Special thanks to Ray Robinson and Jeff White, for sharing Part 2, from a recent edition of AWR Wavescan.
To view Part 1 on 18 April, 2024 go to https://mt-shortwave.blogspot.com/2024/04/libya-part-1-bfbs-afrts.html
Jeff: Two weeks ago, Ray Robinson began the story of radio broadcasting in the Tangier International Zone – an area of 155 square miles around the city of Tangier in northwest Africa, that was administered jointly by France, Spain and the United Kingdom from 1925-1940, and then again after the war by those three countries plus the United States from 1945-1956. We got up to about 1947, with the establishment by Herbert Southworth of the anti-Franco station Radio Tangier International, and by Jacques Trémoulet of the pro-Franco station Radio Africa. Here’s Ray to continue the story.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. Well as you mentioned, the United States participated in the Committee of Control that governed the Tangier International Zone after the war, and they became increasingly concerned about growing Soviet influence in the city. Remember this was now at the start of the Cold War, and Tangier fast became a hotbed of intrigue and a base for international spies. To counter communist propaganda in Europe, the United States set up a Voice of America relay station in Tangier in 1949. This initially used a single 50 kW transmitter, operating on 6060 kHz and various frequencies in the 41, 31, 25 and 19 metre bands.
Also in 1949, Radio Tangier International changed shortwave frequency to 6110 kHz, just up the dial from the VOA on 6060 kHz, and in 1950 they announced that both their medium wave and shortwave transmitters would soon be upgraded to 50 kW each.
And further in 1949, yet another station first appeared, Pan-American Radio, with an address at British Post Office Box 49 in Tangier. They had a 5kW transmitter operating on 7400 and 15050 kHz shortwave, carrying programming of economical and financial news, and American music, mostly jazz.
In 1950, Radio Africa added a medium wave transmitter with 5 kW on 332 metres (903 kHz), and also replaced their 1 kW shortwave transmitter with a new 10 kW unit on 7100 kHz. The following year, they increased power on medium wave to 20 kW, and introduced a second medium wave transmitter on 438 meters (685 kHz).
Likewise, in 1951, Radio Tangier International introduced a second medium wave transmitter on 278 meters (1079 kHz), and not to be outdone, Pan-American Radio added a 5 kW medium wave transmitter on 522 meters (575 kHz) to supplement their shortwave transmissions.
And that same year, 1951, the Voice of America relay station was considerably upgraded, with four 100 kW and two 50 kW shortwave transmitters, now operating 24 hours/day.
In 1952, Radio Africa added a second medium wave unit, and split their programming into two commercial streams:
Radio Africa Maghreb (Maghreb being the colonial era Arabic name for coastal north Africa) on 314 meters (953 kHz) medium wave and 7193 kHz shortwave, and
Radio Africa Tangier on 439 meters (683 kHz) medium wave and 6020 kHz shortwave.
It was in 1954 that Radio Africa Tangier started carrying the daily program for Gibraltar from 4:00-4:45pm each afternoon, under the name Radio Africa Gibraltar.
Pan-American Radio moved their medium wave outlet, first to 254 meters (1175 kHz), and then to 266 meters (1128 kHz), and their shortwave outlets to 7290 and 14500 kHz. Interestingly, they also started relaying news from both the BBC and the Voice of America, which otherwise was not heard on medium wave.
Meanwhile, the original Radio Tangier International did indeed upgrade their medium wave transmitter on 244 meters (1232 kHz) to 50 kW. And, they went even further, also implementing a second program stream. Radio Tangier International was on 1232 and 6110 kHz, and a new service, Radio Tangier, was on 278 meters (1079 kHz) using the old 10 kW unit, and also on 6025 kHz shortwave.
It was on this second stream of Radio Tangier in October 1954 that Dr. Ralph Freed initially bought time to launch a new Christian religious service called the Voice of Tangier, which as we will see subsequently grew into Trans World Radio. Dr. Freed was alarmed at the anti-protestant restrictions against evangelistic activities that had been introduced by the Franco regime in Spain, and he was naturally drawn to Herbert Southworth’s station as the platform on which to launch the Voice of Tangier. The original vision for the station was to evangelize Spain. A 2.5 kW US Army surplus transmitter was used on 6025 kHz in the afternoons, and 7175 or 9490 kHz in the evenings, with programming in Spanish and English, and the response from listeners in Spain was indeed very encouraging.
In the summer of 1955, programs in Portuguese, French, Czech and German were added. The expansion continued considerably over the next few years and by 1958 the Voice of Tangier had two 10 kW shortwave transmitters of its own, broadcasting evangelical Christian programming in 26 languages with curtain antennas on five different beams to various parts of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. In English, they carried programs such as the Back to God Hour, Radio Bible Class, Billy Graham’s Hour of Decision, and Back to the Bible, primarily targeting listeners in the British Isles.
In 1955, they had been joined over on Radio Africa Tangier by IBRA Radio from Sweden, who bought the airtime each evening from when the Gibraltar program ended at 4:45pm until 10pm, for religious programming in Swedish, English, Finnish, French, Dutch, German, Danish and Norwegian.
However, the winds of change were in the air. In 1956, Morocco gained full independence from both France and Spain, and the Protectorates came to an end, as did the Tangier International Zone. Tangier was granted special economic status for a few more years, but eventually the commercial radio stations were required to close, and all broadcasting in the country was nationalized in 1960. So where did Dr. Ralph Freed go next? That will be our topic here in Wavescan next week.
(AWR/Wavescan)