This was another milestone, at least for me, hosting the 1000th edition of Media Network at the start of March 2000. We used the programme to share some of the behind the scene stories and celebrate anecodotes with our contributors. Andy Sennitt, the retiring editor of the Media Network blog in 2012, explains how he got involved with the programme. And there are plenty of memories from the loyal audience too. Enjoy!

This was my first programme as a host and producer on Radio Netherlands. It is August 7th 1980. I had arrived a few days before from the UK and was on the air within 48 hours. You can hear that I'm already trying to reduce the amount of music, which is why the name of DX Juke Box morphed into Media Network. As the Media Network Blog ends its run on Radio Netherlands this month (March 2012), I decided to share a few milestones from this collection. Don't worry we'll still be digging in the archives even though Media Network is no more.

We start with news of changes in ownership in Soviet media. Victor Goonetilleke reports on a mysterious station calling itself Colombo International Radio. Radio Ulan Batar now on 22 metres, VOA announced that Radio Marti and Worldnet are to be merged. Albanian refugees in Italy demand loudspeakers to listen to VOA Albanian. BBC is planning to start a BBC World News. Tony Barratt reports hearing HCJB from Quito on SSB. A strange story from Vietnam about cable radio and TRT expands. Arthur Cushen has tuning tips including WWCR and Brazzaville. We called Algerian radio to find out more about the Voice of Palestine. Very quiet conditions on the sun, reports Mike Bird in Melbourne.

I owe a lot to Wolf Harranth (pictured), former DX editor at Radio Austria International and now the curator of the world's largest radio documentation centre in Vienna. I made a video with him just before they moved the centre. This show starts with a summary of news in brief including clandestine radio into Nicuragua, Over the Horizon Radar in the US. We then launched the Media Network SW Car Radio Investigation. Remember the Grundig converter? We then looked at the cancer scare risks near the Delano shortwave transmitter site owned by VOA. Wolf Harranth talks about plans for commercial radio in Austria. He explains that many stations from across the border are audible. Richard Ginbey reports on developments in African Media including Angola, Botswana and Mozambique.

The programme kicks off with a review by Jeff White of what a range of international broadcasters have been doing to reach their nationals in the Middle East following the invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi forces. Frans Vossen reports on changes expected to the French language network RTBF-4. Pete Myers and I review the ICOM-ICR72. The reviews were later hosted by the UK Mediumwave Circle when the Receiver Shopping List on Radio Netherlands site was discontinued. We wonder what South Shropshire communications is doing on 1512 kHz. BBC 648 changes it's name to BBC for Europe. Andrew Taussig explains that mediumwave is no longer the only way to get a signal across. He also argues why they do their coverage in three languages.

The programme starts with an analysis of a major solar flare on the sun (like the one this week) with the late David Rosenthal (still miss him). We preview a special programme coming from Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles. Remember the voice of Bruce Parsons. And a call from Rich in California triggers us to experiment with a Heil receiver connected to a satellite dish. We look at a clandestine station which pretended to be Radio Tehran so it broadcast extracts from the Satanic Verses. Wolf Harranth joins us with an explanation of how private radio is trying to get established in Austria. We learn about a summer school for radio in Bregenz, Austria. A snake switches off Radio Uganda and Andy Sennitt has been exploring harmonic signals. Remember VOA Europe? This programme recalls the lesser known VOA Pacific.

More time travel into the past, to a time when shortwave broadcasting was expanding. This programme starts with the news of a major solar disruption on the sun (like the one we're experiencing as this is being uploaded). We then catch up on two US shortwave stations KVOH and KYOI, we called Vincent Monsey in New York to find out why Radio Caroline is being heard on shortwave. There's a flashback to the West German pirate station Radio Valentine. We talked to Dick Robinson who at that time was the boss at Electronic Equipment Bank in Virginia. He talks about modifications to filters and the specialized world of the high end of shortwave receivers like the ICOM ICR-71. Paul Ballister phones in with news about Radio Essex. Andy Sennitt has more news about NDXE. Radio Earth hires time from Radio Milano International. HRRI in Honduras is on the air. If you're interested in propagation maps, check out this new site from NASA.

This programme looks at how amateur radio helped in the aftermath of the two earthquakes which hit El Salvador in October 1986. Around 1000 messages were sent on behalf of official organisation. 14313 kHz is the emergency frequency to monitor. Bob Horvitz reports on the political clandestine stations beaming into the area, including Radio Venceremos. FMLN has declared a truce. The programme also looks at stereo mediumwave tests in China. On 10870 kHz Radio Iran Toilers is being heard from transmitters believed to be in Afghanistan. Receiver Development Update deals with Escom 500. Eddy Visser is working on modifications for ICOM receivers with a Phase-locked system. We also looked at what happened to Radio West, an updated AM filter on a Philips D-2935 and a new communications receiver, the SRX-351 from Germany. We investigated why there is a pitch change to the Radio Netherlands interval signal and changes at RCI for SWL Digest.

This programme was one of several in the period to look at clandestine radio broadcasting. Although there were later programmes that went into detail about number stations, the remarks by Professor John Campbell of the University of London Computer Science Dept were spot on. I wonder if there is any on-line evidence of that oil company using numbers for communications with Nigeria? He also reviews the book Nish No Kaze, Hare by American writer Robert Haslach. I can still see copies of the book listed in antique book shops here in the Netherlands, though I don't know of any English language translations. Robert worked at Radio Netherlands, when it was "Radio Nederland" and later wrote a history of the station. The programme also includes the news of the start of CFI, a new educational TV network for Africa.The English language pages of the current CFI website must have been done by a machine! We also discuss the rather confusing Sony shortwave line of 7600 receivers. Sony is launching the ICF7601. You can probably skip the RN Hertzian adjustment file - there was no Internet to announce all that schedule information. And even though we printed thousands of programme schedules, the postal services have never been that good at delivering this kind of information.

What were ANARC meetings like 25 years ago? ANARC was the Association of North American Radio Clubs, coming from an era when groups would organise around their passion for listening to distant radio stations on AM, FM, and/or shortwave. I think their peak was in the late 80's, when there were still plenty of stations on the tropical bands of 60 and 90 metres, the Cold War was still on (with all the mystery of clandestine stations) and receiver technology was experimenting with digital processing to dig out weak signals from the noise. I recall this hotel in downtown Montreal because I ended up using the fire-escape a couple of times to get down to breakfast. And on the last day, my pyjamas disappeared from underneath the pillow. I remarked about it in an off-hand way during an edition of the show and a listener in India sent me a new pair!