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The Levant Fair, Tel
Aviv, 1932 |
Thank you to Jeff White and Ray Robinson for sharing the latest Wavescan script to our readers.
Jeff: On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was proclaimed. This meant that after a 2,000-year interruption, there was once again a Jewish state. The area where the State of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Autonomous Territory now lie had been a British mandate since the early 1920s. The League of Nations - the forerunner of the United Nations - entrusted this area to Great Britain for temporary administration. Until World War I, under the Ottoman Empire, the territory had been a domain of the Sultan of Constantinople. In the early 1930s, the first radios became available for sale in shops in the British Mandate in the Middle East. During the day, the medium wave transmitter in Cairo or various short wave stations could be received. In the evening, the whole of Europe could be heard on medium wave. But what about broadcasting from within the territory itself? Here’s Ray Robinson with the story.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. On April 7, 1932, during the Levant Fair in Tel Aviv, Mendel Abramovich put the first radio station in operation in the area of what would later become the State of Israel. Abramovich had previously received the relevant authorization from the British Mandate administration. The first broadcast of "Radio Tel Aviv" consisted of a speech by Mendel Abramovich and a speech by Me'ir Dizengoff, the mayor of Tel Aviv. At that time in 1932, a total of 675 radio receivers were registered. Radio Tel Aviv continued to broadcast for three years - until April 1935.
Then, in 1936, the British set up the first permanent radio station in the Middle East – the Palestine Broadcasting Service, or PBS. It first went on the air on March 30, 1936.
The studio and transmitter were located in Ramallah, 15 miles north of Jerusalem. The PBS transmitter operated with 20 kW on the medium wave frequency 668 kHz
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Original PBS
Transmitter Site Ramallah |
However, no sooner had PBS moved into the building than it became the object of a terrorist bomb attack in early August 1939 during the broadcast of the Children’s Hour. Two employees, a South African announcer and a Christian Arab engineer were badly injured, and both later died in hospital. Often there were children in the studio as guests during the Children’s Hour, but fortunately none had been present on that occasion.
As a result of the bomb attack, the Jerusalem station was temporarily put out of action. Determined to continue, the staff decided to revert to the Ramallah station for the evening broadcast, and because of the fear of being ambushed on the way, the announcers and artists taking part in the programs were taken to Ramallah in armored cars.
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| Broadcasting House Jerusalem, 1939 |
The station soon returned to Jerusalem, and it was from there on PBS on 668 kHz that the Australia Calling programs were rebroadcast in 1940/41, that we told you about last week.
At the end of the 1930’s/beginning of the 1940’s, various Jewish underground organizations also started operating their own unlicensed stations. On May 13, 1940, Kol Israel, the radio station of the Haganah, went on the air. “Haganáh” means “protection” or “defense” and it was the name of the Jewish underground army. With the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, Haganah was absorbed into the Israeli army as “Tsva haganáh le Jisra'él” or, “Israeli Defense Forces”. But in the early 40’s, Haganah was active with its Kol Israel on shortwave in the 42-meter band. Many of the Kol Israel volunteers were also employees of PBS.
In 1942, the British Mandate Palestine Broadcasting Service received a second transmitter and was thus able to broadcast two programs:
PBS 1 moved from 668 to 677 kHz / 443 metres, with 20 kW, still using the callsign ZJM, and the new
PBS 2 opened on 574 kHz / 522 metres, also with 20 kW, using the callsign ZJM2
PBS 1 broadcast in English and Arabic; PBS2 broadcast in English and Hebrew. The very first edition of the World Radio Handbook in 1947 tells us that in English, the station identified as “This is Jerusalem calling on 443 and 522 metres.”
In the following year, 1943, the British Army opened another station in Jerusalem for the Middle East Section of the British Forces Broadcasting Service. It went on the air with the call sign "JCPA" on medium wave 950 kHz. The studios were located on Mount Zion in East Jerusalem on the border of the Old City, in the building of St. Peter's Hospice. The BFBS medium wave transmitter was located south of the Old City in Beit Jalah, and it later switched from 950 to 1391 kHz. Also, a second station on 7220 kHz shortwave was added for British troops in India using the callsign JCKW with 7.5 kW. With British Forces deployed throughout the Holy Land, by the mid-40’s, BFBS had also put other medium wave transmitters into operation in Haifa on the northern Mediterranean coast, in Ramleh just outside Tel Aviv, in Kastina east of Ashdod on the southern coast, and in Gaza in the far south. Whether that one was co-sited with ABC Gaza is not known.
The British government also set up an Arabic-language station called Mahatát Sharq al Adna (which means Middle East Radio Station), broadcasting on shortwave. The studios were in Jaffa, now a district in south Tel Aviv. On May 14, 1948, when the British Mandate of Palestine expired, Sharq al Adna was moved to Limassol, Cyprus, where it continued to broadcast until the Suez Crisis in 1956. Then the British authorities closed the station and the transmitters were transferred to the BBC's East Mediterranean Relay Station. Not much is known about Sharq al Adna, though, as the British government has not released many documents or records.
As the British Mandate over Palestine was set to expire on May 14, 1948, the PBS staff began to prepare for the impending closure of the institution.
On November 30, 1947, a battle broke out between the Jewish and Arab inhabitants of Jerusalem for control of the Holy City. It ended on June 11, 1948 with the division. Jordan seized East Jerusalem, including the Old City with its religious sites (Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Wailing Wall), while West Jerusalem remained under Jewish control. Until the Six-Day War of 1967, Jerusalem was a city torn apart by walls and barbed wire. During the battle in 1947/48, the predominantly Jewish districts in West Jerusalem were surrounded by Arab troops, which led to a serious supply crisis. Jordanian troops blew up the ancient Jewish quarter in the Old City.
During the ensuing siege of Jerusalem, a battle also took place on the airwaves. The Jordanian “Radio Amman” gloated that the Jews in Jerusalem were eating leaves like ducks and geese, and the Jewish “Kol ha Magén” (Radio Shield), another station run by Haganah, gave its listeners tips on how to prepare mallow plants in a tasty way. Meanwhile, the official “Kol Jeruschalájim” (Radio Jerusalem), the successor to the Hebrew program of the British PBS 2, continued broadcasting from a school building.
On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the new State of Israel at the Tel Aviv City Museum. That date is also considered to have been the birth of Kol Israel, the official broadcasting organization of the new state. Its first broadcast? The transmission of David Ben-Gurion’s declaration of independence. Kol Israel took over the studio facilities of the British PBS and the underground broadcasters of Haganah, but it didn’t have a transmitter! All the medium wave transmitters in both Ramallah and East Jerusalem were in areas that had been seized by Jordan.
So, due to the lack of medium wave transmitters, from May 1948 until well into 1949, Kol Israel could only be heard on shortwave 6835 kHz, in Hebrew, Arabic and English. The old Haganah transmitters were also networked on shortwave:
In Jerusalem on 8100 kHz,
in Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee (Radio Galilee) on 6990 kHz,
in Tel Aviv on 6950 kHz,
in Haifa (Radio North) on 6500 kHz, and
in the Negev desert (Radio South) on 3800 kHz.
The Jordanian government proceeded to dismantle and remove the second 20 kW medium wave transmitter in Ramallah, the one that had previously been used for the Hebrew broadcasts. The original Arabic & English transmitter was used to relay Jordanian Radio from Amman on 677 kHz – right up until the Six-Day War in 1967.
But, after the War of Independence, the young state of Israel quickly consolidated itself. In October 1949, Israeli radio began broadcasting on two VHF transmitters, making it one of the first countries in the world to do so. Shortly before the Copenhagen Frequency Plan of 1948 came into force on March 15, 1950, Kol Israel began broadcasting on three low power medium wave transmitters:
on 575 and 804 kHz in Jerusalem, and on 652 kHz in Tel Aviv, as well as on two FM channels in each of those cities. Then, in the early 1950’s, a 50 kW medium wave transmitter was installed in Tel Aviv, along with a 50 kW shortwave transmitter that could cover the entire country, as well as be heard by Jews still living in Central Europe.
Interestingly, because the Israeli government agreed on a “status quo” rule, Kol Israel continued broadcasting on Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath. This day of rest begins on Friday at sunset and ends on Saturday at sunset. On Shabbat, all work is forbidden and it is also forbidden to force others to work. But, the “status quo” rule stipulates that violations of Jewish religious laws in secular matters are to be tolerated if they already existed during the British Mandate. And because PBS broadcast on Shabbat in the 30’s and 40’s, Kol Israel still broadcasts on Shabbat to this day. And surprisingly, this rule was further extended to television when that started in Israel too.
Back to you, Jeff.
