planet while it was there on shortwave. In 1981 I interviewed Dr Grant McCall about life on Easter Island, discovered by Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen in 1722. So added that montage for good measure. Photo from the Dokufunk collection in Vienna, the world's largest repository for radio related material.

This episode is hosted on the Media Network vintage vault