I just received the following comment from Richard Levenson posted with this off-air recording of Radio Tirana on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive:
Lots of fond memories listening to Radio Tirana, Albania going back to the late 1950’s. Their broadcasts back then were loaded with anti-West propaganda and more. Their interval signal is a classic to SWL people. Always remember the female announcer on the station. Her sign-off phrase was “and goodnight dear listeners.” This came after much in the way of negative propaganda. When she would say her sign off you got the idea she was tucking you into bed for the night. It had that quality and sincerity to it. Love to know who this person was or if she is still alive. Give you an idea how much SWL I did since around 1953 to present day.
Thank you for your comment, Richard! If you can identify this announcer with Radio Tirana, please comment with details!
What happened to June Taylor? Where is she now?
June Taylor is retired and living in Tirana. She has a Facebook account.
Hello Shaun,
Reference to your comment that some commentators referred to Radio Tirana announcer June Taylor originating from Blackpool, Lancashire, may actually be referring to a different announcer! The lady on this 1968 broadcast was the main voice of Radio Tirana’s English language section during the 1960s and early 1970s! It was reported, she went back to Oregon, USA and has since sadly passed on. https://youtu.be/6-1VLqIKlHE
Kind Regards.. Willie Bone
Thanks for your reply, Ian. I think that these people were referring to Jun Taylor and not the female announcer in the broadcast from 1968. It was very hard to tell the origins of June Taylor’s accent, some assumed it was a Lancashire/Blackpool accent (may she could have been a member of the Pro-Albanian RCPB M-L) until it was confirmed she was actually from New Zealand. There was a male announcer on Radio Tirana who had a sort of Chinese-sounding accent.
I have just listened to this amazing interview with the leading English language announcer June Taylor. I got so much insight into this iconic lady of the Short wave from this interview. I used to listen regularly to Radio Tirana during the mid to late 1980s and found it fascinating. June Taylor was very much the voice of “Enver Hoxha’s Albania”. There was much speculation about the origins of this Radio Tirana announcer, some people even said she came from Blackpool and had been a member of the RCPB(M-L) (a Pro-Albanian Communist Party in the UK), but finally had the truth revealed. The only weakness in the interview was there was not enough focus on the inner workings and editorial policy of Radio Tirana and more detail could have been given as to the reasons why June Taylor left both Radio Tirana and Albania (under what circumstances?). I enjoyed intermixing with the interview music and sound from Radio Tirana from that era. Anyway, congratulations on a great interview!
The lady with the strident voice was an American who after the fall of communism in Albania, returned to the state of Oregon. She had a very long last name that I don’t remember. and I know she was there in the late 60s because that’s when I most listened to Radio Tirana. The lady on this recording appears to have an American accent. According to Glen Hauser is now deceased.
The lady on this English language broadcast from Radio Tirana in 1968 is not June Taylor. June did inform she is [or was] Armenian. https://youtu.be/6-1VLqIKlHE
https://www.monitorproductioninsound.eu/voice-from-the-east
Radio documentary her name is Anne Taylor, from New Zealand
You are welcome to listen to my long interview with June Taylor of Radio Tirana – broadcast earlier this year (2022) on London’s Resonance FM, and Radio New Zealand National.
http://www.monitorproductioninsound.eu/voice-from-the-east
Thank you very much for sharing the June Taylor interview.
Kind Regards..Willie Bone
Thank you John you conveyed well, June Taylor’s captivating and moving human story. There were so many levels to this story. It was broadcast on RNZ National today.
Thanks for that. I was a teenage listener.
New Albania magazine and the works of Enver Hoxha were available a Marxist bookshop in Liverpool.
According to June Taylor, a New Zealander who worked on Radio Tirana’s English language section, the lady with the strident voice was actually Armenian. I contacted June on her Facebook page about two years ago. June is now retired and currently residing in Tirana. I don’t know the status of the Armenian lady, but she was an announcer on Radio Tirana in the 1960s and early 70s..
I miss all the SW stations from my youth in the late 1960s and early 1970s. So many, like Tirana, seemed so mysterious and I loved the broadcasts with the presenter’s accented English, especially the Iron Curtain stations. Somehow there seemed to be a bit of danger listening to that propaganda, especially from Radio Moscow and Radio Peking. China Radio International just doesn’t cut it these days!
Yeah, another shortwave station that struck me the same way as a teenager was Radio Havana. Listening to them (and Radio Moscow, etc.) cover international news was like watching Rocky & Bullwinkle’s “Fractured Fairy Tales.”
If you’d like to hear about 25 minutes of a Radio Tirana broadcast from 1974 — including the “Good night, dear listeners” farewell — I captured it near the end of this 55-minute recording of various shortwave and utility stations. The “Good night” follows the female announcer’s closing remarks at 53:45.
https://shortwavearchive.com/archive/tag/Brian+Smith
The audio quality (from the source) is, quite frankly, inferior — not that my “cassette recorder next to the radio speaker” technique was anything to brag about — and the programming is, well, rather monotonous.
But it’s the way it was in ’74!
Makes me also miss Radio Moscow as well. Good memories of anti-West silliness!!
The women that was most heard ,on Radio Tirana, during the 60s, and early 70s , had a very strident voice and appeared very anti American . According to Glenn Hauser, was an American from the state of Oregon. Who eventually returned to this country, after the Albanian communist government fell . Glenn Hauser reported that she is now deceased. I do not remember her name.
If she was ‘tucking you into bed’ I can imagine it being done by somebody who looked like Rosa Klebb. I remember her as sounding quite old and a bit harsh on the ear.