BELGIUM: October 24, 2009, Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal (Radio Flanders internationaal) ended its short broadcasts.
The beginning of Belgian short-air programs date back to 1923: The "Bel Radio" station of the Régie des Telegraphhes et des Telephones in Ruysselede, broadcast news bulletins, in Morse and Phony, to the Belgian Congo. Broadcasting became regular in 1934: a news bulletin in French and one in Dutch was broadcast daily until the German invasion of 1940.
During the war, the Belgian government in exile wants to develop a broadcasting station in Leopoldville. The Americans offered 1 50 kW short wave transmitter. This is the beginning of the O.R.N.B.: the Belgian National Broadcasting Office, dependent on the Belgian government in exile in London.
After the war, two 50KW transmitters in Leopoldville were used by the INR's global service under the names "Belgium Calling The World" and "La Voix de la Concorde".
In 1952, "La vix de la Concorde" was repatriated to Brussels and broadcasts from the Wavre transmitter center. The new center has 2 100 kW Brown-Boveri transmitters and a 20 kW Telefunken transmitter. The network of antenna allows broadcasting to Congo, Southern Europe and Northern Europe, the Far East, North and South America. Broadcasting to South America and North America continues, however, to be broadcasted by the former 50 kW transmitters of Leopoldville.
In 1953, after being called "The Voice of Concorde" the global broadcasts would be named "The Voice of Friendship - De Vriendschapbode - The International Goodwill Station".
1960: INR/NIR gives way to RTB/BRT. The RTB/BRT is divided into 2 Institutes: one French-speaking, the other Dutch-speaking. Technical services and global broadcasting are connected and form a third institute: the Institute of Common Services.
In 1969: World emissions recovered, from RTT, an additional transmitter: a 50 kW Thomson-CSF at Vapotron and in 1972, two 250 kW transmitters were installed to replace the 20 and 50 kW ones.
1977, following the federalization of Belgium,
the cededed RTB is placed at the RTBF and the BRT at the VRT.
On the side of global broadcasting, "La Voix de l'Amitié" changes its name to "Radio 4 International" and "De Vriendschapbode" becomes "Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal".
1992: RTBF stops broadcasting and Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal uses the 4 Wavre transmitters (2 x 100 KW and 2 x 250 KW) and broadcasted in Dutch, French, Spanish, English and German.
In 2001 Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal stopped using Wavre's short-wave transmitters. It was more interesting to rent airtime in other transmitter centers: Among its subcontractors: Krasnodar 250 kW, Samara 200 kW and Petropavlovsk 250 kW in Russia - Rampisham 500 kW and Skelton 250 kW in Great Britain - Meyerton 250 kW in South Africa - Dhabayya 250 kW in UAE - Bonaire 250 kW in Netherlands Antilles - Tashkent 100 kW in Uzbekistan and
July 100 kW in Germany.
In 2009, the short-wave broadcasts are stopped and Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal also stops its medium-wave transmitter, which was broadcasting at 1512 kHz (600 kW) since Wolvertem. RVI programs are then broadcasted by the transmitter of Wavre on 927khz.
2011: Radio Flanders International with the key sous le paillasson. All service is canceled.
(Radio Magazine/24Oct 2024)
