Special thanks to Ray Robinson and Jeff White for sharing this week's Wavescan feature on Barbados
Jeff: If you were a shortwave broadcast DXer back in the 50’s, 60’s or 70’s, Barbados was probably on your want list. Most people know that Barbados is in the group of islands known collectively as the West Indies, but where exactly? Here’s Ray Robinson to tell us more.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. Most of the islands in the West Indies form an arc running from north to south down the eastern edge of the Caribbean, separating the Caribbean from the Atlantic. Well, if you go about two-thirds down that arc, and then eastward out into the Atlantic just over 100 miles, there you will find Barbados, all on its own.
It’s a small, roughly triangular-shaped island, just 21 miles long (north to south) and 14 miles wide, with a relatively flat, undulating landscape, though there is one hilly area known as Scotland District in the north central part of the island, with the highest point being Mount Hillaby at 1120 feet. The island is surrounded by 56 miles of coral reefs just offshore. Barbados has a tropical monsoon climate, and yet has no rivers or lakes. All drinking water is collected from underground springs and the aquifer.
Barbados has been an independent country, separate from the United Kingdom and a member of the United Nations, since 1966. Its capital, Bridgetown, is located in the south west corner of the island, containing about one third of the country’s 280,000 inhabitants. As such, it is one of the world’s most densely populated islands. 90% of all Barbadians, known locally as Bajans, are of black Afro-Caribbean ancestry, with the remainder being mostly Europeans from the UK, plus a handful of Portuguese, Irish, Germans and Italians. There are also a few Asians from Hong Kong and India, but they make up less than 1% of the population. Notably, Bridgetown is home to one of the oldest Jewish synagogues in the Americas, dating from 1654.
English is the only official language of the country, which is used for communications, administration and public services all over the island, although the language of everyday life is the primarily oral Bajan Creole, which lacks a standardized written form.
An undersea telegraph cable first reached Barbados in 1872. It was in 1912 that an Anglo-French company first announced plans to establish a wireless station on Barbados, but soon afterwards they withdrew their offer. Then, the following year in 1913, the Marconi company in England announced their plans to establish a wireless station on the island, though likewise, this project was never implemented either.
Consequently, a group of local wireless enthusiasts took the matter in hand and constructed their own wireless station, which was installed at St. Ann’s Fort. This station was made up of a spark transmitter and a crystal receiver and it adopted the internationally recognized callsign VPO. It is understood that V was a prefix for Barbados, and PO stood for Post Office as in the system in use in England. With this primitive equipment, operators were able to communicate in Morse Code with ships up to 100 miles out at sea.
In the early 1920’s, a new wireless station was installed adjacent to the Dover Beach cable station and it was constructed by the American RCA company according to British Post Office specifications. This new communication station was inaugurated on December 1, 1924, under the same original callsign VPO.
Then in 1943, a complete new radio communication station was constructed at a place called Bearded Hall, in the south-central part of the island. The electronic equipment for this new station was assembled at the Marconi factory in England and it was originally planned for installation in Singapore, as a replacement for equipment that was lost when a ship was sunk by enemy action in 1940.
However, when Singapore fell to the Japanese in February 1942, that new consignment of equipment was diverted to Barbados instead. And so the large new station with a transmitter hall and several towers supporting multiple antennas was constructed in 1943 and inaugurated early in 1944, still under the same callsign VPO.
Five years later, in 1949, a new callsign was allocated for this Barbadian station and VPO became ZNX. Then, at the time of independence in 1966, another callsign was allocated and ZNX became 8PO.
But back in 1934 and 35, absent any local broadcasting service, a Barbadian amateur operator, Thomas A. Archer, VP6YB, began transmitting the results of cricket test matches on 7022 kHz primarily for the benefit not just of local listeners, but listeners in Jamaica, Trinidad and other Caribbean islands as well.
Perhaps in response to that, the first radio program service in Barbados was installed in 1935 as a Rediffusion system, or cable radio as we would call it today. The first subscriber was connected on April 2, and with no local studio, all programming consisted of relays of shortwave transmissions from the BBC in London and commercially operated stations in the United States and Canada.
Five hours of daily programming was initially available on the cable radio system from the distribution point of Radio Distribution (Barbados) Ltd in Trafalgar Street.
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| The first location of Redifusion in Bridgetown was Trafalgar Street, 1947 |
A local production studio was installed in 1947, and in 1951 the system was bought by the Rediffusion Service Ltd of London, England. In the 1950’s and 60’s, it was a common sight to see a Rediffusion speaker box hanging in the corner of the front room of a Barbadian home.
Programming had been expanded to cover 6am – 12 midnight, and as well as many locally-produced shows, they also included popular comedy shows from the BBC such as The Clitheroe Kid, The Goon Show and The Navy Lark, and panel shows like ‘Just a Minute’ and ‘My Word’.
Local Barbadian religious leaders were given their own time slots, and programs like Billy Graham’s ‘Hour of Decision’, Herbert W. Armstrong’s ‘The World Tomorrow’ and the Church of the Nazarene’s ‘Showers of Blessing’ were also carried from the USA. Interestingly, cable radio in Barbados didn’t come to an end until November 30, 1997, by which time local radio and TV had supplanted the usefulness of this older system.
Medium wave radio broadcasting was introduced into Barbados when the government set up the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation, or CBC (not to be confused with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). On December 15, 1963 the CBC launched Radio Barbados, with 10 kW on the split channel 785 kHz. The station ID during that early era was: “This is Radio Barbados, the Voice of the Eastern Caribbean, 785 on your radio dial.” Sometimes though, the channel was announced as 790. The transmitter and antenna tower were installed together with the Cable & Wireless communication station ZNX at Bearded Hall. Upon independence in 1966, this station was assigned the Barbadian call 8PX, and around eight years after its inauguration, the frequency was changed from 785 to 900 kHz.
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| CBC Headquarters |
A second medium wave station was launched in Barbados on May 1, 1981 using the slogan ‘The Voice of Barbados’. This station, also with 10 kW (which was more than enough to cover the small island), took over the previous channel of the government station, 790 kHz, and it was owned and operated by the previously mentioned cable radio system, using pretty much the same schedule and program content. Today, this station, the Voice of Barbados, is still operating on 92.9 FM and online, and last year, 2025, they were celebrating 90 years since the launch of their Rediffusion service.
But what’s the story about shortwave radio from Barbados? Well, as I mentioned earlier, shortwave broadcasting began in 1934 when amateur radio operator Thomas Archer carried live descriptions of major sporting events on behalf of the Barbados Radio Association over his station VP6YB. These occasional and intermittent program broadcasts were last noted in the United States in December 1939.
However, soon afterwards, from 1940 until the end of the war, the shortwave communication station operated by Cable & Wireless, VPO, introduced a daily half-hour news bulletin which was heard at a good level with 5 kW on 3950 kHz. After the war, this station continued to broadcast occasional special news events to the BBC in London on 11475 kHz. In addition, occasional commentaries on major sporting events, mainly cricket, tennis and horse racing, were broadcast for reception and relay by radio stations on other islands throughout the Caribbean.
These occasional special events were heard quite widely over VPO and subsequently ZNX until well into the 1960’s, with listings included in the World Radio Handbook for most years from 1952-1965. In 1962, ZNX was known to be using 5040 and 7547 kHz for these program broadcasts.
Many reception reports were received from listeners in North America, Europe, New Zealand and Australia. Cable & Wireless was noted as a good verifier of transmissions from their station under all three consecutive callsigns; VPO, ZNX & 8PO. Letters were used to verify programming under the callsign VPO. Under the subsequent callsign ZNX, QSL cards were initially in the style of duplicated cards; and then in the mid-1960’s, a printed QSL card with a yellow ornamental bar was introduced.
It’s understood that in the 1980’s, several religious organizations approached Cable & Wireless, enquiring about the possibility of using shortwave 8PO as a relay station for their programming. However, nothing came of those ventures.
These days, of course, most radio broadcasting in Barbados is on FM with about 20 stations, including a BBC World Service relay on 92.1 MHz. But the good news is, if Barbados is still on your want list, CBC Radio Barbados, 8PX, is still broadcasting with 10 kW on 900 kHz medium wave, in parallel with their main FM station on 94.7 MHz. So, maybe it’s time to brush the dust off your old medium wave loop antenna and get hunting! On the same frequency, 900 kHz, there is a 100 kW station in Mexico City and a 50 kW station in Minneapolis, but with a good loop, you might just be able to null those out.
Back to you, Jeff.
(Ray Robinson, Wavescan)
