Focus on Africa: BBC East Mediterranean Relay Station Cyprus - Part 1In our program today, we present the first episode in a mini-series regarding the fascinating history of the BBC Eastern Relay Station on the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean. In this, another presentation under the title Focus on Africa, we begin at the beginning, which takes us back to the coastal areas of Palestine under the old British Mandate.
On
the central Mediterranean coast lies the very ancient city of Jaffa, which is
described as one of the oldest cities upon planet Earth. These days, Jaffa is quite modern and it is
an integral part of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa metroplex.
Ancient
Jaffa is noted with several interesting references in the Holy Bible, including
for example: King David & his conquests, King Solomon receiving the Cedars
of Lebanon for the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and Jonah and the
whale with his epic voyage in the eastern Mediterranean.
Jaffa
is also mentioned in an ancient Egyptian letter from the year 1440 BC,
glorifying the conquest by Pharaoh Thutmose 3, who was the adoptive brother of
the well known Biblical patriarch Moses.
To obtain the conquest of the city, the pharaoh hid armed Egyptian
soldiers in large baskets filled with gifts for the governor of Jaffa.
During
the latter stages of the British Mandate over Palestine, an air force base was
established on land near Jaffa that was leased from the local authorities. During the year 1941, a surreptitious radio
broadcasting station was established in this air force base using RAF equipment
and it was launched under the identification slogan, Freedom Broadcasting
Station.
Initially,
the programming from this new shortwave station was beamed to the Balkan
countries in eastern Europe, though programming in the Arabic language was
added soon afterwards, with the identification announcement in Arabic as Sharq
al Adna, and in English as the Near East Broadcasting Station. At full strength, Sharq al Adna in Jaffa was
on the air with 4 transmitters at 7½ kW each.
During
its 8 year history at this location in coastal Palestine, the shadowy Sharq al
Adna was regularly on the air with the 4 transmitters in parallel under the
general callsign ZJM. All of its
international shortwave channels were heard far and wide, in Europe, North
America & the South Pacific, and these channels were:-
ZJM4 6135 kHz ZJM5 6170 kHz ZJM6 6790 kHz
ZJM7 11750 ZJM8 9650
The
local shortwave channel, shown as ZJM3 on 3320 kHz, was at times listed as in
use, but there are no known loggings of this channel in the DX publications of
the era.
The
two mediumwave transmitters in Palestine during this era, with 20 kW each on
677 kHz & 574 kHz, were also allocated callsigns in the same ZJM sequence,
as ZJM & ZJM2. However, these two
broadcast transmitters were not part of the Sharq al Adna facility. The studios for the two mediumwave
transmitters of this Palestine Broadcasting Service were in Jerusalem, and the
transmitters were installed at Ramallah, on the downward slopes towards the
Jordan River.
Most
of the programming for Sharq al Adna in coastal Jaffa was in the Arabic
language, though some was in English, and occasionally some was in Hindustani
for the benefit of Indian soldiers on duty in the area. The identification signal was a short melody
on a harp.
During the Palestine era, this
station was always under the control of the British government, though it
theoretically changed hands a few times.
To the casual listener, Sharq al Adna was a mystery station with
interesting programs; and to the dedicated international radio monitor, this
Near East Broadcasting Station was a clandestine operation on behalf of the
British government.
In 1945 after the end of World War
II the legal status of Sharq al Adna was changed and it began to operate as a
commercial radio broadcasting station, and it was noted on air with
advertisements in the Arabic language.
The
British Mandate over Palestine was scheduled to end at midnight on May 14,
1948. In preparation for the Palestine
areas to declare their own independence amidst the turmoil and bitter fighting
of that era, the British staged their withdrawal in what historians describe as
their typical style, with “pomp and circumstance”. In advance, the technical equipment and
personnel associated with the shortwave radio station, Sharq al Adna, were
readied and withdrawn from Jaffa on the Palestine coast and transferred to a
new location on the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean, just 70
miles off shore.
During
the Palestine era, a colorful QSL Certificate was issued by Sharq al Adna from
its official address in Jerusalem. The first
known edition of this QSL sheet contained a printing error, showing the
spelling of Palestine without the first E, that is Palstine. A second printing of this same QSL
Certificate made a correction, as shown on page 72 of Jerome Berg’s
authoritative shortwave history “Broadcasting - 1945 to Today”, and the word
Palestine is spelled correctly.
When
“Freedom at Midnight” occurred, not in India but rather in the Middle East, on
May 14, 1948, radio station Sharq al Adna was no longer in Jaffa, it was
already under installation on Cyprus.
And that’s our story next time in this sequence of topics on the BBC
Eastern Relay Station.
(AWR-Wavescan/NWS 208 via Adrian Peterson)