Special thanks Ray Robinson and jeff White for sharing a recent edition of Wavescan on AWR
Jeff: Last week here in Wavescan, we presented the first part of our profile of radio broadcasting in the North African country of Libya, which covered the early Morse Code wireless stations, and also the program broadcasting stations that were established after the Second World War by the British and American Forces. Today, Ray Robinson presents part 2 in the story of radio broadcasting in Libya; looking now at the government radio services, on both medium wave and shortwave.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. Actually, radio broadcasting on the part of the Libyan government was quite late getting started, as compared to similar events in other countries. As far as we can determine, the first government-operated radio broadcasting station in Libya was on the air for a brief period of time in Cyrenaica in 1947. One isolated monitoring report informs us that the station was operating in the 19 metre shortwave band on 15320 kHz.
It appears this station was primarily a communication station located in the eastern city of Benghazi, but that it was also on the air temporarily with program broadcasting. From what we can glean from listings in the early editions of the WRTH, the first permanent broadcasting station in Libya was installed in the capital city, Tripoli, probably in 1953. It was quite a small facility, operating with just 250 watts on 1552 kHz. This was likely an interim facility while a larger station was under construction. That larger medium wave station was inaugurated five years later, with 50 kW on 1052 kHz, in the outskirts of suburban Tripoli. Around the same time, a shortwave transmitter was installed at El Beida, the most northerly point in eastern Libya, and this was listed with 3 kW on 6140 kHz.
Over the years, at least two additional shortwave transmitters rated at 100 kW were installed at El Beida, and also a 500 kW medium wave unit for wide area night-time coverage in Africa, as well as nearby Mediterranean areas. The shortwave usage at El Beida was closed out around the year 2000. Work commenced at another shortwave station listed as Benghazi in 1958. Over the years, several transmitters were installed at this location, including 3 kW, 7½ kW, 10 kW and at least one at 100 kW.
In 1998, Muammar Gaddafi declared that Africans and not Arabs are Libya's real supporters. The Libyan state-owned radio 'Voice of the Arab World' was then renamed 'Voice of Africa'.
These days, no shortwave unit is active at the Benghazi location, and the last 100 kW medium wave unit there, that had been operating on 675 kHz, went silent in 2018.
In the early 1970’s, work commenced on the construction of another shortwave station located at Sabratha in the northwest corner of Libya. At the time, it was stated that this would become the largest shortwave station in all of Africa, with four Thomson transmitters rated at 500 kW each and a total of 48 curtain antennas. For many years, test transmissions were noted from this supposedly large station, and ultimately, in 2002, program broadcasting began under the title, “Voice of Africa”.
It seems that the Libyan authorities would often prefer to build a new radio station instead of maintaining and repairing an existing one. Another shortwave station was constructed at Al Assah, again in northwest Libya, near the border with Tunisia. This facility was first inaugurated on August 28, 1996; and then it was re-inaugurated on December 8, 2001 with four shortwave transmitters. This station is no longer listed as active on shortwave, and neither is a 500 kW medium wave unit there which used to be on 1449 kHz.
As if they didn’t have enough transmitter locations, at least two more are known to have been constructed, both at inland oasis locations. One was at Sebha in the middle of the country, with two 100 kW Harris transmitters; and the other at Ghat in the bottom south west corner of the country, also with two 100 kW transmitters. The Sebha station was used to broadcast radio programming from 1985 to 2002; and the Ghat station was heard in Bulgaria with test transmissions in 2007, although apparently it was never taken into full time broadcast usage. To make things more complicated in the radio scene in Libya, the Transmitter Documentation Project, published by Ludo Maes in Belgium, lists a total of two dozen additional shortwave transmitters that were installed at unknown locations in Libya from the mid-1970’s to around 2005.
No doubt many of these units were installed at already existing locations, but perhaps new locations were also involved. These additional units were procured from Siemens-RIZ in Zagreb, Croatia. It would appear also, that various transmitters at various locations in Libya were used for varying time periods for general government communications, in addition to program broadcasting.
We should also mention that Libya took out a relay from four shortwave transmitters at 500 kW located at Issoudun in France, beginning in 2003.
Programming from Libya to France was provided by at least one communication transmitter, located at either Sabratha or Sebha. This program service was presented under the same title, “Voice of Africa”, and it was on the air for a period of some five years.
So, what can you hear from Libya these days? In short, nothing. The shortwave transmitters are long gone, and the high-powered medium wave transmitters were progressively closed down, with the last two, in Tripoli and Benghazi, being listed as active for the final time in the 2018 edition of the WRTH.
All radio broadcasting in Libya now is on FM only, although since the end of the civil war a few years ago, privately owned stations are now allowed, and there is even a Voice of America Africa station along the coast east of Tripoli at Misratah with 1 kW on 91.1 FM, and BBC Arabic stations in Benghazi, Tripoli and two other locations, all on 91.5 FM, again with 1 kW.
In what might be described as better times, Libya issued large colorful oversized QSL cards for their broadcasts on both medium wave and shortwave. These cards identified the shortwave broadcasting service from Libya as “Radio Jamahiriya”, and they were obtainable from two different addresses, one in Libya and the other in Malta. The QSL card, printed in English and Arabic, depicted a large ornate rainbow. Other QSL cards from Libya showed current rural scenes and ancient historic scenes throughout the country.
Next week, I plan to bring you the strange story of the relocation of the offshore radio ship Mebo II from The Netherlands to Libya, its broadcasting history there, and its ultimate demise in the Mediterranean after being used for target practice by the Libyan Air Force.
Back to you, Jeff.
(AWR)