Today, BBC Radio 4 will air The Sound of Soft Power, a documentary presented by Josephine McDermott exploring the history of international broadcasting and the role shortwave radio played as a tool of soft power during the Second World War and Cold War.
The program features a number of familiar voices from shortwave history, including Lord Haw-Haw, Mildred Gillars, Doris Maxina of Moscow Mailbag, and June Taylor.
The documentary also revisits stations and programs remembered fondly by many DXers, including Radio Netherlands’ Happy Station Show and Radio Berlin International.
I was pleased to play a small role in assisting with research for the program, and recordings from the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive were also used in the production.
For anyone interested in the history of shortwave broadcasting and international radio, this will be well worth a listen.
The Sound of Soft Power airs today on BBC Radio 4 and will also be available via BBC Sounds.
Hi, I’ve transcribed Josephine McDermott’s program into Spanish, but you can download the audio in MP3 format from my radio website: https://radioescucha.com/contenido/soft-power/
Did they use the May 10 2024 CME recording I had sent to Josephine McDermott? -from the description it appears not. Looks to be mainly historical recordings.
Quite typical of the BBC these days. A programme about soft power that ‘nobody’ can listen to! Their web site(s) are also rapidly falling apart. What’s next – pay to listen to World Service?! The politicians and/or top brass are completely clueless about how their audience feels. Taking out programmes like ‘Over to You’ confirmed it to me, having appeared on that programme previously and been on their ‘membership’ group. Finally, turn off Radio4 LW. The cost-cutting has gone too far.
I am able to listen BBC 4 with no VPN from this link:
https://www.bbc.com/audio/play/live/bbc_radio_fourfm
Right. Listening live to Radio 4 is no problem. But BBC is selectively limiting which programs are available via podcast. Unfortunately “Archive on 4” appears to be one not made available.
You can listen to it live today using the U. Twente SDR receiver (http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/). Tune to 198 kHz at 20:00 BST (19:00 UTC, 15:00 ET).
BBC Sounds is unavailable to most listeners outside the UK (putting aside the VPN factor). Will it be available via BBC.com? Searching on other Archive on 4 topics, it seems not. Frankly, if anyone at World Service is reading this, this program definitely deserves to be aired there and available via podcast for an international audience.