Memories of Radio Broadcasting in Portuguese Goa

 

This program originally aired on October 1, 2000

The one-time Portuguese colony of Goa lies on the western coast of India, nearly half way from Bombay to the southern tip of the peninsula.  This small territory was settled by the Portuguese in the year 1510 and was re-incorporated into India in December 1961.

Goa is a fascinating place to visit, with its extended miles of wide ocean beaches, its varied coastal and inland scenery, and its tropical and sub-tropical fruits.  To this day, Goa still exudes a subtle evidence of its earlier European culture, with its Latin-style church architecture, its European style of dress, its Portuguese Konkani music, and the occasional usage of the Portuguese language.

On many occasions, I have visited favored Goa.  I have swum at its beaches, I have jogged the entire 65-mile coastline, I have shopped in its exotic bazaars, I have eaten in its restaurants, and I have visited its radio stations.

It was back on May 28, 1946, that the first experimental radio broadcasts went on the air in old Goa.  This radio program service was broadcast from a 500-watt transmitter operated by the Post & Telegraph Office.  It was on the air for only a short period of time.

A regular broadcasting service was inaugurated in 1949 using a temporary 1 kW. shortwave transmitter in Panjim, the small capital city.  This unit was located at the radio studios of what became Emissora de Goa, on a hill overlooking the city.  The current studios and offices of All India Radio in Goa incorporated the older studio buildings at the same site.

Classic AIR QSL via Goa

During the following year an additional 2.5 kW. A mediumwave transmitter was installed at the studio location, and a country transmitter base was constructed some 6 miles from Panjim.  Over a period of time, two shortwave transmitters and one mediumwave transmitter were installed at this country location.

During the year 1961, a 50 kW. A shortwave transmitter was installed, and this unit made test broadcasts on three different channels, beamed towards Africa, the Persian Gulf, and the Far East.

With the changing winds of fortune, Emissora de Goa finally left the air and closed down forever at 8:00 am on December 18, 1961.  Less than two months later, All India Radio came on the air from the same studios, though with only one transmitter, the 5 kw. mediumwave unit on 880 kHz.

It should be remembered that the first broadcasts in Southern Asia of the familiar AWR program, "Voice of Prophecy," went on the air from station CR8AA, the old Emissora de Goa, in the year 1950.  The half-hour broadcasts of the English language "Voice of Prophecy" were on the air from Goa for two years, though this programming was subsequently transferred to the Commercial Service of Radio Ceylon in Colombo.

So what happened to Emissora de Goa, R. Goa afterwards?  Well, the studios and offices on the hill overlooking Panjim have been rebuilt twice and are in use today by All India Radio.  There is a new shortwave base out in the country containing two transmitters at 250 kw. which are in use for the General Overseas Service of All India Radio.  And what about the old radio base out in the country?  I visited this location many years ago, and all that was left at that time was some wreckage from one of the old buildings and lots of overgrown grass. 

(Adrian Peterson/Wavescan)

Closing Days of Canada's CHU

 

Canada’s Time Signal Station CHU Ottawa to Cease Shortwave Transmissions in June 2026.

On June 22, 2026  the National Research Council Canada, known as the NRC, will permanently discontinue the shortwave broadcasting operations of its official time signal station, CHU.

From that day forward, the familiar frequencies of 3330 kHz, 7850 kHz, and 14,670 kHz will fall silent. For the future, the NRC points matter - of factly to modern alternatives: the Network Time Protocol (NTP) for computers, web-based clocks, and the traditional telephone service.

The history of CHU stretches back an astonishingly long way to an era when radio itself was still in its infancy. It all began in 1923 under the aegis of the Dominion Observatory in Ottawa. The initial experimental broadcasts were transmitted under the call sign 9CC on the longwave band at 275 meters.

Anyone who has not yet sent a reception report to Ottawa should make use of the time remaining until June. The NRC has confirmed that valid reports will continue to be acknowledged with the traditional CHU QSL card. Fittingly, the card features an image of Sir Sandford Fleming, the Canadian railway engineer and "father of worldwide time zones".

Reception reports may be sent via email or, in the classic tradition, via postal mail to:

Radio Station CHU, 1200 Montreal Road, Building M-36, Ottawa, Ontario,

K1A 0R6, Canada, North America.

Email: radio.chu@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

A comprehensive report on this topic, including further details, can be found on the DARC website. www.darc.de

(DARC Deutschland-Rundspruch 21/2026, May 28)

(WWDXC-Top News 1656)

A Sampling of South American Logs on Mediumwave

 Frequency

UTC 

Argentina

540    0216    Radio Nacional, Santa Fe (RG)

840    0053    Radio Salta, Salta (RG)

1070   0136   Radio El Destape, Buenos Aires (RG)

1110   0146   Radio Ciudad, Buenos Aires (RG)

1190   0140   Radio Perfil, Buenos Aires (RG) 

1220   0152   Radio Eco Medios, Buenos Aires (RG)

1230   0157   Radio Dos, Rosario (RG)

1280   0016   Radio Provincia de Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata (RG)

1310   0156   Radio Nacional, Gualeguaychu (RG)

1330   0056   AM 1330, Rosario (RG)

1350   0207   Radio Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires (RG)

1530   0024   Radio Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires (RG) 

Bolivia

1500    0139  Radio Tawantinsuyo, Laja (RG)

1560    0118  Radio Luz del Mundo, la Paz (RG)

1560    0208  Radio Luz del Mundo, la Paz (RG)

Brazil (Portuguese)

1000 Rádio Record, São Paulo, on March 1, 2026, after 97 years of uninterrupted years of radio broadcasting to a large part of the Brazilian territory, officially ended its activity on mediumwave, and following the national program for migrating mediumwave stations to FM, will henceforth operate only on FM 77.1 São Paulo.

550    0232    Rádio Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul (RG)

560    0340    Tua Rádio, Caxias do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul (RG)

590    0136    Rádio Cruzeiro da Bahia, Salvador, Bahia  (RG)

730    1642    Rádio Cidade, Jundial, São Paulo (RG)

810    1603    Rádio Difusora Jundiaiense, Jundial, São Paulo (RG)

820    0033    Rádio Cultura, Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná (RG)

830    0042    Rádio Tropical, Nova Iguaçu,, Rio de Janeiro (RG)

830    1612    Rádio Novo Tempo, Campinas, São Paulo (RG)

870    1622    Rádio Central Campinas, São Paulo (RG)

900    0124    Rádio Difusora Arco-Íris, Araputanga,  Mato Grosso (RG)

960    2331    Rádio Dues e Amor, Aparecida del Goiánia, Goiás (RG)

1010  0301     Rádio Tua Voz, Caixas do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul (RG)

1030  0027     Rádio Difusora, Franca, São Paulo (RG)

1070   1631    Rádio Metropolitana, Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo (RG)

1080   2349    Rádio Aleluia Brasília, Federal District (RG)

1150   2342    Rádio Cabugi do Serido, Jardim do Serido, Rio Grande do Norte (RG)

1260   2334    Rádio Cultura de São  Borja, Rio Grande do Sul (RG)

1290  0113    Rádio Brasil Sul, Londrina, Paraná (RG)

1290   0195   Rádio Novo Tempo, São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo (RG)

1320   0112   Rádio CBN Foz, Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná (RG)

1320   0117   Rádio Sulbrasileira, Panambi, Rio Grande do Sul (RG)

1370   0130   Rádio Mãe de Dues, Caixa do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul

1380   0916   Rádio Cidade, Brazópolis, Mato Grosso (RG)

1410   0200   Rádio Santa Rosa, Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul

1420    0124  Rádio Guarujá, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina (RG)    

1490    0123  Rádio Difusora, Olímpia, São Paulo (RG)

1520   Rede Aleluia, Sorocaba,  São Paulo (RG)

1530    0104   Rádio Sulina, Dom Pedrito, Rio Grande do Sul (RG)

Colombia

570     0115    Radio Nacional, Bogotá (SW)

600   0130   Radio Libertad, Barranquilla (SW)

620    0125   Radio Colmundo Radio, Cartagena (SW)

Paraguay

560    0009    Radio Regional, Concepcion (RG)

570    0237    Radio Amambay, Pedro Juan Caballero (RG) 

680    0000     Radio Caritas, Nemby (RG)

920    0037    Radio Nacional de Paraguay, Asunción (RG)

1080   2346   Radio Monumental, Chacoi (RG)  

1140   2330   Radio Central Radio, Ypane (RG)

1330   0202   Radio Chaco Boreal, Asunción (RG)

1420   0212   Radio Guyra Campana, Horqueta  (RG)

Peru

750    0105    Radio Altura, Cerro de Pasco (SW)

790    0705    RDP Noticias, Trujillo (SW)

Uruguay

610   0602    Radio Rural, Santiago Vázquez (RG)

1010  0120   Radio Carve Deportiva, Montevideo (RG)

1050  0131   Radio Uruguay, Montevideo (RG)

1090  0141   Radio María Uruguay, Montevideo (RG)

1130  2336   Radio Nacional, Santiago Vázquez (RG)

1160  2140   Radio Agraria del Uruguay, Cervo Chato (RG)

1170  2146    Radiomundo, Montevideo (RG)

1280  0203   Radio Tacuarembó, Tacuarembó (RG)

1430  0016   Radio  Durazno, Durazno (RG)

1510  0114   Radio San Carlos, San Carlos (RG)

1580  0038   Emisora del Este, Minas (RG) 

Venezuela

670   2355  Radio Rumbos, Caracas (VH)

860   2300  Radio Enlace, Valle de la Pascura (VH)

(SM) Sam Wright, MS)

(RG/Rudolph Grimm, São Bernardo, São Paulo, Brazil)

(VH) Gayle Van Horn, LA)

Wavescan presents, Mary Texanna Loomis, Radio Pioneer

 Special thanks to the Wavescan staff for this week's feature from a Texas radio pioneer

Jeff:   Most features we present on the history of broadcast radio, and shortwave in particular, seem to feature men.  But we would be remiss in not mentioning that there were also a number of female pioneers involved in the early days of radio, and today, Ray Robinson in Los Angeles has the story of one of them.

Mary Texana Loomis and one of her transmitter projects

Ray:  Thanks, Jeff.  Yes, today’s feature is about Mary Texanna Loomis, who in 1920 founded the Loomis Radio School in Washington, D.C.  This topic was suggested by Wavescan listener Martin Dawson on Prince Edward Island in Canada, after he had read an old article in Radio World which in turn had been sourced from articles in several old magazines and newspapers of the 1920s and 30’s.

In the 1920s, if you wanted to get a job in America as a commercial radio operator or a shipboard radioman on an American vessel, you needed a Commercial Radio License, issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce.  The best way to obtain such a license was to attend one of the few radio schools that operated in principal cities around the United States.  Two of the most distinguished schools were in Washington, D.C.:  the National Radio Institute and the Loomis Radio School.  The latter was the only woman-owned radio school in the country.  Mary Texanna Loomis was the principal instructor and that rare creature in the 1920’s:  a female authority on radio.

Mary was a distant cousin of Dr. Mahlon Loomis, who in 1866 had experimented with ‘stealing current from the atmosphere’ using kites and metallic string.  In one experiment, he flew kites from two peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia and, using a galvanometer, was able to detect a change in current in one kite when he grounded the line of the other.  Subsequently, he was able to send Morse Code messages between the two locations, a distance of 18 miles.  And that experimentation in wireless communication took place a full nine years before Guglielmo Marconi was even born.

Mary Texanna Loomis was born on August 18, 1880, in a homesteader’s shack near Goliad, Texas, the second child of Alvan and Caroline Loomis.  Her middle name, ‘Texanna’, was bestowed in honor of the state where she was born.

Mary Texanna Loomis

The family moved to Rochester, N.Y., in 1883, where she had a respectable middle-class upbringing.  She was sports-minded in her youth, participating in swimming and horseback riding.  She also took voice lessons and became a good soprano.  She learned to speak three languages:  French, Italian and German.  A grandfather was a strong influence; he taught her to use tools and to build mechanical devices, and he helped develop her interest in science and the new inventions of the industrial age.

Mary Loomis married Turner Erving Howard in October, 1898, in Buffalo, NY.  Sadly, the marriage ended in divorce in 1917, and there’s no record that they had any children.  Mary then reverted to her maiden name of Loomis.

After her divorce, Mary moved to Washington, where she looked unsuccessfully for music employment.  But her life took a new turn when she attended a lecture on the emerging technology of wireless communication.  Fascinated, she read everything she could find on the subject.  At the age of 38, at a time when radio was the field of only a few experimenters and inventors, most of them men, she graduated from radio school and earned her first-class radio telegraphy license.

During World War I, she worked for the Red Cross and also as a secretary in a wireless school.  It was only then that she learned about the experiments of her distant cousin, Mahlon Loomis, and she resolved to open a radio operator’s school in his honor.

In 1920, she invested every cent she had and incorporated the Loomis Radio School. Located at 401–411 Ninth Street in the northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C., it offered a six-month course preparing students for the first-class commercial radio license exam.  Most students who graduated found positions as shipboard radio operators.  Loomis was the school’s president and principal lecturer.  She taught radio using equipment she constructed herself in the school’s machine shop, and taught her students not only how to operate, but also how to build radio equipment.  “No man can graduate from my school until he learns how to make any part of the apparatus,” she said.  “I give him a blueprint of what I want him to do and tell him to go into the shop and keep hammering away until the job is completed.  I want my graduates to be able to meet any emergency or mishap that may arise someday far out on the sea.”

The Loomis Radio School in Washington, D.C.

She lived a frugal life in a boarding home, and worked 12 to 15 hours a day teaching, grading papers and writing.  In time, the Loomis Radio School offered four courses, with the main one (for would-be commercial radio operators) leading to a first-class commercial radio operator's license.  A second course for technical training taught how to build a receiving set.  A third course led to a license as an amateur radio operator, and the fourth was for operators who needed only to renew an expired license or who had been military operators and needed only minimal training.

Her students also gained practical experience operating a radio transmitter through the use of the school’s amateur station, W3YA.  Loomis was a noted lecturer and member of the prestigious Institute of Radio Engineers.  She authored and marketed the popular book “Radio Theory and Operating for the Radio Student and Practical Operator.”  This was a reference text of 886 pages with 700 illustrations.  It was advertised at a reasonable price and was offered postage-paid directly by the school.  It subsequently became a textbook used by many educational institutions and government agencies.

By 1928, the Loomis textbook was in its fifth edition, then amounting to 1,006 pages.  “Radio Broadcast” Magazine called it “one of the most comprehensive volumes in its field.”  Mary dedicated her book to her cousin Mahlon Loomis.

Loomis teaching a class of future radio operators

The depression that began in 1929 affected the school severely, as it did tens of thousands of other businesses.  Fewer students could afford the training, and larger schools like the National Radio Institute had more resources to weather the hard times.  Further, a new competitor, the Capitol Radio Institute, would open in Washington in 1932.  In 1930, Loomis reorganized the school as the Loomis Radio College, Inc., but it was dissolved in early 1933.

Not much is known about Mary’s later life.  She is known to have relocated to San Francisco in 1938; the census shows that she lived in the St. Francis Hotel and listed her occupation as a stenographer.  Mary Texanna Loomis died in that city in June 1960 at the age of 79, and was buried at the Woodlawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.

Back to you, Jeff.

Jeff: Thanks, Ray.  And in a few weeks’ time, Ray will have a story about another woman who was active in early radio – Mary Day Lee.

(Wavescan/Ray Robinson)

Weekly Propagation Forecast Bulletins

 Product: Weekly Highlights and Forecasts

:Issued: 2026 Jun 08 0243 UTC

# Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center

# Product description and SWPC web contact www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/subscription-services

#                Weekly Highlights and Forecasts

#

Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 01 - 07 June 2026

Solar activity reached high levels on 03 Jun when Region 4455 (N14, L=88, class/area=Dki/360 on 03 Jun) produced an M9.3/Sf flare (accompanied by Type-II (253 km/s) and Type-IV sweeps, and a 360 sfu Tenflare) at 03/0136 UTC, followed by an M7.7/1b flare (accompanied by Type-II (313 km/s) and Type-IV radio sweeps, and a 540 sfu Tenflare with Castelli-U signature) at 03/0700 UTC, and finally an

X1.0/1n flare (accompanied by a Type-IV sweep and a 180 sfu Tenflare) at 03/1128 UTC. The CMEs associated with the three significant flares from AR4455 on 03 Jun arrived at Earth on 05 Jun.

Other activity included an M1.8/2n (accompanied by Type-II (838 km/s) and 190 sfu Tenflare) flare at 06/1401 UTC from Region 4461 (S20, L=09, class/area=Dao/70 on 02 Jun). The resulting partial-halo

CME, first visible in LASCO C2 imagery at 06/1401 UTC, is anticipated to arrive at Earth around midday on 08 Jun. 

The greater than 10 MeV proton flux became slightly enhanced after midday on 06 Jun, following the M1.8/2n flare at 06/1401 UTC from Region 4461, but remained below event levels with a peak flux of 1.0 pfu observed at 06/1940 UTC. The greater than 10 MeV proton flux gradually returned to background levels on 07 Jun. 

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at normal to moderate levels on 01-05 Jun, with high levels observed on 06-07 Jun. 

Geomagnetic field activity reached G1-G2 (Minor-Moderate) storm levels on 05 Jun, and active levels on 06 Jun, following the arrival and passage of the CMEs from 03 Jun. The shock arrival was observed

beginning at around 05/0425 UTC, and in the hours following, the total magnetic field strength (Bt) reached 20 nT, the Bz component reached as far southward as -17 nT, and solar wind speeds increased

to a peak near 740 km/s. Quiet and quiet to unsettled levels under weak coronal hole high-speed stream influences prevailed throughout the remainder of the period. 

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 08 June - 04 July 2026

Solar activity is expected to be at predominantly low levels through 04 Jul, with M-class flare probabilities ranging from a chance to likely levels throughout the period. 

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit, barring significant flare activity. 

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to reach high levels on 09-10, 13-18 Jun and 04 Jul. Normal to moderate levels are expected to prevail throughout the remainder

of the period. 

Geomagnetic field activity is likely to reach G1-G3 (Minor-Strong) storm levels on 08 Jun, with G1-G2 (Minor-Moderate) levels likely on 09 Jun, due to the anticipated arrival of the CME that left the Sun

on 06 Jun. Periods of active conditions are likely on 23-26 Jun due to recurrent CH HSS influences. Quiet and quiet to unsettled levels are expected to prevail throughout the remainder of the period. 

Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt

:Issued: 2026 Jun 08 0244 UTC
# Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center
# Product description and SWPC web contact www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/subscription-services
#
#      27-day Space Weather Outlook Table
#                Issued 2026-06-08
#
#   UTC      Radio Flux   Planetary   Largest
#  Date       10.7 cm      A Index    Kp Index
2026 Jun 08     135          50          7
2026 Jun 09     132          32          6
2026 Jun 10     130          12          3
2026 Jun 11     130          15          3
2026 Jun 12     128          10          3
2026 Jun 13     128           6          2
2026 Jun 14     120           6          2
2026 Jun 15     118           8          3
2026 Jun 16     120           8          3
2026 Jun 17     122           5          2
2026 Jun 18     122           5          2
2026 Jun 19     125           5          2
2026 Jun 20     125           5          2
2026 Jun 21     128           8          3
2026 Jun 22     130           8          3
2026 Jun 23     132          10          4
2026 Jun 24     134          15          4
2026 Jun 25     134          15          4
2026 Jun 26     132          15          4
2026 Jun 27     130          10          3
2026 Jun 28     132           8          3
2026 Jun 29     130           6          2
2026 Jun 30     128           8          3
2026 Jul 01     125           5          2
2026 Jul 02     130           5          2
2026 Jul 03     128          12          3
2026 Jul 04     125           8          3
(NOAA)

Audio available for Jen's Eclectic Views & Real Deal from June 7

 

No worries if you missed the June 7 broadcast of Jen's Eclwtic Views and Real Deal!

Audio is now available for download and listening at: 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/49941icqrmhpk519arym3/Jen-s-Electic-Views-Real-Deal-For-May-.31st-17-20-heard-on-Unique.mp3?rlkey=x1kr7b44ax50huj98h51tpu3w&dl=0

Tiny URL:  https://tinyurl.com/43y68px6

Tune in to Jen's Eclectic Views & Real Deal program on June 7

 

Don't miss it !!

Sunday, June 7, 2026

17:00 - 20:00 UTC

Live Stream.

http://uk4-vn.mixstream.net:8104/index.html

For contact pleasure.

JenUR@proton.me

Thanks.

Jen In The RAD

Texas Radio Shortwave, June 6, 7-2026

 

UTC/kHz

Saturday, June 6, 2026

1400-1500,  6160 Shortwave Radio Gold to Europe - Michael Strah, Texas Radio Shortwave presents, The Music of Jimmie Vaughn

1800-1900,  3975, 6160 Shortwave Radio Gold to Europe - Michael Strah Texas Radio Shortwave presents, The Music of Jimmie Vaughn

Sunday, June 7, 2026

1200-1300, 9670 Channel 292 to Europe - Michael Strah Texas Rado Shortwave presents, The Music of Jimmie Vaughn

2300-0000, 9670  Channel 292 to North America - Michael Strah, Texas Radio Shortwave presents, The Music of Jimmie Vaughn

This schedule is subject to change based on listener requests for specific Texas artists or music genres, propagation conditions, and other things beyond our control.

Texas Radio Shortwave is an independent producer of musical and topical shows, usually about Texas.

Unless otherwise shown, programs are one hour long.

Programs for Europe (Eur) and beyond on 3975 and 6160 kHz over Shortwave Radio Gold in Winsen, Germany, are transmitted with 1 kW into crossed dipole antennas.

Programs for Europe (Eur) and beyond on 6070 and 9670 kHz over Channel 292 in Rohrbach, Germany, are transmitted with 10 kW into an inverted V antenna.

Programs for North America (NAm) and beyond on 9670 kHz over Channel 292 are transmitted with 10 kW into a 10.5 dB gain beam antenna.

Texas Radio Shortwave uses a version of The Yellow Rose of Texas as its Interval Signal/Signature Song.

Texas Radio Shortwave verifies correct, detailed reception reports by electronic QSL. This includes reports from listeners using remote receivers (SDRs). Texas Radio

Shortwave's email is texasradioshortwave@protonmail.com.

Many TRSW programs are archived at www.mixcloud.com/texasradiosw.

Texas Radio Shortwave's Facebook page is www.facebook.com/texasradiosw.

Texas Radio Shortwave's Listeners' Group Facebook page is www.facebook.com/groups/580199276066655/.

(TRSW)

(photos via Wikipedia) 

(TRS graphics by Gayle Van Horn)

Memories of BFBS Singapore

 

This edition first aired on July 23, 2000

Back in the year 1971, I was on a motor launch in Bangladesh. There had been a horrendous, devastating cyclone in the Bay of Bengal. It is calculated that one million people lost their lives in this overnight cyclone, thus making it the worst natural disaster on earth since Noah's Flood. At the time, I was on temporary loan to ADRA, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, and we were in the delta areas of Bangladesh carrying relief supplies of food and basic living needs to the homeless survivors.

One afternoon, while the motor launch was travelling from one location to another, I was tuning across the shortwave bands on my Grundig radio when I was very surprised to hear the BBC World Service news in the 60 meter tropical shortwave band. On checking the WRTVH, I discovered that I was listening to BFBS Singapore, the British Forces Broadcasting Service, with 10 kw on 5010 kHz.

On a subsequent visit to Singapore a few years later, I took a taxi one humid rainy day to the British Army base on the outskirts of Singapore City. Even though this was a high security area, I was courteously granted approval to make a visit to BFBS Radio. As I approached the building, I was dismayed to discover that workmen were in the process of dismantling the station. They were removing all of the electronic equipment and refurbishing the building for use as an office.

As I walked through the empty rooms, I visualized what used to be. I saw the old studios and control room, the offices and tape library, of what used to be BFBS Singapore. Obviously, when this station was on the air it was an efficient and modern radio station.

BFBS Singapore was launched in early 1953 with a 10 kW transmitter operating at 7.5 kw. It was on the air on the constant frequency of 5010 kHz in two languages, English and Ghurka. Some 10 years later, a 5 kW FM transmitter was added.

BFBS Singapore had a reputation as an excellent verifier, and the AWR historic collection in Indianapolis contains two QSL cards confirming the reception of both the shortwave and FM transmitters.

In mid-1971, the British Army base was handed over to the Singapore army. The FM transmitter at this location was given to the BBC, which operated it by remote control. The shortwave transmitter was located at Jurong, near the famous bird park, and it was donated to Radio Singapore, which operated it for many years in parallel with their other 60-meter band outlet on 5052 kHz.

As I walked down the stairway and out of the two-story building, I cast a backward glance at the signboard, which read, "British Forces Broadcasting Service, Singapore."

So "What Happened to them Afterwards?" Well, the studio building became an office for officers in the Singapore Army. Both the shortwave and FM transmitters have long since been removed and junked. All that remains these days are the DX reports in old radio magazines, a cluster of QSL cards in old QSL collections, and the memories in the lives of the staff who were on the air with what was BFBS Singapore.

(A Peterson/Wavescan)

New U.S. Radio Show Seeks to Foster Civil Discourse on Constitutional Issues

 

from the WRMI Facebook page

"America@250: Due Diligence" to debut this weekend on about 50 radio stations

IRONDALE, ALABAMA — No hot takes. No name-calling. That is the self-imposed guidance for a new, 

limited-run weekend one-hour radio show/podcast, America @ 250: Due Diligence.

The public service program will put into historical context key Constitutional issues being debated in American society with experts from across the political spectrum as featured guests.

The program will be co-hosted by two broadcast veterans, Steven L Herman, who is executive director of the Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy and Innovation at the University of Mississippi, and Illinois-based radio talk show producer Bill Bernardoni.

Herman is a former White House bureau chief of the Voice of America. Bernardoni’s background includes work as a campaign manager and political consultant for candidates from the state to national level.

“At a time when discourse on our airwaves is often dominated by the desire to divide, America @ 250: Due Diligence offers a refreshing remedy rooted in deep research, historical context and civil conversation,” said Dr. Andrea Hickerson, dean of the School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi. “The program fosters discussion to expand civic literacy to create a more informed electorate.”

America @ 250: Due Diligence will begin airing on about 50 AM and FM radio stations from the first weekend in June with distribution via Talk Media Network, the Public Radio Exchange (PRX), the Radio Free America project and commercial shortwave broadcaster WRMI-Radio Miami.

“There are few issues-oriented or public affairs radio programs independently produced that are free of intended political bias,” said Herman, who formally announced the launch of the program in a presentation on May 28th at the annual meeting of the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters in Alabama. “We hope more radio stations with a sincere interest in objectively informing the electorate will carry the program.”

America @ 250: Due Diligence will continue through the end of this Semiquincentennial year and a weekly online extended version will be on podcast distribution platforms.

WRMI will air "America@250: Due Diligence" on shortwave each week, beginning Saturday June 6th at 8:00 pm Eastern Time (that's 0000 UTC Sunday June 7th) on 9395 kHz going north and 5050 kHz beaming south.   Your reception reports are welcome and will be answered with a special America@250 QSL card.  Reports can be sent to info@wrmi.net.