International broadcasting


International broadcasting consists of radio and television transmissions that purposefully cross international boundaries, often with then intent of allowing expatriates to remain in touch with their countries of origin as well as educate, inform, and influence residents of foreign countries. Content can range from overt propaganda and counterpropaganda to cultural content to news reports that reflect the point of view and concerns of the originating country or that seek to provide alternative information to that otherwise available as well as promote tourism and trade. In the first half of the twentieth century, international broadcasting was used by colonial empires as a means of connecting
colonies with the metropole. When operated by governments or entities close to a government, international broadcasting can be a form of soft power. Less frequently, international broadcasting has been undertaken for commercial purposes by private broadcasters.
International broadcasting, in a limited extent, began during World War I, when German and British stations broadcast press communiqués using Morse code. With the severing of Germany's undersea cables, the wireless telegraph station in Nauen was the country's sole means of long-distance communication. The US Navy Radio Service radio station in New Brunswick, Canada, transmitted the 'Fourteen Points' by wireless to Nauen in 1917. In turn, Nauen station broadcast the news of the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II on November 10, 1918. In the early 2020's, many of the public international broadcasters that court audiences abroad have seen their budgets shrink, with the exception of Deutsche Welle, while state media outlets from authoritarian countries like Russia, China and Iran have been increasing their budgets since the early 2000's.

History

Origins

pioneered the use of short wave radio for long-distance transmissions in the early 1920s. Using a system of parabolic reflector antennae, Marconi's assistant, Charles Samuel Franklin, rigged up a large antenna at Poldhu Wireless Station, Cornwall, running on 25 kW of power. In June and July 1923, wireless transmissions were completed during nights on 97 meters from Poldhu to Marconi's yacht Elettra in the Cape Verde Islands. High speed shortwave telegraphy circuits were then installed from London to Australia, India, South Africa and Canada as the main element of the Imperial Wireless Chain from 1926.
The Dutch began conducting experiments in the shortwave frequencies in 1925 from Eindhoven. The radio station PCJJ began its first international broadcasting on March 11, 1927, with programmes in Dutch for colonies in the Dutch West Indies and Dutch East Indies and in German, Spanish and English for the rest of the world. The popular Happy Station show was inaugurated in 1928 and became the world's longest-running shortwave programme, continuing until 1995, transferring to Radio Netherlands after World War II.
In 1927, Marconi also turned his attention toward long distance broadcasting on shortwave. His first such broadcasts took place to commemorate Armistice Day in the same year. He continued running a regular international broadcast that was picked up around the world, with programming from the 2LO station, then run by the BBC. The success of this operation caught the BBC's attention who rented out a shortwave transmitting station in Chelmsford, with the callsign G5SW, to Marconi. The BBC Empire Service was finally inaugurated on December 19, 1932, with transmissions aimed towards Australia and New Zealand.

Expansion

Other notable early international broadcasters included Vatican Radio, Radio Moscow, the official service of the Soviet Union. Clarence W. Jones started transmitting on Christmas Day, 1931 from Christian missionary radio station HCJB in Quito, Ecuador. Broadcasting in South Asia was launched in 1925 in Ceylon – Radio Ceylon, now the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation is the oldest in the region.
Shortwave broadcasting from Nauen in Germany to the US, Central and South America, and the Far East began in 1926. A second station, Zeesen, was added in 1931. In January 1932, the German Reichspost assumed control of the Nauen station and added to its shortwave and longwave capacity. Once Adolf Hitler assumed power in 1933, shortwave, under the Auslandsrundfunk, was regarded as a vital element of Nazi propaganda.
German shortwave hours were increased from two hours a day to 18 per day, and eventually twelve languages were broadcast on a 24-hour basis, including English. A 100 kilowatt transmitter and antenna complex was built at Zeesen, near Berlin. Specialty target programming to the United States began in 1933, to South Africa, South America, and East Asia in 1934, and South Asia and Central America in 1938. German propaganda was organized under Joseph Goebbels, and played a key role in the German annexation of Austria and the Munich Crisis of 1938.
In 1936, the International Radio Union recognized Vatican Radio as a "special case" and authorized its broadcasting without any geographical limits. On December 25, 1937, a Telefunken 25-kW transmitter and two directional antennas were added. Vatican Radio broadcast over 10 frequencies.
During the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalist forces received a powerful Telefunken transmitter as a gift of Nazi Germany to aid their propaganda efforts, and until 1943 Radio Nacional de España collaborated with the Axis powers to retransmit in Spanish news from the official radio stations of Germany and Italy.

World War II

During the Second World War, Russian, German, British, and Italian international broadcasting services expanded. In 1938 the British BBC launched international services in German, French and Italian. In 1942, the United States initiated its international broadcasting service, the Voice of America. In the Pacific theater, General Douglas MacArthur used shortwave radio to keep in touch with the citizens of the Japanese-occupied Philippine Islands.
Several announcers who became well known in their countries included British Union of Fascists member William Joyce, who was one of the two "Lord Haw-Haw"s; Frenchmen Paul Ferdonnet and André Olbrecht, called "the traitors of Stuttgart"; and Americans Frederick William Kaltenbach, "Lord Hee-Haw", and Mildred Gillars, one of the two announcers called "Axis Sally". Listeners to German programs often tuned in for curiosity's sake—at one time, German radio had half a million listeners in the U.S.--but most of them soon lost interest. Japan had "Tokyo Rose", who broadcast Japanese propaganda in English, along with American music to help ensure listeners.
During World War II, Vatican Radio's news broadcasts were banned in Germany. During the war, the radio service operated in four languages.
The British launched Radio SEAC from Colombo, Ceylon during World War II. The station broadcast radio programs to the allied armed forces across the region from their headquarters in Ceylon.
Following the war and German partition, each Germany developed its own international broadcasting station: Deutsche Welle, using studios in Cologne, West Germany, and Radio Berlin International in East Germany. RBI's broadcasts ceased shortly before the reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990, and Deutsche Welle took over its transmitters and frequencies.

Cold War era

The Cold War led to increased international broadcasting, as Communist and non-Communist states attempted to influence each other's domestic population. Some of the most prominent Western broadcasters were the Voice of America, the BBC World Service, and the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The Soviet Union's most prominent service was Radio Moscow and China used Radio Peking. In addition to the U.S.-Soviet cold war, the Chinese-Russian border dispute led to an increase of the numbers of transmitters aimed at the two nations, and the development of new techniques such as playing tapes backwards for reel-to-reel recorders.
West Germany resumed regular shortwave broadcasts using Deutsche Welle on May 3, 1953. Its Julich transmitter site began operation in 1956, with eleven 100-kW Telefunken transmitters. The Wertachtal site was authorized in 1972 and began with four 500-kW transmitters. By 1989, there were 15 transmitters, four of which relayed the Voice of America. Meanwhile, in East Germany, the Nauen site began transmitting Radio DDR, later Radio Berlin International, on October 15, 1959.
In addition to these states, international broadcast services grew in Europe and the Middle East. Under the presidency of Gamal Nasser, Egyptian transmitters covered the Arab world; Israel's service, Kol Yisrael, served both to present the Israeli point of view to the world and to serve the Jewish diaspora, particularly behind the Iron Curtain.
Radio RSA, as part of the South African Broadcasting Corporation, was established in 1966 to promote the image of South Africa internationally and reduce criticism of apartheid. It continued in 1992, when the post-apartheid government renamed it Channel Africa.
Ironically, the isolationist Albania under Enver Hoxha, virtually a hermit kingdom, became one of the most prolific international broadcasters during the latter decades of the Cold War, with Radio Tirana one of the top five broadcasters in terms of hours of programming produced.
Estimated total programme hours per week of some external broadcasters
CountryPolitical
Alignment		Broadcaster195019551960196519701975198019851990
NAMRadio Tirana264763154487490560581451
WestRadio Australia181226257299350379333352330
EastRadio Sofia3060117154164197236290320
WestRadio Canada International 8583808198159134169195
-Radio Beijing66159687102712671423135014461515
EastRadio Havana Cuba ---325320311424379352
EastRadio Prague119147196189202253255268131
NAMRadio Cairo-100301505540635546560605
WestRadio France Internationale 198191326183200108125272379
WestDeutsche Welle, Deutschlandfunk -105315671779767804795848
EastRadio Berlin International -9185308274342375413-
EastRadio Budapest7699120121105127127122102
NAMAll India Radio 116117157175271326389408456
NAMVoice of the Islamic Republic of Iran121024118155154175310400
-Kol Yisrael-289192158198210223253
WestRadiotelevisione Italiana 170185205160165170169173181
-Radio Japan-91203249259259259287343
NAMRadio Pyongyang-53159392330455597535534
WestRadio Nederland Wereldomroep 127120178235335400289336323
NAMVoice of Nigeria---636261170322120
EastRadio Polonia131359232280334340337320292
WestRDP Internacional46102133273295190214140203
EastRadio Bucharest30109159163185190198212199
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