Category Archives: International Broadcasting

WRTH 2019 B18 Updates & Questionnaire

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(Source: WRTH)

Dear WRTH reader,

We have uploaded a pdf of updates to the B18 schedules in the International section of WRTH 2019. Visit Updates and click the “International Updates” link to download the file from the WRTH store.

If you haven’t yet got your copy of WRTH 2019 you can buy one NOW using this link.

Readers in North America can also order copies from Universal Radio or Amazon.com.

Please take a few minutes to give us your thoughts about WRTH on the 2019 Questionnaire.

I hope you find the update useful.

Best wishes,

Nicholas Hardyman

Publisher

Purchase your copy of WRTH 2019 directly from WRTH’s publishers, or from a distributor like Universal Radio (US), Amazon.com (US), Radio HF (Canada), or check BookDepository.com (International).

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Radio Netherlands film and video footage

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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

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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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Pacific Beat: Government considers report into Asia-Pacific broadcasting

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(Source: ABC’s Pacific Beat via Michael Bird)

The Australian government is considering the findings of a long-awaited report reviewing broadcasting to the Asia Pacific but it hasn’t revealed when they might be made public.

One of the key questions under consideration is whether to reinstate the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s shortwave service, which was cut in early 2017.

The ABC says it’s technology that’s out of date, but some experts say it’s still the best way to reach remote audiences and with the will, could be back up and running in just a few months.

Click here to listen to this story on the Pacific Beat’s website.

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Representative from Nuku, PNG asks NBC to reintroduce shortwave

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(Source: PNG Post Courier via Michael Bird)

Member for Nuku Joseph Sungi has called in the National Broadcasting Corporation to reintroduce the short wave band to reach the rural people.

Mr Sungi in a series of questions to Minister for Communication and Information Technology Sam Basil said in the late 1980s, the NBC at the time through the provincial radio stations was using the shortwave band.

He said Radio Sandaun in West Sepik could reach districts like Nuku and parts of Telefomin but that was not the case anymore.

“Does the minister and the department have any plans to make sure that same service under short wave band can be replaced by a new one or improvement can be made so that provincial radio stations can be revived and broadcasted straight so that remote parts of PNG can use to get news and update on what is happening around the country?” Mr Sungi said.

Mr Basil, who is also responsible for Energy, said a lot of people in the rural areas were asking the same question because they could no longer have access to NBC radio.

[…]“I have had discussions with the managing director of NBC and I told them that we want that service to return. We are now moving the system at NBC from analogue to digital so I asked them how we can fit in the short wave system when we do the migration.

“They came up with a few ideas. For some places like Bougainville shortwave is available.

“But I asked them how can we asked the shops to start selling shortwave 1 and 2 transistor radios that receive this wireless signal, a lot of shops are not selling, In places like Bougainville we want to import some radios to distribute so that they carry out the awareness.”

“We are now talking about bringing back these services and improvement.

“We will start in Port Moresby first and roll out to provinces, We are trying our very best to bring the service back because most of our people are in rural areas, A lot of our radio stations now invest into FM band which signals of often blocked by barriers like mountains that is why we want to bring back the shortwave band,” Mr Basil said.

Click here to read the full article at the Post Courier.

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Australia: International broadcasting, soft power and the wisdom of the crowd

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Nigel Holmes, who writes:

Here are a couple of interesting url following the joint Australian DFAT & DCA Review of Broadcasting Services in the Asia Pacific. [One] gives a good overview and the [other] is a concise assessment of HF and Radio Australia in the role of broadcasting to remote areas. Have a look. Former RA Head Jean-Gabriel Manguy made a submission, I did not this time. The submissions are in the public domain.

Click here to read Trevor Bird’s submission (PDF).

Click here to read Jean-Gabriel Manguy’s submission (PDF).

(Source: Lowy Institute – The Interpreter by Geoff Heriot)

International broadcasting: the ABC vs the wisdom of the crowd

The findings of two related government reviews – on international broadcasting, and soft power – should offer an incoming Australian government the potential of a substantial policy reset following the general election in May. Specifically, they may help clarify the purpose and place of state-funded international broadcasting/digital media in Australia’s foreign relations, following a decades-long cycle of investment and dis-investment.

Shortly before Christmas, the Department of Communications published most of the 433 submissions (92 private individuals, 31 organisations or groups, and 310 signatories to a pro-forma submission) made to the first of those reviews, Australian Broadcasting Services in the Asia Pacific, excluding those whose authors wished them to remain confidential. Finalisation of the broadcasting report precedes the related Soft Power Review, being undertaken by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which has proposed a completion date of around March.

So it is timely to take note of the wisdom of the crowd, as expressed through the more discursive submissions to the broadcasting review, and to compare them with the institutional perspective of the ABC as the responsible agency for international broadcasting.[…]

Click here to read the full article.

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All India Radio to shut down national channel

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All India Radio (AIR) Headquarters in Dehli, India. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

(Source: The Telegraph)

Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has decided to close down All India Radio’s national channel and its regional training academies in five cities as part of “cost-cutting measures” and to “rationalise” services.

The programme, technical, ministerial and other staff posted at the national channel in Todapur and Nagpur, etc., apart from those working at the Regional Academies of Broadcasting and Multimedia (RABMs) in five cities, may be posted as per the requirement of the organisation, said the order issued by the Directorate General, All India Radio (AIR).

In order to “rationalise AIR services and keeping in view of the cost-cutting measures”, it has been decided by Prasar Bharati and communicated to DG AIR on December 24, 2018, to close down the national channel of AIR and RABMs located at Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Shillong and Thiruvananthapuram with immediate effect, it said.

The order, dated January 3, stated that the programmes of archival value maintained by the national channel should be sent to the central archives in Delhi for digitisation and preservation for posterity.

The national channel, which broadcasts from 6pm to 6am, started airing in 1987 and played an important role in keeping people abreast of national issues, an AIR source said.

“National channel has a huge repository of programmes and the personnel will now be redeployed,” the source said.

It is understood that certain sections within AIR are not happy with the decision as they believe the national channel was an important part of the broadcasts and there were other ways to cut costs than shutting it down altogether.

“These days you can livestream, you can make it an application-based service, there are many other ways of cost cutting. The effort should have been to strengthen the national channel and not close it down,” a source said.

Click here to read at The Telegraph.

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, shares an image of the letter (mentioned above) which was originally posted by Jawahar, on the Gary Cohen Facebook page:

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