Friday, July 15, 2011

Interval Signals Dot Net - More Than Meets The Eye


                         INTERVAL SIGNALS ONLINE
 
Maintained by David Kernick, in cooperation with Documentary Archives Radio Communications - www.dokufunk.org

Interval Signals Online is a well established website dedicated to what most people know as "station ID's". Usually, it is only the radio professionals, radio enthusiasts and radio geeks who know the value of station ID and station signal tests. The whole goal of sites like ISO, Shortwave America, Shortwave Central, HFRadio.org, Media Network Plus, and the whole long list of other sites dedicated to radio is to let these stations know they are being heard. Stations want to know that they have an audience.

Over the decades that shortwave radio has served the masses, an image problem has come full circle. This image problem is to the detriment of the listening public. CC Radio has, over the recent years, produced commercials bolstering the ability of their radios to receive the two meter amateur radio band where most of the trained Skywarn Spotters make their reports nationwide via various radio repeater systems that receive on one frequency and simultaneously re-transmit that radio traffic on an output frequency. 

The whole idea here is advertising!  ISO posts recorded radio station identification transmissions and station signal tests in the same way an advertisement would be posted for those collectors of commercials from various TV and Radio Networks. 

Going through the ISO archives, Shortwave America found a rather neat gem of a station ID from The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation otherwise known as SBC before the giant of the telephone company had the SBC moniker. 

This recording is from RSR-3 Couleur produced in French, Spanish, and English. As you listen, you can hear a VERY UNIQUE mix of music styles, voices, and cultures that will not ever be heard anywhere else. LISTEN HERE 

Another gem of a recording comes from the ISO "Mainland - China Radio International" archives. What you are about to hear is titled "CNR 9th Program - Story Radio" produced in Mandarin and English. Now, for those of you who remember the Olympics being held in China, here is a collectible item produced in English, Mandarin, and Japanese called "Olympic Radio". 

From Interval Signal Online's OFFSHORE Collection comes items like: 

The Arutz Sheva Foreign Service ID produced in Russian, Hebrew, French, and English. 

Laser Hot Hits, vintage 1987!!!, Radio Caroline North - vintage 1964, Radio Caroline South - vintage 1967, and Skanes Radio Mercur - vintage 1958/59 from Sweden. From the Netherlands, we have the Radio Noordzee International - vintage 1971 produced in Dutch. Recognize the address? It is the old Radio Netherlands International address! 

The ISO Italy Archives has a true GEM of a recording, vintage 1924 in Italian from Unione Radiofonica Italiana. Obviously, Interval Signals Online is not to be missed or easily dismissed. 


Closing out this piece for tonight, here is an ABI Special Broadcast via Tashkent which is both an interval signal and an ID in Japanese, Mandarin, and English.