Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Adid, who writes:
Hi Thomas, I just watched this very interesting DX film about RADIO SARAWAK.
It’s a behind the scenes look at radio in the tropics, with great vintage gear.
I don’t think it was FM as it’s was much expensive and coverage is limited. But on the other hand we don’t see the large MW antennas
What do you think?
Click here to view the film at the Imperial War Museum website.
Good question, Adid. The FM band wasn’t widely included on radios until the late 1950s and early 1960s. Since this film dates from 1961, I imagine some of those new transistor/valve radios could have included FM, although I imagine mediumwave was the choice band for regional broadcasts.
Hopefully, an SWLing Post reader can shed some more light on Radio Sarawak’s history! Please comment!
As a footnote
Sarawak was an independent kingdom in Borneo from 24 September 1841 until 1 July 1946 when it became a British Crown Colony. It was a British Protectorate from 1888 until 1946 – which meant the UK was responsible for Sarawak’s Defense and Foreign policy. But British forces were largely withdrawn in 1941 to Singapore so Sarawak relied on its militia to fight the Japanese invasion of 16 December 1941; although the militia formally surrendered on 24 December 1941, a vigorous insurgency against Japanese occupation continued until the Japanese surrender in 1945, with some areas of Sarawak remaining no-go areas for the Japanese.
Uniquely among South East Asian kingdoms, Sarawak was ruled by the locally popular Brooke family who adopted the local title for king Raja, nicknamed the white Rajas of Sarawak.
The last Brooke Raja, Charles Vyner Brooke, ceded Sarawak to the United Kingdom’s in 1946, a move that although it secured a 19-16 vote in the legislature after 3 days debate was locally unpopular and not accepted by his heir apparent Anthony Brooke, whom the new British colonial administration banned from Sarawak.
Without holding a referendum, but having ascertained that local sentiment was 80% in favour, the British and Sarawak governments arranged for Sarawak to join the Federation of Malaya – today’s Kingdom of Malaysia – in 1963.
Sarawak has greater autonomy from the federal government of Malaysia than peninsula Malaysia.
Sarawak has the oldest legislature and the oldest museum in Malaysia.
For more information on this subject, I suggest the book “Broadcasting in the Malay World” (Greenwood Press Group, 1994) by my colleague, Professor Drew O. McDaniel.
Just did a bit of googling and found this, dating back to 2013
https://leminhkhai.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/tuning-in-to-radio-sarawak-in-1961/
and looking at the informations found online about “Radio Sarawak” (then renamed to “Radio Malaysia Sarawak”) it sounds like it was probably running on MW; some pointers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Colony_of_Sarawak#Culture
https://books.google.it/books?id=-5_gtJQFin4C&pg=PA59&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://www.theborneopost.com/2019/09/17/the-day-a-radio-station-changed-its-name/
notice that the third link above also carries an “ad” about a Philips radio and that radio is reported as being able to receive “six bands, including medium waves”
I love watching these old propaganda film. Terrible sound sync and every shot visibly forced.
This is definitely not FM. The VHF aerials appear to be used for remote pickup. The tower guys have insulators visible in one shot, so it’s likely AM. There’s also open ladder line feeding the antenna, which appears to be a T-shape strung between two towers.
Most MW stations in Malaysia ceased operation after 2000. That said, a 750 kW MW station in Sabah remained operational as late as 2008, if I remember correctly. My guess is FM became more prominent thereafter.
Certainly here in penisular Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), particularly in 1987, we had six government FM stations. Sign-off was usually at midnight or 1 am, depending on the station. An annual license (tax) was issued for each radio owned.
I found an interesting article about Radio Sarawak about when they change the station ID from “This is Radio Sarawak” to “This is Radio Malaysia broadcasting from Sarawak”. This was on September 17, 1963. No mention of whether it was AM or FM.
https://www.theborneopost.com/2019/09/17/the-day-a-radio-station-changed-its-name/
73
Bill
WD9EQD
Smithville, NJ
Great Mike, I hoped someone will pull a relevant WRTH with the info.
But still all antennas in the movie are small.
Any of you have later WRTH and can tell when FM was introduced to the Sarawakens?
My wild guess… mid 70’s. (sad to tell that my first WRTH was 1976, but I threw it away years ago..)
The 1961 World Radio TV Handbook shows Radio Sarawak on 730 and 850 kHz medium wave, 10kw and 5kw respectively. Either 4950 or 9565 shortwave 7.5kw used in parallel with 730, 4835 5kw shortwave used in parallel to 850. No FM broadcasts. Population 650,000, number of receivers 30,000.
Thank you for doing the research, Mike! Excellent.