Shortwave Broadcast Compilation – The Americas: Circa 1980s

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Watson, who shares the following recording. Paul notes:

“During the 1980s I was listening to shortwave radio from my home near London, in the southeast of England. I had a cassette recorder connected to the receiver and taped anything interesting that caught my ear. Little did I know that 40 years later the majority of these stations would have disappeared and I would have the opportunity to share these recordings with the world.”

This recording is part of a five-part compilation series Paul has created, grouping international shortwave broadcasters by region. The majority of the clips are in English and feature interval signals, station IDs, and sign-ons/offs—a rich snapshot of shortwave radio during its Cold War-era heyday.

This particular compilation focuses on: The Americas

All recordings were made during the 1980s, most in the first half of the decade. While frequencies and exact dates aren’t provided, Paul has kindly included timestamps noting when each broadcaster appears in the audio. These are listed below for easy reference.

We’re grateful to Paul for sharing this excellent audio time capsule, and for his efforts to preserve and document the golden era of international broadcasting.

  • Bonaire: Trans World Radio (3.31)

  • Brazil: Radio Nacional do Brasil (4.32)

  • Canada: Radio Canada Int (6.58)

  • Chile: Voice of Chile (8.48)

  • Colombia: Radio Nacional (11.06)

  • Radio Sutatenza (12.00)

  • Cuba: Radio Havana (12.48)

  • Dominican Republic: La Voz del CID (14.20)

  • Radio Clarin (15.01)

  • Ecuador: HCJB (15.43)

  • Grenada: Radio Free Grenada (17.36)

  • Nicaragua: Voice of Nicaragua (18.42)

  • USA: Voice of America (19.54)

  • Radio Earth (20.33)

  • KCBI (21.39)

  • WHRI (22.13)

  • WRNO (22.38)

  • WYFR (22.49)

  • UN Radio (23.22)

  • Venezuela: Radio Turismo (24.48)

  • Radio Tachira (25.31)

  • YVTO (26.06)

Radio Netherlands service to Biak: circa 1980s

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tony King, who shares the following recording Radio Nederland Biak made in the 1980s on 7190 kHz and notes:

Biak was Dutch East Indies. It became part of Indonesia. The announcement is :" radio Omroep New Guinea" (new gin ear) and the content I think originated in the Netherlands as transcriptions and shipped to the colony.

Voice and King of Hope WORD/KING - Lebanon: Circa 1980s

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This recording of Voice and King of Hope WORD/KING was made in the 1980’s when the station was on shortwave in the 48 meter band at 6,215 kHz. This was the High Adventures station operating from the area known as “Free Lebanon” https://bit.ly/2zqsGOd Among the interesting things in this 15 minute recording, a weather forecast for the Free Lebanon area (at the end of the recording, just before a Billy Joel song), a commercial for an American eye specialist offering free eyeglasses, and a pre-recorded jingle “WORD”. The announcer also gives a mediumwave frequency of 945 kHz. Local time of this broadcast was before 7 AM Lebanon time. ID: “You are listening to WORD and KING, that’s High Adventures the Voice and King of Hope for the Middle East here in the Valley of the Springs in beautiful free Lebanon, on AM and shortwave.” Also, mention of the Maronite town of Marjayoun.

The signal from KING/WORD had that typical sound that we all remember from the time when propagation and solar conditions permitted reception of hundreds of stations still on shortwave. This reception was on either a HQ-180A or Drake SPR-4, two receivers I was using at the time and which I still have in my shack today.

To hear this nearly 15 minute recording of WORD/KING of Hope Lebanon…

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Robinson, who shares the following recording and notes:

Radio Moscow, Soviet Viewpoint: circa 1980s

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Many thanks to Keith Perron, for this short studio recording of Soviet Viewpoint from the Radio Moscow English language service. 

This episode focuses on the reduction of nuclear weapons and a Soviet/US summit. We do not have an exact date of this studio recording--please comment if you believe you know which summit they mention in the broadcast.

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below: