Oct 27, 2010
In this edition, let's head back to the 1980's. The late Richard
Ginbey was a keen shortwave radio listener who did more than most
to document African broadcasting. He lived in South Africa,
Namibia, and New Zealand for much of his life, working as a radio
presenter for a number of music radio stations. He was one of the
few people making audio recordings of the stations he heard. In the
1970's he was heard with his own radio programme on Radio Portugal
(then known as the Voice of the West) and a publication called the
World Radio Bulletin. By the time I joined Radio Netherlands, he
was already contributing a monthly spot for that station. I
encouraged him to give us more profiles and less lists - and he
duly obliged. Sadly, Richard was killed in a road traffic accident.
I tried to find out what happened to his priceless collection of
cassette recordings, but my letters were never answered. This
programme from June 1983 includes a contribution from Professor
John Campbell on the Irish pirates, a promo for ANARC 1983 with Dan
Robinson (now with VOA News), and an update on Basicode 2, a
universal language for home computers broadcast by the Dutch
domestic channel NOS in a programme called Hobbyscoop.