Category Archives: Radio History

Radio South Atlantic: recording of a short-lived clandestine radio station

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In reply to our recent post about Radio Atlantico del Sur, SWLing Post contributor, Jonathan Marks, adds:

Radio South Atlantic was a short-lived clandestine radio station started by the UK Ministry of Defence with programmes aimed at Argentine troops on the Falkland islands. This programme was broadcast from a transmitter on Ascension Island which was temporarily taken away from BBC World Service.

The Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas), also known as the Falklands Conflict, Falklands Crisis and the Guerra del Atlántico Sur (Spanish for “South Atlantic War”), was a ten-week war between Argentina and the United Kingdom over two British overseas territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It began on Friday 2 April 1982 when Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands (and, the following day, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands) in an attempt to establish the sovereignty it had long claimed over them.

On 5 April, the British government dispatched a naval task force to engage the Argentine Navy and Air Force before making an amphibious assault on the islands. The conflict lasted 74 days and ended with the Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982, returning the islands to British control. In total, 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel and three Falkland Islanders died during the hostilities.

This is a studio copy of Radio South Atlantic. In May 1982, the British government decided to set up a Spanish language radio station targeting Argentine troops. This was probably in response to an Argentine radio station (nicknamed Argentine Annie by the UK press) which appeared on shortwave some weeks earlier using the Beatles theme “Yesterday” as a signature tune.

I was editing the Media Network programme at the time. We could hear Radio South Atlantic in Hilversum – but the signal was very weak. So I rang the British embassy in the Hague and asked if it would be possible to get a studio copy of the programme to use in a documentary feature we were making. A few days later, a courier riding a large motorbike arrived at RN’s reception and asked for me. I went down to the front-desk to sign for the tape. “But you can’t keep this tape. You can only listen to it” was the message from guy in the helmet. “I have to take it back to the Hague in about half an hour”. I said I’d look for an empty studio, gave the guy a large coffee and wandered casually round the corner. Then I made a mad dash to the fast copy-room used to make tape copies of RNW transcription programmes for other radio stations. It had a machine that could copy tapes at around 8 times faster than normal. Luckily, Jos, the guy in charge, saw my challenge, set up the machine immediately and 15 minutes later I was back in reception to return the tape to the messanger. And I had a copy.

It seems the British dropped leaflets over the Falklands to try and spread the word that this shortwave radio station existed. And we later analysed the programme. It was classic Sefton Delmer (Black Propaganda), although rather poorly presented. Bit like calling up Vera Lynne if the British had a dispute with France.

But this is one of the few surviving recordings of Radio South Atlantic. You be the judge of how effective it all was. http://jonathanmarks.libsyn.com/radio-south-atlantic-may-1992
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Click here to read Jonathan’s full post about Radio South Atlantic and listen to the recording on his website.

This is an amazing recording, Jonathan. I’ll admit that I had never heard of Radio South Atlantic before and never knew a UK-supported clandestine station was on the air during The Falklands War/Guerra de las Malvinas.

Thanks for the excellent history lesson and your own (clandestine) recording!

Mike reviews The Pol Pot Conspiracy

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike Barraclough, who writes:

Neil Ffrench Blake is a former BBC producer and journalist who launched and was Managing Director of Radio 210, first station Mike Read and Steve Wright worked at. He was also involved in psychological warfare radio stations broadcasting to Aden, Afghanistan and managed ones to the Falkland Islands and Cambodia.

The Kindle book The Pol Pot Conspiracy, a work of fiction, but solidly based on autobiographical fact, covers in one of its chapters his work on Radio Atlantico del Sur.

[Radio Atlantico del Sur was] run during the Falklands War using requisitioned BBC transmitters on Ascension and aimed at Argentinian conscripts. [T]he majority of the book [focuses on the] Voice of the Khmer (on the air from 1985 to 1992) and operated by members of the two non-communist factions who were in alliance with the Khmer Rouge and opposing the government set up following the Russian backed Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1978.

Radio Atlantico del Sur met opposition in Whitehall particularly from the Foreign Office and from Douglas Muggeridge at the BBC World Service though behind the scenes he says the BBC could not have been more co-operative. This resulted in stories fed to the press about amateur broadcasters speaking the wrong kind of Spanish which Neil asserts are not true.

Voice of the Khmer received covert funding from the CIA, some of which was siphoned off by the corrupt Thai military. It was received worldwide on 6325 [kHz]. Transmitters were in Thailand or just over the Thai-Cambodian border in areas not controlled by the Vietnamese.
Details of the background to the book and link to it on Amazon below.

It’s long and perhaps overly detailed in parts but written in a very readable style.

Two links to a summary of the 20 May 1982 programme of Radio Atlantico del Sur and an interim assessment of its programming in the comments:

Thank you for sharing, Mike!

ABC Radio National interviews author of new Marconi biography

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Guglielmo Marconi

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, John Figliozzi, who shared a link the following radio program via the Shortwave Programs email list. John writes:

Here’s an interesting segment heard recently on ABC Radio National’s and Radio Australia’s “Late Night Live”:

Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World is a new biography of Guglielmo Marconi: Nobel Laureate , entrepreneur, inventor and Fascist.

Marconi, the inventor of wireless technology was constantly self inventing and reinventing his life story. One thing is certain , Marconi helped create our modern world of communications and media.

Click here to listen to the full interview on ABC Radio National’s website, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

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Click here to view Marconi: The Man Who Networked The World on Amazon.

RFE and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution (Part 2)

RFE and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution (Part 1)

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Many thanks to Richard Cummings of the website, Cold War Radio Vignettes, who notes that he has posted a new article about Radio Free Europe and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution (Part 1).

The article spotlights Operation FOCUS, which was the combined balloon/leaflet and RFE broadcast endeavours 1954-56. Richard notes that Part 2 will be posted next week and will cover the controversial RFE broadcasts during the revolution.

Click here to read at the Cold War Radio Vignettes website.

Cold War Radio: The BBC’s plans in the event of nuclear war

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Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, William Lee, who shares this item from the BBC:

(Source: BBC News)

For the first time, the BBC has given detailed access to the plans it drew up in the Cold War for a Wartime Broadcasting System to operate in the event of nuclear war. Paul Reynolds, a former BBC diplomatic and foreign correspondent, has been studying the secrets of what was known as the “War Book”.

The War Book reveals a world of meticulous BBC planning. The Wartime Broadcasting System (WTBS) – referred to in the book as “Deferred Facilities” – would have operated from 11 protected bunkers spread across the UK.

Known as “Regional Seats of Government”, these would also have sheltered government ministers and staff from government departments during what is termed a “nuclear exchange”. The BBC had a studio in each, usually with five staff drawn mostly from nearby local radio stations.

The BBC’s headquarters would have been a bunker at the Engineering Training Department at Wood Norton in Worcestershire, where 90 BBC staff would have been assembled, including engineers, announcers, 12 news editors and sub-editors and ominously “two nominations from Religious Broadcasting”. Output would have been controlled by the government.

To keep the public amused during Armageddon, a collection of cassette tapes of old radio programmes including the Goon Show, Just a Minute and Round the Horne, was kept in a grey locker at Wood Norton. It was eventually realised, however, that these were redundant. If there had been a nuclear attack, radios would probably have been dependent on batteries and these would have needed to be conserved for news and important announcements.[…]

[Continue reading…]

Oh how I would love to read a copy of the “War Book”–! I hope, at some point, the BBC adds it to their online archives. Last year, we published a post with the actual statement the BBC would have broadcast in the event of a nuclear exchange. Click here to read the post.

Update: Cold War Clandestine Radio from Greece

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Saturday, I published a post referencing Cold War Clandestine Radio from Greece with links to Richard Cummings’ excellent website Cold War Radio Vignettes.

My post was written some time earlier and scheduled to publish Saturday while I was traveling. Unfortunately, the Cold War Radio Vignettes articles I had linked to were removed prior to Saturday.

I contacted Richard Cummings who has kindly assembled a small PDF booklet with the text from all of the posts I had referenced and is allowing me to share it here on the SWLing Post.

Richard asks that if any Post readers have information about these clandestine broadcasts and is willing to share it with him, he would me most thankful. His contact information is on the front page of the PDF.

Click here to download the PDF booklet.

Again, many thanks to Richard Cummings for making this free PDF booklet available to us!