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| Ancient ruins of Albania (Gayle Van Horn QSL Collection) |
In our program today, we present our
third episode about the radio story in Albania, and on this occasion, we begin
with the historic era of ancient times.
Way back in the times of antiquity,
the territory now known as Albania was traversed and settled by wandering
tribal peoples coming in from the east.
Then next on the scene came the ancient Roman Empire, and they conquered
and annexed Albania.
Albanian history informs us that a
colony of some 70 Christian families was established in the coastal town of
Durres through the original ministry of St Paul in New Testament times; and two
hundred years later, the entire territory was established in Christianity. Islam came to Albania five hundred years
later again.
Politically speaking, the Kingdom of
Albania was established in the year 1272, though two hundred years later again,
the Ottoman Empire from Turkey took over the country. In 1912, Albania declared its independence
again, as a revived kingdom; in 1939 it was taken over by Italy; four years
later it was taken over by Germany; and after the end of World War 2, the
country was formed into a socialist republic.
In 1991, Albania officially became a republic.
It was in April 1939 that Italy
occupied Albania, and at that stage, there were just three broadcast
transmitters on the air. On mediumwave,
Radio Tirana I (One) was noted with 10 watts on 1384 kHz with studios and
transmitter in the Municipality Building on Rruga 28 Nentori in Tirana.
On shortwave, their scheduling, if
listed correctly, showed two transmitters on the air in parallel, 6080 kHz and 7840 kHz, under the callsign
ZAA. These transmitters were originally
installed in 1937 for the purpose of international radio communication in Morse
Code, rather than for program broadcasting.
Their shortwave equipment was manufactured by Tesla in Prague
Czechoslovakia; and their transmitter base was located at Laprake, in the
military encampment on the edge of suburban Tirana, we would suggest.
In
July 1939, a few months after the Italian occupation, shortwave ZAA was heard
in the South Pacific closing with the Italian National Anthem. Interestingly, the callsign ZAA was retained,
in spite of the fact that some had suggested earlier that maybe the callsign
would be changed to an Italian call beginning with the letter I (eye).
Around
that same time under the Italian occupation, an additional medium wave
transmitter was co-installed in the Municipality Building. This new unit was originally listed with a
power of 1 kW, though apparently it was operated at only one quarter of that
power level. The new transmitter took
over the programming and frequency of Tirana I on 1384 kHz, and the older 10
watt transmitter was moved to 1290 kHz as Tirana II (Two).
After
about a year of Italian occupation, or perhaps a little less, Radio Tirana was
no longer reported as active on shortwave.
The final known listing was in August 1940, when Arthur Cushen in South
New Zealand noted the station on 7850 kHz.
Apparently station ZAA as a program broadcaster lay
silent for the remainder of the European Conflict.
When
peace finally began to descend upon continental Europe again, Radio Tirana ZAA
was noted on the air once more, and on the same shortwave channel 7850 kHz
according to Arthur Cushen again. That
was early in the year 1946. Apparently
the original old Tesla equipment had been revived.
Interestingly,
all programming at this stage was in the Italian language, in spite of the fact
that German forces had replaced the Italians two years earlier.
Next
time, growth and development in the radio scene in Albania.