A closer look at Radio Earth and the path to WRMI

Jeff:    In our historical feature on April 7^th about shortwave broadcasting in the U.S. state of Texas, we mentioned at the end that KCBI broadcast a delayed relay of the early DX program from Adventist World Radio in Poona, India.  The program title at the time was “Radio Monitors International”, the AWR studios were located in suburban Poona, and the broadcast from station KCBI was on the air under the auspices of Radio Earth for a few weeks in October 1985.

Radio Earth QSL

 It occurred to us that we have never done a feature on Radio Earth, and that it's a very interesting story that really deserves to be told because in part, it’s the story of how I first became involved in shortwave radio as anything more than a listener.  In a way, it also charts the path of how I got to where I am today with WRMI.  Ray Robinson in Los Angeles has the background.

 Ray:   Thanks, Jeff.

 The idea for Radio Earth began in 1978 with a conversation between Jeff White and John Beebe, who at the time were both college students in DeKalb, Illinois.  They also both worked part-time as radio news reporters for WNIU-FM in DeKalb.  One day when they were sitting around the newsroom chatting, they discovered they were both shortwave listeners, and John was intrigued by Jeff’s idea of creating a commercial shortwave station.

 They began seriously researching what it would take to start such a station, and enlisted the help of two friends:

·        Michael Poulos, who was a lawyer in Evanston, Illinois, and

·        John Freberg, who was chief engineer at WNIU-FM.

 Over the course of the next five years, they spent thousands of hours researching in public libraries, writing and re-writing reports and proposals, and meeting with many people about advertising, engineering, legal and programming matters that would need to be worked out.

 Their goal was to put a commercial SW station in the Caribbean to broadcast worldwide.  They got verbal permission from Montserrat to put in seven 100 kW transmitters and seven TCI log periodic antennas beamed in different directions.  Then of course they needed to find investors, which proved very difficult.

 

Rudy Espinal, director of the shortwave service of Radio Clarin in the Dominican Republic, joined the Radio Earth team, and he was very helpful in securing an agreement to carry the Radio Earth programming via Radio Clarin’s 50 kW shortwave transmitter in Santo Domingo, to avoid them having to build out their own station in Montserrat before they could even start broadcasting.

 Then in May 1983, Radio Earth was successful in securing advertising contracts from the Curaçao Tourist Bureau and also Holding Company Curaçao, which owns several hotels.  So, they decided to set up a studio on that Dutch-owned island in the southern Caribbean, where they could record their flagship program entitled “The World”, and then ship tapes up to Santo Domingo for broadcast each day (Monday-Saturday) over Radio Clarin’s shortwave transmitter on 11700 kHz.

 Jeff White agreed to go to Curaçao to present the program, but since it would take more than one person to produce a top-quality one-hour show every day, they also persuaded Matt Bell, another former WNIU newsman turned radio producer, to go along.  They sent studio equipment from Chicago to Curaçao, and set it up in the Curaçao Hilton hotel.

 Matt and Jeff ended up co-presenting the show, which consisted of:

·        a variety of feature reports and interviews,

·        segments contributed by David Monson in Europe,

·        a mailbag show on Fridays, and

·        a Saturday communications-oriented segment called “Dialogue”.

 Once the tapes arrived in Santo Domingo, Rudy Espinal inserted up-to-the-minute newscasts and also added a locally-produced regional music program called “This is the Caribbean.”

 At the beginning of each edition of “The World”, they mentioned that Radio Earth was not affiliated with any political or religious organization, and that their funding came entirely from the sale of commercial advertising.

It was a jam-packed hour, and very eclectic, with Jeff and Matt talking informally with the listeners and with each other.  They didn’t read scripts.  They described their philosophy as being simple “people-to-people communication”, to promote understanding, friendship and goodwill.  They tried each day to “present the world to the world”, in a unique, interesting, entertaining and unbiased manner.  The response from shortwave listeners was incredible, but in spite of that, they still had trouble getting and keeping sponsors.

 

At the end of 1983, Radio Earth moved from Radio Clarin to WRNO, “The Rock of New Orleans”, where it was heard on 6185 kHz at 0400 UTC Winter/0300 UTC Summer.  The studios were moved back to the United States, and set up in Miami, with an address of Box 69, Miami, Florida, 33243.

 Unfortunately, during the summer of 1984 they had some disagreements with Joe Costello at WRNO, and ended up moving back to Radio Clarin from Monday 24^th September 1984.  Here’s an off-air audio clip of a very young-sounding Jeff White presenting the start of the mailbag program the previous Friday night, 21^st September 1984, via WRNO.

 So Jeff White relocated for awhile to Santo Domingo to present Radio Earth programs live from that location.  Radio Earth was later carried by KCBI in Texas, WHRI in Indiana, and by a couple of European shortwave stations.

KCBI QSL

 They still wanted to put their own station on the air, and Curaçao was willing to give them both a license and a place to put the station.  But, they were never able to raise enough money to do that.

 To cut a long story short, Jeff left Radio Earth in 1985 to focus on some other shortwave ventures, including Radio Discovery in Santo Domingo.  After that, he moved back to Miami and started freelancing as a news reporter for several other shortwave stations.  He also began brokering airtime on Radio Clarin, KCBI, WHRI and WWCR, which is the back story to the comment referenced in the introduction to this piece today, where it was stated that the AWR RMI program (the forerunner to Wavescan) was heard over station KCBI under the auspices of Radio Earth for a few weeks in October 1985.  Jeff had helped place that program on KCBI.

 Through his program brokering side-line, Jeff was contacted by some Cuban exile organizations who wanted to broadcast on shortwave to Cuba.  Eventually, he connected with an engineer affiliated with the Cuban American National Foundation, which wanted to start its own shortwave station.  But, they had problems getting a license, so they asked the engineer and Jeff to try making a joint application to the FCC, which was successful, and that became the original WRMI in Hialeah, about 5 miles northwest of downtown Miami.  And we all know what that’s grown into.  The rest, as they say, is history.

 So, way to go, Jeff, on eventually achieving your vision of owning and operating a very successful commercial shortwave radio station!

(QSLs via Teak Publishing QSL Archives)

 

Rare AWR broadcast via Radio Earth in the Dominican Republic

Radio Earth QSL (Gayle Van Horn Collection)

QSL of the Week

Back on December 2, 1984, Antonio Ribeiro da Motta of Sao Luiz do Paraitinga in Brazil heard a broadcast of the old DX program, Radio Monitors International RMI, from Radio Earth in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.  This was in the days when the early DX program RMI was produced in the studios of Adventist World Radio in Poona India AWR-Asia, and by special arrangement, recordings of the program were made available for broadcast in the Americas through the broadcast services of Radio Earth.  

The broadcasts of Radio Monitors International were on the air from Radio Clarin in the Dominican Republic for only a short period of time and Antonio heard this broadcast on 11700 kHz.  The QSL card he received was the familiar multiple entry QSL card, black print on yellow card stock, that was in use at AWR-Asia in those days.  This QSL card was signed by Violet Peterson, the wife of the program host for Radio Monitors International.  This QSL card was rubber stamped and endorsed as the first reception report from South America. 

            As time went by, the 50 kW shortwave transmitter at Radio Clarin became the first main transmitter for Radio Miami International, WRMI in Hialeah, Florida.

(AWR Wavescan/NWS 362)

AWR Wavescan's tribute to WRMI

Tribute to the Old WRMI. The noted shortwave station WRMI in Miami Florida is currently celebrating its 20th birthday.

And as a birthday gift to honor the occasion, the station will be closed down and silenced forever!

It was on November 11, 1993, just 20 years ago, that the first test broadcast was made from a temporary 400 watt transmitter on 9955 kHz. But, the WRMI story goes way back before that.

Back 10 years earlier, that is 30 years ago, the first broadcast of what was called Radio Earth was made over shortwave station Radio Clarin in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic with 50 kW on 11700 kHz on Wednesday June 1, 1983. At the time, Radio Earth was a newly formed agency for program production on shortwave stations, with the young Jeff White as one of its active partners. Radio Earth had syndicated its programming on several shortwave stations in the United States, including WRNO, WHRI, the
previous KCBI near Dallas Texas, and Radio Milano in Italy.

Three years later, some of the Radio Earth partners started Radio Discovery, a small shortwave station in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Radio Discovery gave way in 1989 to Radio Miami International
which was at first also a brokerage service for shortwave programming. However, tentative plans were already under way for their own shortwave station, and this is how it happened.

In 1985, a 5 kW shortwave transmitter was procured for intended installation on the island of Curacao in the Caribbean. This transmitter was made by the Technical Materiel Corporation in Mamaroneck, New York,
and it is similar to the shortwave transmitters that were on the air in earlier times at the chronohertz stations CHU in Ottawa Canada and WWV near Boulder in Colorado. This TMC transmitter was shipped to Iowa for modification.

Later on, Radio Discovery made a series of preliminary test transmissions from Santa Domingo with just 50 watts on 6245 and 15045 kHz, in mid March 1986. A request for the callsign HRVC had been lodged with the licensing authorities in Santo Domingo, but it was never implemented.

When the Curacao project did not work out, the concept was changed to Miami in Florida instead to Radio Miami International. Initial test broadcasts were made from an old military transmitter, model number T368,
similar to one that was in use as a standby unit at WRNO in New Orleans. The WRMI test broadcasts began from their new transmitter building near Miami with 400 watts on their standard frequency, 9955 kHz, on November 11, 1993.

In the meantime, Radio Miami International had procured the 50 kW transmitter from Radio Clarin in the Dominican Republic, which had undergone earlier test transmissions in Santo Domingo. The transmitter was
sold, transferred, refurbished and installed in the new transmitter building in North Miami.

The first test broadcasts from the newly installed 50 kW Wilkinson transmitter went on the air on Friday April 1, 1994. This was an open carrier beamed on South America; and audio tests began a few days later. A schedule of regular programming was inaugurated on 9955 kHz on June 14, 1994 at 0100 UTC.

The antenna system at WRMI is a unique though very reliable corner reflector at 160 degrees, beamed on the Caribbean and South America. The prime frequency has been 9955 kHz, though in earlier times, three
different channels in the 7 MHz band have been in use, as well as 15725 kHz in the 19 m band.

The programming from shortwave WRMI has usually been in English and Spanish, with at times a relay of programming from other shortwave services, including for example, Radio Prague in the Czech Republic and
Radio Desanm in Haiti. When WRMI took a satellite relay from the World Radio Net WRN in England, many different international radio stations have been heard via WRMI, including Radio Australia, NHK Tokyo in Japan, and China Radio International in Beijing.

We might also add, that the AWR DX programs have been on the air via Radio Earth, Radio Discovery and WRMI since way back in 1984. At the time, the program title was "Radio Monitors International" and the broadcasts were recorded in the Poona (Pune) studios of Adventist World Radio.

Beginning in 1993, much of the programming from Miami's WRMI was heard on delayed relay via the 1 kW Radio Copan Internacional in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. When the transmitter was shut down two years later for maintenance and modification, that station never returned to the air on shortwave.

Radio Miami International WRMI has been a very reliable verifier, and the Indianapolis Heritage Collection holds more than 100 cards in many different designs.

And so, after all these many years of splendid service, shortwave station WRMI in Miami is closing for ever at the end of this month, and right around the time of its 20th birthday. The first test broadcast was on
November 11, 1993, and the station is going silent twenty years later, on November 30, 2013.

Ah, but as you know, that is not the end of the story. Beginning on December 1, the new and much larger WRMI takes to the air from Okeechobee in lower central Florida. You will hear more about that here in Wavescan next week.
Adrian Peterson-USA, AWR
(Wavescan via SW TXsite Nov 24)
(WWDXC/Top Nx 1139)