Oct 27, 2010
This is a very early Media Network from December 1982 when distance
still had a certain magic. There was no wikipedia to get a briefing
on far away places. Phone lines were prohibitive expensive (6 Euros
a minute to the Pacific) and awful quality. Via a complicated
method of simultaneous recording (two tape recorders running at the
same time in different locations), I managed to link up with Martin
Hadlow, at that time working for in the Solomon Islands. Hearing
the station was virtually impossible outside the Pacific, even
though they had a short-wave transmitter. Martin later when on to
do some fascinating projects for UNESCO in Cambodia, Afghanistan,
and Kazakhstan. The photo illustrating this podcast was taken in
2005 when Martin was stationed at UNESCO HQ in Paris. He is now a
professor in Brisbane, Australia. This same broadcast includes a
review of a book called "Let Truth be Told" written by the late
Gerard Mansell, one of the directors of BBC External Services in
the early 1980's. BBC External Services was celebrating 50 years on
the air. Richard Ginbey also shares some recordings from Malawi
made from his listening post in South Africa. I wonder what the
show would have sounded like if we had Skype and multi-track
recording facilities. We only had razor blades and splicing tape.
(I know about a few short glitches in this copy of the recording
during the Mansell book review).