Luister / listen to MP3 / 00:30:21
The history of shortwave transmissions in the Netherlands, and the history of Radio Nederland Wereldomroep. Broadcasted on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Radio Nederland.
1′32 Hendrik (Henk) van den Broek, Radio Nederland’s first director. “There are really two reasons for the existence of Radio Nederland” [ ... ]. Fragment from a 1955 recording.
2′48 The origine of Dutch overseas broadcasting goes back to 1927, the pioneering year of shortwave telephony. The Philips Laboratories in Eindhoven experiment with the PCJJ short-wave transmitter. The transmissions reach as far as the East-Indies. Mr. A.C. de Groot, a technical official of the Netherlands East Indies PTT and a radio amateur, is sitting up all night monitoring the 30 meter band in hopes of hearing amateurs operating in morse code from The Netherlands. Something around 3:00 AM, he hears a voice speaking in Dutch saying “This is an experimental transmission from the Philips Laboratory in Eindhoven, Holland, on a wavelenght of 30.2 meters”.
That same year, the N.V. PHOHI (Philips Omroep Holland-Indië) was set up, a joint commercial operation of Philips and other Dutch Companies with interests in the East-Indies. It used the PCJJ -transmitter.
In november 1928, Edward (Eddie) Startz began broadcasting over PCJJ, marking the beginning of his quickly popular “Happy Station” program. Startz dropped the second J of PCJJ and said that PCJ stood for “Peace, Cheer and Joy: The Happy Station of a friendly nation”.
11′39 Engineer Martin Ruis about the closure of the short-wave transmissons because of the invasions of the German Army, may 1940. They try to distroy the transmitter, but later on the Germans succeed in reparing the PCJJ-equipment, and use it to broadcast propaganda to India (”The Voice of Free India”).
13′15 Paris and London took over where Hilversum ended: The Dutch first used the French short-wave service for a program called “Vrij Nederland”. That ended after a month with the German invasion of Paris. Over in London the Dutch Government in exile created in late 1940 “Radio Oranje”, the official voice of the Dutch Government.
15′25 Fragment of a Radio Oranje-transmission: Bob den Doolaard speaks about sabotage (in Dutch)
15′58 Unknown Dutch speaker about listening to Radio Oranje and the BBC during the war.
Hendrik van den Broek became head of Radio Oranje and in 1944 he created a station called “Herrijzend Nederland” on the grounds of the Philips Company in Eindhoven. When the whole of The Netherlands was liberated he moved his operation to Hilversum. Radio Nederland was born.
April 15th of 1947, the private non-profit foundation Stichting Radio Nederland Wereldomroep was founded, after many discussions about the future of Dutch broadcasting.
21′43 Short quote from Queen Wilhelmina about the end of Dutch rule in Indonesia.
22′00 The story of Radio Netherlands in the fifties and beyond.
23′48 Eddie Startz with the Happy Station station call in Spanish, French and English.
25′35 Jim Vastenhout, Radio Netherlands’ technical expert, about technological developments and the future of short-wave radio.
30′ 21″
lw … [muziek]
De geschiedenis van uitzending op de de korte golf in Nederland en de geschiedenis van Radio Nederland Wereldomroep, uitgezonden ter gelegenheid van het 30 jarig bestaan van Radio Nederland.
Aan het woord komen o.a. Hendrik (Henk) van den Broek, de eerste voorzitter van Radio Nederland, Edward (Eddy) Startz, die in november 1928 begon met het populaire programma ‘Happy Station’, technicus Martin Ruis, Bob den Doolaard en Koningin Wilhelmina.
