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.
Thursday, December 24, 2020
MN.25.01.1996 Carleton Vobbe
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. https://www.youtube.
COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER During my retirement years I've enjoyed volunteering with a variety of community organizations. https://mvfn.ca/2009-champion-
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.
MN.19.12.1996 Radio Safari
So whatever happened to the world's first green radio station, Radio Safari? In late 1996, we followed up on a report in New Scientist 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.
MN.07.11.1996
This programme includes a visit to the shortwave transmitter site at Meyerton a small town lying 15 km north of Vereeniging in Gauteng, South Africa. 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 Cobus van Zyl would indicate that the towers are still there. So what will happen from 2021 onwards?
MN.02.05.1996 Las Vegas NAB 750th
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 here. 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.
MN.02.05.1996 Las Vegas NAB 750th
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 here. 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.
MN.21.03.1996 Bhutan BBS
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 Wikipedia page. In 2012, I remember showing a delegation from BBS around one of the Dutch regional broadcasters, Omroep Brabant in Eindhoven.
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