Special thanks to Ray Robinson and Jeff White for sharing a recent edition of Wavescan.
Jeff: 63½ years ago, in October 1960, Trans World Radio, now the largest Christian broadcaster in the world, began broadcasting from a facility in Monte Carlo. Last week, Ray Robinson in Los Angeles covered their early beginnings as the Voice of Tangier in the Tangier International Zone. Now here he is with the story of broadcasting in Monaco, and Trans World Radio, Monte Carlo in particular.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. The small independent European Principality of Monaco is a micro-state, located on the French Riviera just ten miles west of the French border with Italy. This country is listed as the second smallest in the world, with only the Vatican State being smaller. Monaco is a little more than two miles long, east to west, and at its narrowest point it’s only 200 yards wide. The total area is just ¾ square mile, and almost a quarter of that total area has been recovered from the Mediterranean Sea.
The capital city of Monaco is, Monaco; although another well-known city in this tiny enclave is Monte Carlo. The total population of Monaco is around 39,000. The country obtains much of its revenue from tourism, with 1½ million people flooding into the area each year.
The national flag of Monaco has two horizontal bars - red at the top and white at the bottom. Surprisingly, the Monaco flag is exactly the same as the flags of both Indonesia & the German state of Hesse, though the dimensions are slightly different.
The country of Monaco is also well known for its Casino; the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix car race; the Monte Carlo Rally run annually since 1911, and the Tour de France bicycle race which always passes through the Principality. Monaco issues its own colorful postage stamps, and also its own bank notes and coinage, now in the Euro series.
It was back in the year 1956, that the American Hollywood actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco in a highly publicized wedding ceremony. The reigning Grimaldi family traces their dynasty back to the year 1297, when the first of their clan took over the throne.
This little southern European country was named by Greek seafarers who set up their own colony in the 7th century AD. 600 years later, the area was reestablished as an Italian colony dependent upon the city of Genoa. Even though Monaco is an independent country, it is heavily dependent upon neighboring France.
It was back in 1923 that initial consideration was given to establishing a radio station in Monaco, though nothing definite came of this matter until some 20 years later. During 1942, discussions for the establishment of a new international shortwave station took place between the government of Monaco and the governments of both Germany & Vichy France. In May, a permit was issued for the construction of a powerful shortwave station that could give wide area coverage for Nazi German radio programming.
Work on the new station moved slowly, though two shortwave transmitters, rated at 100 kW each, were ordered through the Indonesian government, although they were never delivered. A new transmitter building was built into the side of Mt Agel, behind Monte Carlo, and located actually in what is officially French territory.
Radio Monte Carlo had an official opening ceremony on July 17, 1943, with the well-known French actor, Maurice Chevalier as the Master of Ceremonies. For this, they utilized a small 200 watt shortwave transmitter located in Monaco itself, and also a medium wave outlet via the already established transmitter of Radio Mediterranee on 1240 kHz, located some distance away at Antibes in France. A little over a year later, this wartime Radio Monte Carlo was closed. So, although Herr Hitler had paid for the construction of a super-power station, it wasn’t finished in time to be used by his regime.
In June 1945, Radio Monte Carlo was re-opened by the French, first with a 300 watt shortwave transmitter on 6130 kHz; and a year later, a 10 kW medium wave transmitter on 410 metres, 730 kHz was added. Both of these units were heard by international radio monitors in England. One year later again, a 25 kW shortwave transmitter was installed and this was noted on air in the United States, as well as in New Zealand & Australia.
Meanwhile, across the Mediterranean from the south coast of Spain, the city of Tangier enjoyed a status known as the Tangier International Zone from 1924-1956. In this zone, there were no controls on broadcasting, and as we explained last week, in 1954 an American by the name of Dr. Paul Freed founded a station known as the Voice of Tangier, first by buying time on the commercial Radio Tangier, and then by installing his own shortwave transmitters. His initial vision was simply to broadcast to Spain where under Franco’s government, Spanish protestants were forbidden to evangelize or distribute Christian resources, but the vision grew quickly from there.
When Morocco gained independence in 1956, the Tangier International Zone was reunited with the rest of the country, and all broadcasting in Tangier came under government control. In April 1959, it was announced that all stations would be nationalized at the end of that year. Dr. Freed began serious negotiations with Radio Monte Carlo about the lease of airtime. In his book, ‘Towers to Eternity’, Dr. Freed explains that Monte Carlo was the only station in Europe at that time, and at any price, that would allow him the privilege of broadcasting the Gospel full time and indeed it remained so for more than another decade.
In September 1959, he signed a contract with Radio Monte Carlo for the establishment of a large shortwave station, the transmitters for which would be installed in the by then disused building in the side of Mt Agel. The terms of the agreement were that TWR had to buy the transmitters, but they would be owned by Radio Monte Carlo and leased back full time to TWR for their exclusive use.
An antenna system was constructed in a strategic location, high on the bluffs of the Southern Alps, overlooking the Mediterranean. It consisted of mostly high-gain curtain antennas with 21 steel framed towers up to 175 feet high. They had one antenna each for:
• The Middle East
• British Isles
• Scandinavia
• Russia
There was also a reversible antenna which reached Spain on one side and Eastern Europe on the other, and several stack dipoles with reflectors and directors which gave coverage into the nearby countries of Italy, Germany and France.
The Voice of Tangier closed on December 31st, 1959, and TWR Monte Carlo went on the air for the first time on October 16, 1960, just nine months later. Initially they had just one 100 kW shortwave transmitter, under the official callsign 3AM5. A second 100 kW transmitter was added the following year, plus a 500 kW unit in 1982. TWR’s studios and offices occupied three floors of a multi-storey building in Monte Carlo, and over 18,000 letters from listeners were received in the first year.
At the height of their operation in Monte Carlo, TWR was on the air from the three shortwave transmitters and ten curtain antennas, as well as on medium wave from a high powered facility nearby, and in French on longwave. I personally was first introduced to the programming of Trans World Radio by my grandparents in the late 1960’s, who always used to listen to the English programs from 7:25-9:00am each day. I remember them well on 7290 kHz, which generally provided a very solid, reliable signal. Here’s a shortwave sign-on from 1979:
On April 1st, 1966, TWR began leasing the 400 kW medium wave transmitter of Radio Monte Carlo on 205 metres (1466 kHz), for early morning and late evening programming in German, French and English. The English segment was from about 10:30pm to midnight each evening. Most programming was American, but in the 1970’s, some British-produced programs were added, such as the one for young people called Rendezvous with evangelist Dick Saunders. Here’s a medium wave closedown from March 1971:
In 1974, a new Thomson CSF medium wave transmitter was installed, boosting TWR’s output power to 1 MW in the evenings. From the mid-1970’s, though , the frequency became a challenge, because in the UK, many BBC local radio stations started using the adjacent frequency of 206 metres (1457 kHz), and the station where I lived in London did so with 50 kW! Cheap portable transistor radios with only average selectivity struggled to separate the signals, and the resulting splatter on 205 wasn’t something to which a casual user would listen.
TWR closed their shortwave operations from Monte Carlo in 1996, after a new station had been opened in Cyprus. An evening medium wave relay from Monte Carlo continued until 2020, but since 2022, all broadcasting in Monaco has been on FM and DAB only.
On two different occasions, Adventist radio programming was noted over Radio Monte Carlo. Beginning in 1957 for a year or two, the French version of the “Voice of Prophecy” was heard on three shortwave channels; and for a few months in 1999, Adventist World Radio took out a relay via another medium wave transmitter on 702 kHz for coverage into North Africa in both Arabic & French.
QSL’s from Radio Monte Carlo were fairly common, and multitudes of QSL cards have been issued over the years by Trans World Radio, Monte Carlo.
Back to you, Jeff.
(Wavescan/05 May 2024)