Enjoy this very witty and accurate take on the history of the BBC World Service:
Adam Long of the Reduced Shakespeare Company wrote this, the Reduced History of the BBC World Service, to celebrate the World Service’s 80th anniversary. It was a special commission for the BBC Newshour debate on the future of global broadcasting broadcast 29th February.
(photo: BBC World Service)
An Antarctic glaciologist, Burmese monk, communications professor and a Somalian tell their shortwave radio stories in this article posted by the BBC World Service in honor of 80 years of shortwave radio broadcasts. In my opinion, these stories are very much representative of the power of shortwave radio and why, for many parts of the world, it is still vital. Though this article focuses on a look into the past, there are still many parts of the world that have no access to the internet, nor reliable electricity and/or their people live under repressive regimes. Shortwave radio offers a lifeline of information. Shortwave listening habits are not traceable or trackable (like they are over the internet) by those in power. The story below, by a Burmese monk, could stand as an example.
(Source: BBC World Service)
[…]The BBC has been an integral part of my life for over two decades now – I believe I haven’t missed a single transmission in all those years. I even kept a diary of all broadcasts from 1988 to 2003, recording all new staff who joined in those years and their first ever broadcast.
I started listening to the BBC Burmese Service in 1988 when the whole country rose up against one-party rule.I was living in western Burma’s Rakhine State, teaching Buddhist scripture to the student monks. I was fascinated by the BBC’s coverage of the news and was much impressed that the news I heard on BBC turned out to be exactly what was happening in the country.
I was a well-informed and knowledgeable monk, partly because of the BBC. The BBC, because of its reporting on Burma, was much hated by the military authorities and people had to secretly listen to it within their own homes. But luckily for me, I had my own monastery then and could listen to the broadcasts relatively undisturbed.
Then I left for India for further studies but continued to listen. On my return to Burma, I moved to Rangoon, the then capital and stayed at a monastery on the suburbs of the city. Rangoon was a hotbed of activism against military rule and the military government openly practised a “divide and rule” policy. People were suspicious of each other and that distrust spread to the monasteries as well.
The other monks in the monastery disapproved of my listening to the BBC, because they feared government reprisals, and some even said I was an “informer” providing information to foreign broadcasters. They dubbed me a “reporter monk”.
I took more precautions but never stopped listening. I would take my transistor radio and go outside to the farthest corner of the monastery compound, away from other monks, at the times of the broadcasts.
Every day I learned something from the radio. My morning teaching lessons start only after the BBC morning programme and I do my nightly prayer after the evening programme.
My radio is set at the frequencies on which the BBC Burmese broadcasts and I usually tune in a few minutes before the programme starts. I don’t want to miss anything. When the weather is bad, it takes more dedicated effort to tune into the shortwave signal, but I don’t mind that.
Some people frown on monks listening to the BBC. But I believe my life is enriched by it. The BBC has become a very important part of my life and I will continue listening to it until the end of my life. As Buddha has taught, we living beings must face the truth and bring about the truth. I believe the BBC is earning this merit every day by sharing the truth with millions of listeners.[…]
Read the BBC World Service article in its entirety here. I have filed this article under our ever-growing tag “Why Shortwave Radio?”
BBC World Service - Bush House
(Source: BBC World Service)
BBC World Service brings you a special day of programming on 29 February to celebrate 80 years of international radio broadcasting.
We’ll begin the day with a live broadcast of the daily news meeting– which usually takes place behind closed doors – a meeting of all the language service and English news heads who decide the day’s news agenda.
Other highlights include an audience with naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough; writer VS Naipaul will be talking about his time at BBC World Service with the Caribbean service and music producer William Orbit will be guest editing our arts programme, The Strand.
Listen out for topics such as entrepreneurship in Africa, the future of international broadcasting, and the amazing abilities of an athlete’s body.
Throughout the day, you’ll be able to watch video clips of guests and staff around our current headquarters, Bush House.
We’ll also be asking you to put questions to guests and BBC World Service staff via clickFacebook, so join us if you can.
clickFor full details of Bush House Inside Out, check out the schedule.
I just stumbled upon this fascinating history of the CIA Foreign Broadcast Information Service and thought SWLing Post readers might enjoy browsing it as well. This is a history of the early, pre-CIA, years of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service. It was published with a classification of “Confidential” in 1969 and fully released to the public by the CIA’s Historical Declassification Division in 2009.
Click here to go to the CIA website, or download each chapter via links below:
Ken Reitz, Features Editor for Monitoring Times magazine, has published a new eBook called, “Profiles in Amateur Radio.” It features stories and biographies from a lengthy list of radio personalities/figures (including yours truly!). A common theme in many of these personal radio histories is an interest in amateur radio that was built on a foundation of shortwave radio listening.
PRESS RELEASE
February 3, 2012
Profiles in Amateur Radio
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
A new Kindle e-book now available at the link below
“Profiles in Amateur Radio” is a collection of nineteen articles taken from the First Person Radio series that appeared over the last three years in Monitoring Times, a national monthly magazine about all things radio, now in its 32nd year. It’s a three part look at the inspirational life stories as told in the words of those on whom shortwave and amateur radio has had a lifelong impact. The book is edited by Ken Reitz KS4ZR, a freelance writer since 1988, Features Editor for Monitoring Times, and author of the Communications and Beginner’s Corner columns which appear monthly in the magazine.
Profiles in Amateur Radio Table of Contents
Dave Bronstetter hosting All In A Weekend at the CBC studio in Montreal. (photo: CBC)
I believe it was in the fall of 2007 that I first tuned to the enlightening CBC Montreal program, All In A Weekend, with host David Bronstetter. Unlike listeners in Montreal, or anywhere in the province of Quebec, for that matter, I didn’t hear the show on FM radio, nor streaming over the internet–it was on a shortwave radio.
You see, each Saturday and Sunday morning at 7:00 EST (12:00 UTC) Radio Canada International turns on a shortwave transmitter at their Sackville, New Brunswick site, and broadcasts CBC Radio One Montreal programming on 9,625 kHz for North Quebec. They’ve done this for years. That means that many of us south of the Canadian border can catch the “back side” of this broad signal quite easily.
When I first heard All in A Weekend, I was favorably impressed by the program’s host, Dave Bronstetter. When I landed on his voice the first time, he was in the middle of an interview, and even in that brief interval of tuning I could tell that this was an insightful interviewer. Returning to hear the following half-hour segments of the show, I learned that his keen intelligence was manifest not only in intimate, articulate, and adaptive interviews with his guests, but also in an absurd wit.
In short, I was hooked.
From that day forward, I joined thousands of Quebec listeners, right here from my home in the southern US, as we tuned in All In A Weekend. Dave and his Montreal crew became my weekend morning coffee companions.
Dave chats with host Sonali Karnick, Elias Abboud, and Nancy Wood. (source: CBC Radio One)
In my many years of listening to radio, I’ve heard hundreds of hosts from around the world, but this guy stood apart. Dave Bronstetter’s hosting was fueled by a quick wit, which he wove into his interviews with an eloquence that would make any comic green with envy. Moreover, this fun, catch-’em off-guard approach resulted in better interviews with his diverse guests, all excellent listening, such as with famous jazz photographer Herman Leonard, singer Emilie-Claire Barlow (and many other Canadian artists like her, whom I’ve since learned to appreciate), and a stand-out interview with a Palestinian that I haven’t forgotten, nor am likely to.
And more than once, while reporting weather, in the midst of listing all the towns and cities across the vast province of Quebec, Dave slyly inserted the tiny town where I then lived. This always made me start, and brought a chuckle. Of course, I couldn’t help thinking that this caught the attention of many other listeners, too, but leaving them scratching their noggins–Sylva, Quebec? Where on earth’s that–?
Radio Canada International's Sackville, New Brunswick shortwave transmitter site. (photo: Wikimedia Commons)
How could Dave have known about Sylva? Well, he interacted with his listeners, and I was no exception. It didn’t matter if listeners were sending him a compliment or complaining about the fact that he was reading off the wind speed in Baie-Comeau and Kuujjuaq, he paid attention. I would dash off an email to request songs, play along with his contests, or brag about our lovely Southern-states weather when Montreal was having a brutally chilly day. Many of my emails were sarcastic, and Dave’s rebuttals, two-fold.
Once, Dave actually made a call to my home in Sylva and interviewed me on the air. A couple of days prior to the interview, he called to ask my permission and to, well, just chat. We probably talked for an hour–even in that casual conversation, I noted his interviewing talent: I felt like I was talking with an old friend, one who understood me and appreciated my offbeat sense of humor.
Many times while listening to All in a Weekend, I reflected, this is what I love about radio. The footprint is vast–it jumps national borders with ease, and offers an instant level of interaction that’s hard to replicate even in our internet-driven age.
To my dismay, Dave recently announced that he was retiring after 33 years with the CBC. Last Saturday’s show was his last.
At least, so he says.
Regardless, I can tell you this: I will miss my buddy, Dave Bronstetter, on the air. I know of no replacement, and I can only imagine how difficult it may be for the charming Sonali Karnick to follow his tough act. I hope it will be by carving her own unique personality into the show. That’s what gave the unassuming All In A Weekend its moxie in the first place, and drew me in regularly to listen.
My hat’s off to you, Dave; may you enjoy whatever you do going forward. You are unquestionably one of a kind. And please–keep in touch!
Want to hear what the send-off broadcast All In A Weekend sounded like on shortwave radio? Try this:
If you visit Google’s home page today, you’ll notice that their typical logo has been replaced with an animation of an undulating, multi-colored wave.
If you click on the wave, you’ll be taken to sites telling the story of Heinrich Rudolf Hertz.
We should all take a moment today to thank Hertz for his contribution to the radio spectrum. Indeed, it was Hertz who showed that electricity could be transmitted via electromagnetic waves. This laid the groundwork for developing wireless telegraph and radio. In the 1930’s the International Electrotechnical Commission decided that Hertz’s name would become the unit of frequency for our electromagnetic spectrum–the hertz (Hz)–about four decades after the his death.
To read the story of Hertz, I would suggest browsing his Wikipedia entry.
If you missed seeing the Google Doodle animation, check out the video below:
This isn’t the first time Google has honored an influential innovator in our radio world, a few years ago we posted their Google Doodle tribute to Samuel Morse.
