I wrote to all the Commie stations, I may still have a dossier. At least I didn't enter any of the essay contests.
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US Domestic Shortwave
- Thread starter Radig
- Start date
You're about the same age I am. I got all sorts of stuff over the years from international shortwave broadcasters. In 1967, I entered a Radio Moscow quiz contest which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. Got back a big packet of goodies, including a Krugozor magazine, complete with its "flexidisk" records (I still have this.) I declined to make any use of the Lenin lapel pin, however.
I always figured, even as a kid, that I had an FBI file due to all the mailings I received from "unfriendly" countries, especially during the J. Edgar Hoover days. Never bothered me, I had nothing to hide...and I also knew what was what and who was who, and what to trust or be cynical about.
The station did indeed call themselves "Radio Peking" during the 1960's and 70's, as the Chinese government usually went with the old Wade-Giles transliterations in those days. The on-air name was changed to Radio Beijing around 1983 when the newer Hanyu Pinyin translations became commonplace. The current "China Radio International" moniker was adopted about a decade later.
Same here regarding the Red broadcasters, QSLed every one I heard, from Albania to Yugoslavia. The only European that eluded me was Poland.
I won a letter-writing contest on Radio Canada International, and quizzes on Radio Bucharest and Austrian Radio. My prizes were, in order, three Canadian record albums, a colorful kerchief, and a board game about the United Nations that I never played because everything in it was written in German.
I used to list to WNYW all the time on my Knight-kit SW receiver, it was a great station!
WNYW shortwave was owned by Bonneville. The station had previously been WRUL, dating back to the 1930's. The transmitters were moved from Massachusetts to Florida in several phases following the 1973 sale to Family Radio, and additional units were added later. The station is now WRMI, and apparently a couple of the old transmitters from the Scituate era are still in use.
Did you get to hear Joe Adamov announce you as a winner, or even answer a question for you? I was thrilled beyond belief when Earl Fisher read my winning letter in its entirety on "Listeners' Corner" on R. Canada! Getting a mention from the iconic Adamov would have been the ultimate!
I of course didn't win the contest (first prize was a trip to the USSR) but my package was the "thanks for entering" consolation, I guess. I do remember Joe Adamov...now I have the "Moscow Mailbag" theme running through my head...
For decades, those of us outside the US got "News in Special English" which was a slower delivery of the news with a very limited vocabulary without idiomatic expressions, neologisms, acronyms and the like.
Music shows tended, for some reason, to feature music they thought was "American" which seemed to mean a lot of jazz.
Many if not most of the shows that were not news broadcasts were also offered on tape to local radio stations in nations that had private radio stations. I recall, after refusing that stuff over and over from the local USIS office in Ecuador, getting a call from the U.S. Ambassador asking to run some of the shows, resulting in my polite but firm refusal and a statement that Top 40 stations don't run talk shows from any source.
Jazz was, and still is, much more widely appreciated in Eastern Europe than here. I recall Radio Moscow occasionally playing jazz by Soviet performers as well as Soviet pop music, but most of the other Soviet Bloc broadcasters stuck to their nations' folk music. I remember that Radio Prague had a folk program with the title of "Music for Your Tape Recorder," and yes, some of it actually wound up going through mine.
IIRC "Special English" had about 850 words in its vocabulary, all enunciated very clearly. VOA had quite a few newscasts in SE, in addition to "regular" English.
The Voice of America Jazz Hour was arguably the most popular show on VOA, especially behind the Iron Curtain. Hosted for decades by Willis Conover, who also spoke in a slow, Special English, and his deep voice helped comprehension.
Many international broadcasters offered what they called "transcription programs" on tape and even vinyl records back in the day.
Yes, 1983 was the year when I started listening to shortwave radio.
Yep. "Get ready to record in three...two...one...now!!"
Radio Prague was actually the most enjoyable of the Eastern European broadcasters. And in the "Prague Spring" of 1968 it was amazing to hear its freedom of expression that was unknown in other Soviet bloc countries. That freedom came to an end with the August 1968 Soviet invasion.
Deutche Welle had a 20-minute program of "actuality news for American radio" called "News Feed" that went out in the afternoon (Eastern time) on shortwave -- short news items and features about West Germany, with out-cues and countdowns included. Armed Forces Radio had a similar feature called "Hometown U.S.A.," which consisted of brief newscasts from local AM stations around the U.S., presumably to be recorded and played for soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen hungry for programming that would provide a connection to the hometowns they missed so much.
My second independent FM in Quito (and 5th FM overall) did Classical from 5 PM to midnight, but during the daytime we ran paid programming consisting of time bought by a number of embassies to run transcribed shows from their country done by their shortwave station. They included shows from France, Germany, England, Italy, Spain, Colombia and the USSR. The US Embassy did not have a budget for that, so no VOA shows.
K
kenglish
Guest
Did anyone have the Drake receiver, with the WNYW logo on the front?
Universal Radio used to have a source for "after market" front panels for vintage receivers. I tried to get them interested in making a "WNYW" version. I was going to put it next to the six-foot, framed oil painting of Arch Madsen and move it to the lobby. The folks upstairs were complaining about where it was, looking out over their cubicles.
Arch helped create that one, with the RL Drake engineers.
K
kenglish
Guest
I believe I'm still a member of the BBC Pop Club, with Cliff Richard. (They never asked for my card back 😉 ).
What other memberships and on-air clubs were you guys in?
What other memberships and on-air clubs were you guys in?
I was part of the Happy Station Show's pen pal club.
Arch was a marvelous individual and a good friend. I met him, as I believe I mentioned previously, when I was the main organizer of the Interamerican Association of Broadcasters convention in Ecuador in, IIRC, 1968.
After the convention, my wife and I drove Arch and his wife to visit Santo Domingo de los Colorados in the western foothills of the Andes. We then did some drives around Quito, and visited some of our favorite restaurants. Over the next years, we were in contact occasionally but I never got to visit Arch in Salt Lake City.
A fine gentleman.
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