RNW’s final broadcast schedule (Source: Jonathan Marks)
A few days ago, former RNW employee, Jonathan Marks, was sorting out some papers in his office when something “spooky” happened:
“one sheet [of paper] fell out of a pile and onto the floor. It was the page of the last day of transmission from Radio Netherlands, English department.”
“What was weird was that this happened exactly one year ago to the day they pulled the switch. It was 2253 local time on a Friday when Jonathan Groubert, above, made the last announcement from Continuity Studio 4.”
Jonathan’s full post on his blog, Critical Distance, has some fantastic photos, notes, an interview and recording from the final moments of RNW’s final shortwave broadcast. Click here to read his post.
Jonathan’s post reminded me that one year ago, I was on a six week vacation with my family in the Canadian Maritimes. I listened to and recorded all of the final RNW shortwave broadcasts in an off-grid cabin on the eastern coast of lovely Prince Edward Island. An SWLing memory I will never forget. You can listen to these field recordings and read my post, “RNW says farewell in style” via this link.
And five years on, it’s equally eerie to see my own handwriting on that final transmission schedule. As usual the entire broadcast had been planned to the last detail, when the RNW distribution department called in and said they had organised a few more frequencies for those last few transmissions. Hence the scribbles. I had the honour of announcing these additional numbers live over the pre-loaded broadcast, from Cell 4 where I had begun my RNW career in 1996. Memories…