04 October 2003

REM Island to be dismantled A piece of Dutch offshore broadcasting history will soon cease to exist. The Department of Public Works has announced its decision to dismantle the artificial platform in the North Sea known as REM Island. The island was constructed in 1964 at a cost of 9 million guilders by a team of broadcasting entrepeneurs, who used it to broadcast the first commercial radio and television programmes to the Netherlands under the name Radio Noordzee and TV Noordzee. The experiment lasted for just over 4 months, from mid-August to mid-December 1964, before being closed by the authorities. However the organisation, TROS, survived and became one of the main public broadcasting organisations in the Netherlands. In 1974, the Department of Public Works began using REM Island as a base for carrying out marine investigations and measurements. However, it is now surplus to requirements and a spokesman said that it has come to the end of its life and will shortly be dismantled. A history of REM Island - in Dutch, but with photos and audio clips - is available on the TROS Web site. See also our feature article Dismantling history. 9:15:58 PM     comment on this entry []

Radio Netherlands English schedule effective 26th October 2003 The new edition of On Target is currently being distributed. For those of you who are not on the mailing list, here's a summary of the new shortwave/mediumwave transmission times and frequencies for our programmes in English. Note that our transmissions will begin on the hour rather than the half hour. If you're in North America, note the additional weekend transmission at 1900-2100 UTC. Full technical details of all our transmissions will be published on the Media Network Web site as soon as my colleagues in Programme Distribution release the schedule, to which final changes are still being made. English Schedule 26 Oct 2003 - 28 March 2004 (all times UTC) To North America 1200-1300 on 5965 kHz 1900-2100 (Sat/Sun) on 15315, 17725 and 17875 kHz 0000-0100 on 9845 kHz 0100-0200 on 6165 kHz 0400-0500 on 6165 and 9590 kHz To Africa 1800-1900 on 6020, 9895 and 11655 kHz 1900-2100 on 7120, 9895, 11655 and 17810 kHz To Europe 2200-2300 on 1512 kHz To Asia, Far East & Pacific 1000-1100 on 7260, 9785, 12065 and 13820 kHz To South Asia 1400-1600 on 12070, 12080 and 15595 kHz 3:53:45 PM     comment on this entry []

© Copyright 2003 Andy Sennitt.