Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Type	International public broadcaster
Country	Netherlands
Availability	International
Owner	Government of the Netherlands
Launch date	1947
Official website	radionetherlands.nl

Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW; Dutch: Radio Nederland Wereldomroep) is a public radio and television network based in Hilversum, producing and transmitting programmes for international audiences outside the Netherlands. Radio Netherlands Worldwide has also distributed content via web and e-mail technology from as early as 1992.

On June 14, 2012, Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) announced that it will end its Indonesian and English broadcast services on June 29, 2012, due to steep budgets cuts imposed by the Dutch government and a concomitant change in focus. Earlier in the year, on May 10, 2012, the broadcaster ended its Dutch language service.

Due to government directives, the service is adopting a new mandate to promote free speech in areas where people are not free to gather information or to form and express independent opinions.

History

Broadcasting to the Dutch Colonial Empire (1927-1939)

The Netherlands claims to have started the international broadcasting business, with regular transmissions starting in 1927 from the Philips shortwave stations PHOHI (in Dutch to the Dutch East Indies - now Indonesia) and PCJJ.

Happy Station Show, the international program on Sundays commenced in 1928 with host Eddie Startz. He spoke several languages, including Arabic, English, German and Spanish and called the re-christened (by international convention) station PCJ, station Peace Cheer and Joy.

Prewar technical innovation

• Broadcasts were considerably improved in 1937 with the construction of beam antennas supported by the world's first wooden antenna masts rotatable on two concentric circular rails at the transmitter site in Huizen.
• Rotatable shortwave antennas were not in common use until the 1960s, so PCJ was far ahead of its time with its introduction of rotatable HRS type antennas.

Broadcasts from the Netherlands were interrupted by the German invasion in May 1940. The transmitters in Huizen were used for pro-Nazi broadcasts, some originating from Germany, others concerts from Dutch broadcasters under German control.

Broadcasting in exile (1940-1945)

The Dutch government in exile was granted air-time on BBC transmitters in 1941. The programme Radio Oranje was a daily commentary on the Dutch situation both in the Netherlands and the rest of the empire (Dutch East and West Indies). One of the chief commentators on Radio Oranje, Henk van den Broek, was given the task of restarting public broadcasting once the country was liberated.

The postwar era (1946-1989)

He began Radio Herrijzend Nederland in 1946 (from Eindhoven), moving the studios to Hilversum later the same year. The plan was to restart broadcasting along the lines of the BBC. Whilst this succeeded for the new external service, Radio Nederland Wereldomroep which was founded in 1947, political pressure led to the re-establishment of the complicated system of broadcasting societies sharing airtime on domestic networks.^{[citation needed]}

The Internet age (1990-present)

Radio Netherlands Worldwide was always editorially independent from the Dutch government, being funded as around 6% of the public allocation for public broadcasting. Despite severe budget cutbacks in 2004, the station has maintained its standing as one of the more creative production houses in Europe. It also supports the development of new technology, such as webcasting, podcasting and Digital Radio Mondiale, which may ultimately replace analogue shortwave in many regions of the world.

The English-language shortwave broadcasts to North America were discontinued on October 26, 2008, due to a survey that claimed that more listeners to the network were using the "podcasting" service instead of shortwave radios.

On June 24, 2011, the Dutch government announced a 70% cut to RNW's budget reducing it from 46 million euros to 14 million. As a result, Radio Netherlands will no longer be providing information for Dutch people living abroad or be "presenting a realistic image of the Netherlands to the rest of the world" and, after 2012, will focus solely on "making information available in countries where free speech is suppressed or threatened". A number of RNW's 10 language services will close and remaining foreign language desks will have reduced staff and all Dutch language programming will end. All shortwave broadcasting is expected to cease. In addition, beginning in 2013, RNW's budget will be provided by the Dutch Foreign Ministry rather than the Education and Culture Ministry

On May 11, 2012 at 2200 CEST, the Dutch service signed off at the end of a 24-hour Radio marathon broadcast. This included several interviews with past staff members of the station, including the former Director General Lodewijk Bouwens. And on June 29, 2012, Radio Netherlands ended broadcasting in English at 20:57 GMT after a similar celebratory 24-hour broadcast.. Interviews with the host Jonathan Groubert which signed off for the last time have been posted by Jonathan Marks, the former Radio Netherlands Programme Director (1992-2003).

Shortwave relay stations

RNW studio

The shortwave international broadcasts were heard worldwide via broadcast facilities in Flevoland, Bonaire and Madagascar. In the last decade, the shortwave broadcasts were supplemented by an extensive network of partner stations. In 2005, this was approximately 5500 partners, of which half are partners that use the station's music output (classical, jazz and world music).

Radio Nederland carried speech programming on shortwave and satellite in the English, Spanish, Indonesian, French and Papiamento languages. Additionally, there were programme productions and websites in French, Arabic and Mandarin. Certain programmes were heard on local/national networks, such as CBC Radio, ABC NewsRadio and SAfm.

Radio Netherlands Worldwide had a weekly reach through all its language services, and music programmes, of around 50 million listeners a week.

RNW historical output (1950-1996)

For a comparison of RNW to other broadcasters see;

Estimated total direct programme hours per week of some external radio broadcasters for 1996

Broadcaster	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990	1996[1]
VOA, RFE/RL & Radio Martí	497	1,495	1,907	1,901	2,611	1,821
China Radio International	66	687	1,267	1,350	1,515	1,620
BBC World Service	643	589	723	719	796	1,036
Radio Moscow / Voice of Russia[2]	533	1,015	1,908	2,094	1,876	726
Deutsche Welle	0	315	779	804	848	655
Radio Cairo / ERTU	0	301	540	546	605	604
IRIB World Service	12	24	155	175	400	575
All India Radio	116	157	271	389	456	500
NHK World Radio Japan	0	203	259	259	343	468
Radio France Internationale	198	326	200	125	379	459
Radio Netherlands Worldwide	127	178	335	289	323	392
Israel Radio International	0	91	158	210	253	365
Voice of Turkey	40	77	88	199	322	364
Radio Pyongyang / Voice of Korea	0	159	330	597	534	364
Radio Bulgaria	30	117	164	236	320	338
Radio Australia	181	257	350	333	330	307
Radio Tirana	26	63	487	560	451	303
Radio Romania International	30	159	185	198	199	298
Radio Exterior de España	68	202	251	239	403	270
RDP Internacional	46	133	295	214	203	226
Radio Havana Cuba	0	0	320	424	352	203
Rai Italia Radio	170	205	165	169	181	203
Radio Canada International	85	80	98	134	195	175
Radio Polonia	131	232	334	337	292	171
Radio RSA / Channel Africa	0	63	150	183	156	159
Sveriges Radio International	28	114	140	155	167	149
Magyar Rádió	76	120	105	127	102	144
Radio Prague[3]	119	196	202	255	131	131
Voice of Nigeria	0	0	62	170	120	127
Radio Belgrade	80	70	76	72	96	68

Source: International Broadcast Audience Research, June 1996

The list includes about a quarter of the world's external broadcasters whose output is both publicly funded and worldwide. Among those excluded are Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea and various international commercial and religious stations.

Notes:

1. 1996 figures as at June; all other years as at December.
2. Before 1991, broadcasting for the former USSR.
3. Before 1996, broadcasting for the former Czechoslovakia.

Programming on the English Service

The Happy Station Show was a long-running popular radio show, originating on the network's predecessors in 1928 and continued until 1995. Popular music from Europe and various other countries was mixed with vintage recordings and multilingual chatter, switching back and forth between English, Spanish and Dutch, by hosts including long serving Eddie Startz and Tom Meijer each Sunday. It became popular since it gave listeners a chance to travel in their armchair during a period when international travel was impossible for most people. It also pioneered call-in shows, in both the English and Spanish versions, during the latter part of the 1970s.

DX Juke Box was a media show on Radio Netherlands Worldwide that ran on the English service from its inception in 1961 with Harry van Gelder (1911–2003) and Jim Vastenhoud, through to May 7, 1981 when the name and format was changed to Media Network. The music was originally designed to attract younger listeners to technical features, with a lot of emphasis in the early days on DX tips and technical articles. There were also DX courses on basic electronics and propagation during the 1960s and 1970s. When host Jonathan Marks took over in August 1980, he re-launched the show less than one year later by adding news/topical features and eliminating the music. Media Network ran successfully for more than 1000 editions, before it migrated to a full-time website/weblog in October 2000. The blog was discontinued in 2012 as a result of budget cuts. The Media Network archive containing around 300 of the broadcasts is on line for the time being.

In September 2010, RNW discontinued Newsline which had been its staple current affairs programme and also discontinued news bulletins. Instead, the service continued with music, literary and documentary-based programmes. Literary programmes Radio Books ended in 2010 and Commonwealth Short Stories ended the following year. . The environmental programme Earth Beat ended with the closure of the English service in June 2012 as did South Asia Wired. The State We're In, a coproduction with American public radio station WAMU-FM, was a programme about "human rights, human wrongs and how we treat each other" told from a first person perspective, continued for several months as a podcast and North American broadcast before ending in October 2012.

As of October 2012, regional English language programmes Bridges with Africa and What's Up Africa continued to be produced and broadcast through local partner stations in Africa as well as online as podcasts through RNW's Africa Service.

See also

• List of radio stations in the Netherlands

External links

• Radio Netherlands Worldwide:
  1. Dutch
  2. English
  3. Spanish
  4. Portuguese
  5. Indonesian
  6. Mandarin Chinese
  7. Dutch (Caribbean)
  8. Papiamento
  9. Dutch (Suriname)
  10. Literary Arabic
  11. French (Africa)
  12. English (Africa)
• SWDXER ¨The SWDXER¨ - with general SWL information and radio antenna tips.