Tag Archives: Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Radio Netherlands film and video footage

Many thanks to Jonathan Marks–former host of RNW’s Media Network and curator of the Media Network Vintage Vault–who kindly shares the following videos from Radio Netherlands.

The first video is from the 1960s and promotes RNW’s move to the Witte Kruislaan building.  The second video highlights the Radio Netherlands Flevo Transmitter Site and also includes a lot of “B roll” material (without audio) that Jonathan commissioned.

Check out the videos and Jonathan’s descriptions below:

The Radio Netherlands film in the 1960’s

Click here to watch on Vimeo.

When Radio Netherlands moved into their new building in Witte Kruislaan in 1961, they asked Pete van der Kleut to make a film to help in promotion. He shot it in a couple of days on zero budget and a few rolls of film- it was pure theatre with people in various departments doing all sort of things on cue. Everybody is incredibly busy discussing things, the head of the newsroom is correcting copy before it is broadcast, and the poor guy in the newsroom doesn’t know which phone to answer first. Women play only support roles, tidying up, typing and organizing things, The problem was that until the mid nineties this was the only footage of Radio Netherlands in the national sound archive. And when cuts came that were reported on the NOS Journaal, the same 60’s footage was often repeated – confirming the picture that RNW was stuck in the past. Again, the be fair, the sound has been changed on this version. The original over the top commentary was in Dutch.

Radio Netherlands Flevo Transmitter Site and B roll material

Click here to watch on Vimeo. 

During my time as Programme Director at Radio Netherlands I commissioned various video clips to make sure we had current video material of the building, newsroom, continuity, and documentation. This was just raw footage done one day in July 2001 and 2002. This sequence starts with video from the Flevoland transmitter site when it was fully operational. Transmitters have since been removed and the site is silent.

Thanks so much for sharing these videos, Jonathan! As I’ve mentioned many times before, you’re doing such an amazing service to the community by curating, archiving and sharing all of this RNW media. Thank you.

Check out the Media Network Vintage Vault by clicking here. 

Check out Jonathan’s colleagues at the Radio Netherlands Archives

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Radio Netherlands: Jonathan shares photos from BVN Television and RNW newsrooms

Many thanks to Jonathan Marks–former host of RNW’s Media Network and curator of the Media Network Vintage Vault–who kindly shares a collection of photos he took in 2001 and 2002 at RNW’s headquarters in Hilversum.

Click on the images below to enlarge:

The RNW Newsroom in August 2002

The BVN Television Crew in 2001

Amazing photos–thank you for sharing these, Jonathan! You’ve done such an amazing service to the community by curating, archiving and sharing RNW media. Thank you.

Check out the Media Network Vintage Vault by clicking here. 

Check out Jonathan’s colleagues at the Radio Netherlands Archives

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“The Forgotten Firsts–Remembering Radio Netherlands”

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Langley, who shares this excellent article by our friend Jonathan Marks in Medium:

Jonathan Marks, Director of Programmes, Radio Netherlands, Hilversum, June 1995 (Source: Medium.com)

Every country claims to have invented radio. In the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in Hilversum they have so far focused on the radio pioneer Hanso Idzerda. He set up a business to make and sell his radios. And he realised that no-one would buy his radios if there was nothing to listen to. I think the evidence shows that he was one of the first, if not the first person to make regular broadcasts following a pre-announced schedule. But I would like to suggest he started off a chain of Dutch “firsts”, many of which are now in danger of being forgotten.

First, Idzerda started international broadcasting. From a rooftop antenna in the Hague, his low power mediumwave signal could be heard in the Southern part of the UK. And he capitalised on that by broadcasting an hour of concert music between 4 and 5 on a Sunday afternoon, responding to listeners correspondence. And he managed to get the programme paid for by the Daily Mail newspaper in London. So, the first international broadcasts were commercial. They were also the world’s first broadcasts using what today we would call narrow band frequency modulation. It wasn’t until 1933 that American engineer Edwin Armstrong, discovered this technique was capable of transmitting much better audio fidelity if you used much higher frequencies and more sensitive receivers.

In 1920’s, no-one understood radio propagation

But in 1919 no-one really understood how radio waves worked and the influence the sun has on the way they propagate. I’m guessing that Idzerda would have had most of his UK listeners in mid-winter when it was starting to get dark.

By 1925, various things were happening in parallel. Physicists like Edward Appelton were showing that there was a layer in the earth’s atmosphere which they later called the ionosphere. It acted like a mirror to radio waves. And the path of the signal followed was dependent on frequency.

So while Radio Kootwijk was using a high-power long-wave transmitter to try and send Morse code messages to the Dutch colony of the East Indies, now Indonesia, engineers at Philips in Eindhoven realised that shorter wavelengths were best suited to long distance communication using much less power than the 400kW being used in Kootwijk. They ran experiments in 1925 which were received in Malabar Indonesia. A certain Dr de Groot is listed is some accounts as a radio enthusiast. It’s just that he happened to be the head of the Dutch telegraph station in Sitoebondo, East Java and had been busy since 1916 trying to establish a reliable, direct connection between The Netherlands and its colonies. The Dutch were making use of long-distance phone cables owned by the British who were listening in to all the communications.[…]

Click here to continue reading the full article in Medium.

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Video: Tour of RNW operations van and interview with Niels Zack

ShortwaveService has uploaded the following video (to YouTube) which features the RNW Operations Van used in the recent 70th anniversary broadcast.

The video includes a tour of the van, the setup used in the 70th anniversary broadcast and an extended interview with Niels Zack, who restored the operations van:

Click here to view on YouTube.

I listened to at least an hour of the Saturday broadcast via the U Twente WebSDR. Sadly, I just discovered the audio dropped about 2 minutes into my recording.

Post readers: Anyone else listen to, record or simply log this anniversary broadcast? Please comment!

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RNW: Video of Flevoland Shortwave station

Screenshot from Peter Veenendaal’s video of the RNW Flevo shortwave station

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Peter Veenendaal, who shares the following video and notes:

I am a former employee of Radio Netherlands Worldwide, which stopped broadcasting exactly 5 years ago next May.

Three years ago I made this short video of the Flevoland Shortwave station RNW used until 2007. It’s still there, idle and hoping for better times.

Click here to watch on Vimeo–All rights Peter Veenendaal.

Many thanks, Peter–most impressive! The magnitude of those curtain antennas is simply amazing. Thank you for sharing.

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April 15: RNW returns for broadcast from original news van

Schagen Auto Museum

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Gerard Koopal, who shares the following:

Below an article about the return of RNW Netherlands out of a 1958 truck on april 15.
Although i suppose you can’t read German, the times and freq’s should be clear.


… zwar nur für einen Tag aber immerhin:

Am 15. April, also diesen Samstag, gibt es eine Sondersendung aus dem
Automuseum Schagen im Norden der Niederlande. Die ehemaligen Mitarbeiter
Dick Klees, Hans Hogendoorn, Pieter Damave und Ruud Poeze werden aus einem
originalen Ü-Wagen des RNW aus dem Jahr 1958 eine 7-stündige Live-Sendung fahren.

Die Sendung wird über Stream, Mittelwelle van Radio Paradijs auf 1584, 1332 und 1224 kHz und im DAB Kanal 8A in Randstad ausgestrahlt.

Ach ja: Kurzwelle gibt’s auch, von diesen bösen Menschen beim
Schortwääävsörvizzz:

… auf 3985 kHz zw. 11-18 CEST
… auf 6005 kHz zw. 11-15 CEST
… auf 7310 kHz zw. 11-12 und 16-17 CEST
… auf 15560 kHz zw. 14-17 CEST

Kontakt zur Crew während der Sendung per e-Mail [email protected]

Details in dutch:
http://www.spreekbuis.nl/radio-nederland-wereldomroep-komt-terug#sthash.XprqTws2.dpuf

Many thanks, Gerard! I found that Google Translate did a fairly good job translating the Dutch article into English–click here to read.

Keep in mind that CEST is UTC +2 hours. Broadcasts will start at 1300 UTC 9:00 UTC (thanks for the correction, Christian!).

I love the sound of this special event. I’ll certainly be listening and, hopefully, recording!

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