Radio Berlin International

In response to:Whatever happed to ...?

2009-05-21T16:51:10+02:00

This page brings back memories. As an idealistic young man with both a amateur radio license and an FCC engineering license, who worked in full-power, big city radio as a teenager (a rarity), I was impressed enough with some of the ideals and propaganda expressed on RBI, Radio Moscow and some of the other communist era stations that I actually went to an Embassy during a school trip to D.C. and discussed defection. Even though I was young, the staff explained the process and asked me to go home and think about it long and hard. If I was still interested, I was told with my education and skills, I could be accepted, but there would be no turning back even for a young age. They warned me not to make or request such a decision for the wrong reasons -- anger at parents, peers, etc. -- or to make it quickly because I was over legal age and such an act could not be undone.

I am so glad, as a grew older and wiser, that I never took that jump. Oddly enough, my life took a different path. I eventually studied antiquities and psychology and earned advanced degrees in Divinity. I'm an ordained minister and have served in my denomination for a number of years now, both as a pastor and as an academic -- a path that I would not have traveled had I made other choices. Of course, I recognize propaganda for what it is, but still have fond memories of those bygone days.

In response to:Whatever happed to ...?

2008-09-23T20:51:31+02:00

Wow! This page really does bring back some memories! Some of my earliest memories in life are of Berlin (East and West) as my father was stationed there from the time I was 3 until I was 7.
During my teenage years I used to listen to RBI on AM at night and then after sign-off tune into Radio Luxemburg. Ooh how time flies! I was never allowed to write to them because of my father's military status although I did try to send for a QSL card of their last program but got a letter back from Deutschewelle instead. I still have it tucked away someplace.
One of my favorite memories of RBI is sitting on a military train someplace between West Berlin and Frankfurt/Helmstedt listening to RBI on a boombox becuase for some reason it was the only station we could recieve!
I have a BA in German language in Literature. I did my graduation project on Literature and Every Day Life in the DDR. From 2003-2004 I worked in Halle/Saale and Leipzig. For some reason the DDR still fascinates me. There is still a big difference between East and West. I collect stamps and postcards and militaria from the DDR. Somewhere I have a few QSL cards from RBI which I traded with someone.

In response to:The End

2008-06-12T15:18:26+02:00

I've started to put some of my RBI QSL cards on the link above.

Enjoy,

Chris.

In response to:The End

2008-05-31T06:55:52+02:00

You cant upload them directly into this blog, but you can embed the link to the QSL card in this box so that it will appear to be here, but is actually in Photobucket or Flickr or somewhere else. Hopefully that makes sense.

In response to:The End

2008-05-30T00:52:44+02:00

Guys,

How do I upload attachments such as QSL cards on here?

Chris.

In response to:Whatever happed to ...?

2008-04-18T16:30:00+02:00

Jimmy worked for RBI from 1961 to 1977 in the North America department. He is happy to pass on more about his time at RBI, and I plan to post it eventually in interview form.

Hopefully other former RBI staffers will wish to do the same.

More from RBI listeners would be great too.

This blog got some positive responces on Glen Hauser's popular DX reports, so hopefully a few more DXers will make a contribution too.

In response to:Whatever happed to ...?

2008-04-18T13:12:54+02:00

Very interesting information. When did Jimmy Mullin work for RBI? I don't recall the name from my time listening in the late 1980s.

In response to:Coyote Speaks

2008-04-17T22:25:01+02:00

Check out the "Where are they now?" posting for more about other RBI broadcasters.

In response to:Whatever happed to ...?

2008-04-17T20:07:11+02:00

Jimmy Mullin has kindly answered a few questions about some of the RBI staff mentioned in this blog.

"Re: Irma. She came to RBI English Department in 1962, if I remember correctly. Previously she had been responsible for the re-education of young girls who had, before the Wall, worked as prostitutes in West Berlin. Irma was a very wise, grand lady highly respected by all of us at RBI. Another name I saw on your Blog was Ursula Ryder. That is Ursula Rieder, a very wonderful person who lived in Koepenick with her mother. We spent a great number of evenings together at the studio writing and recording evening news casts. Often, on snowy winter nights we would trudge through the snow the five-miles or so to her house, tossing snowballs at each other and just enjoying life itself. I had a flat very close to her mother's house. Wolfram Bielenstein is, as I remember, an old friend of whom one can only say good things. The late Wolfram Hess, our DX Guru, graduate Philologist and Amateur Radio Operator was a very dear friend. I, too, am a licensed amateur radio operator so we had hours of discussion on common interests. I tried several times to arrange permanent employment for him at the station to no avail. He had a debilitating mental issue which in those days was looked down upon in the GDR.
Marjorie Milner, deceased, was Marjorie Lindner, wife of Paul Lindner, deceased, whom I replaced for a short period as head of the North American Department at RBI."

In response to:Whatever happed to ...?

2008-04-11T07:34:55+02:00

I have just got my hands on some of my old cassettes with recording of RBI broadcasts. I will upload them, and some other recordings, to the following website:

http://www.tudou.com/home/oldradio

I have already uploaded the final RBI broadcast of October 2, 1990.

In response to:Whatever happed to ...?

2008-04-07T21:02:07+02:00

Thank you AFT. Sometimes we dont think of the most obvious places to look. I'll write and ask him.

This quote from "Sweden Calling DXers" of October 16th 1990:

"The final broadcast in English from RBI was bittersweet. The head of the service, Robin Mitchell, spoke of annexation of East Germany rather than unification and added : "That's what happened between Deutsche Welle and Radio Berlin International. After much sweet talk about a fusion and merger on an equal footing, what is happening is that RBI will disappear tonight and that Deutsche Welle will have taken over our frequencies and our transmitters tomorrow. Out of a total staff of 250 RBI employees a mere handful might get a new job with Deutsche Welle. Thus, like for so many in this country, unification day spells unemployment for many of my colleagues. The champagne of jubilation has a very bitter taste to it."

In response to:What Wikipedia has to say

2008-04-07T20:51:30+02:00

That is pretty amazing Tom. I once heard that someone had Radio Moscow competing with BBC Radio 1 playing through his teeth fillings. I never did fully understand sun spot activity, or radio skip, despite listening to all the DX propagation programmes on short-wave.

There are lots of RBI QSL cards around online. Maybe I should link to some of them on here.

In response to:Whatever happed to ...?

2008-04-07T17:49:17+02:00

As to what has happened to Robin Mitchell, perhaps the answer is here:

http://www.robin-mitchell.de/

In response to:What Wikipedia has to say

2008-04-07T11:53:23+02:00

It would be great to see some old RBI QSL's and brochures once again!

Believe it or not I once heard RBI on a malfunctioning TV whilst living in the western part of Ireland!

In response to:What Wikipedia has to say

2008-04-01T06:52:36+02:00

You could try watching this excellnt video tutorial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UO-EdNXjkg Hopefully you have Windows Movie Maker already on your computer. I have been playing around with Movie Maker - one of those programs I didnt even realise I had. So far I have made a great slde show with various special effects, and the next spep is adding audeo, so this will be useful for me too. I still have an LP of Schlager music hits sent me from RBI.

In response to:What Wikipedia has to say

2008-04-01T00:25:46+02:00

Found it mate with loads of QSL cards! Anyone got any mp3 software?

In response to:What Wikipedia has to say

2008-03-31T14:01:36+02:00

It would be wonderful if you could find that cassette and get it online as an MP3 Chris!

My misspent youth has merged into a misspent adulthood. I just spent half the weekend scanning pics from Democratic German Report, and the whole of 'Socialism in Germany - a short history of the German Democratic Republic' by Ernie Trory. I plan to make a website of the book, accompanied by photos from various publications sent me by RBI.

Sadly, history is being written (or ignored) by the, for the timebeing, scummy victors. It is time to tell the real story.

In response to:What Wikipedia has to say

2008-03-31T07:31:11+02:00

I never thought I'd be typing about RBI QSL cards in my loft but I have a feeling that there are quite a few up there! As for recordings of RBI, there's always that (C60) cassette of (mostly RBI) I have somewhere featuring Jean Jones amongst others. Did I have misspent teenage years or what?!

In response to:John Peet - Former Reuters correspondent - again

2008-03-31T07:06:13+02:00

I got a scanner! It is very tempting to scan the whole of the 20th anniversary special issue of DGR.

In response to:What Wikipedia has to say

2008-03-31T07:01:27+02:00

I shall have to rummage in my loft and see what I can find with regard to certificates and QSL cards, although I have a feeling they have been distilled to very few out of very many.

I would dearly love to find a recording of any RBI programmmes. The close down is especially of historical importance.

This link is to the last few minutes of RBI in German. http://www.kurzwelle-historisch.de/radios/cdrbi.ra

In response to:What Wikipedia has to say

2008-03-30T23:11:27+02:00

So I wasn't the only teenager who came back from school and ran up the stairs to listen to RBI? I still have a cassette full of times they mentioned me on air!

Anyone else still got the H- RBI certificates to show they'd listened to a number of RBI transmissions?

I'd love to hear the close down if anyone has a recording?!

In response to:Tom Robinson

2008-03-07T22:09:56+01:00

Yes ... a great man, and powerful musician. I can only find indirect links between him and RBI. His music certainly inspired a lot of GDR musicians and his work gets a link on the Hans Eisler website http://eislermusic.com/links.htm ... big hugs back at ya! lol

Author: John Pietaro
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 12/11/03 14:37

For those not fortunate enough to recall, Phil Ochs was one of our nation’s most profound folk singers in the period that bridged the Civil Rights, antiwar and feminist movements. His songs called for peace and an equitable society. His songs called for equal rights and celebrated an egalitarian philosophy. His songs damned the establishment that accepted the murder of leaders such as Medgar Evers and allowed organized labor to abandon its true cause.

Ochs’ songs unashamedly pointed out our faults and tried to demonstrate the means to repair them. His songs were brash calls to the youthful protesters and Ochs was a presence – not only in song, but in person – at such historic events as the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention. Some of his music was heard at campuses and rallies as commonly as those of his contemporaries, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

Many of Ochs’ songs remain in the common vocabulary and surely the repertoire of today’s folk singers. So, how is it then, that this vital, powerful, gifted songwriter of sonorous voice and darkly handsome features could be but a fading image to the general society? Phil who??

From the comfort zone of the New York Greenwich Village folk scene to the national stage, Ochs sang his protests. Albums such as “All the News That’s Fit To Sing” and “I Ain’t Marchin’ Anymore” spoke volumes. Though the songs kept coming, he seemed unmarketable. Somehow the corporate media kept missing – or trying to dismantle – the point. Ochs’ move to California allowed him more breathing space but little solace. He toyed with audiences by titling an album “Rehearsals for Retirement,” the cover of which offered his own gravestone.

Continually plagued by demons, inner and outer, Ochs’ performances often became arguments with the audience, best documented by the concert album, “Gunfight at Carnegie Hall,” in which he can be heard berating a taunting audience with statements like, “Don’t be like Spiro Agnew.”

And through all of the pain, including a much-documented battle with depression, Ochs maintained contact with the issues that mattered most. For a while at least, he was beating the power elite’s offensive. Into the early 1970s he organized large-scale benefit concerts that would serve as the model for the later No Nukes and Live Aid events. He traveled to South America and met with songwriter-activist Victor Jara. The terrible murder of Jara at the behest of the right-wing dictator Pinochet was an awful blow to the already faltering Ochs. By the mid-seventies, unable to prevail in the battle on every front, he would die by his own hand.

Phil Ochs dared to speak back to the criminal Nixon administration through his music, uncovering and exposing with anger and wry humor. He alerted his audience to police brutality and corruption and the manipulation of “the American dream.” Wisely, he warned us that a protest song was “something you won’t hear on the radio.” He dared us to care, at the expense of himself. But some of us will never forget.

In response to:Whatever happed to ...?

2008-03-07T21:14:27+01:00

I hope some of the former RBI staff read this too. A few of them have jobs on German local radio stations these days I noticed from various online bios.

In response to:Whatever happed to ...?

2008-03-07T21:09:43+01:00

It would be great if you can up scan and upload some stuff from RBI Ian. Any cassettes converted to MP3 format would be fantastic! I dont have a scanner, so I will make a point to take the things I have to a friends house to scan.

Lucky you .. living in China. I spent a few days in Beijing 6 years ago and would love to see it again.

In response to:Tom Robinson

2008-03-07T19:35:01+01:00

Did you like Phil Ochs? He was one of my favourites and really upset me when he committed suicide...think he was a wild card, but his heart was in the right place...big hugs...

In response to:Whatever happed to ...?

2008-03-07T19:28:09+01:00

I forgot to mention the RBI t-shirt, tie and hat. I miss that wonderful radio station and will always remember it. If anyone of the old RBI staff are reading this, I would like to say thank you for all of the wonderful times and thanks for the memories.

In response to:Whatever happed to ...?

2008-03-07T19:25:35+01:00

I forgot to mention that I listened almost religiously to "Thank You For Writing" on Sundays and also enjoyed Wolfram Hess' DX programme (I particularly enjoyed the rather odd theme tune, would love to hear it again). I have cassettes of lots of RBI broadcasts, but the one slight snag is that they are in Scotland and I am in China. I hope to get my parents to bring some of them the next time they visit, then I could upload some. Also I hope to get some of my old RBI stuff (I kept everything - the QSLs, FDCs, pennant, badge, stickers, "Kontakt" magazine, booklets, copies of Neues Deutschland and other GDR national papers, calendars etc) and scan it to put it on this website.

In response to:Whatever happed to ...?

2008-03-07T19:13:01+01:00

I listened to RBI after school from the age of 12 or 13. By the time I was 15 I determined to go visit the GDR. Amazingly my parents said I could go provided I paid for the trip myself - which I did by working holidays and weekends in a local factory. Within a couple of months I had joined the YCL and was harrassing my local Tory MP to suport GDR recognision.

I too had lots of FDCs, QSL cards, magazines, books, pennants, etc.

I also listened to loads of other SW stations including Tirana which only seemed to have two announcers. I guess my other favourate station was Radio Nederland. I once met Tom Meyer from the Happy Station programme who gave me a tour of their studio in Hilversum., and loved listening to Jerry & Dody Cohen.

Even so .... Radio Berlin International was definately the most interesting of all of them.

In response to:Tom Robinson

2008-03-07T18:32:12+01:00

Tom was already a hero of mine after his "Power in the Darkness" LP, so I was surprised to hear him on RBI, which made him even more of a hero. :-)

I still listen to that album sometimes to this day. His refreshing directness is always a great boost to morale.

Even 30 years on he is a pretty cool dude.

In response to:Whatever happed to ...?

2008-03-07T14:29:40+01:00

Roger, you're so right in saying that RBI was an interesting station for younger listeners. I was in my teens at the time and listened to RBI almost every day. The first broadcast of the day came on at 4:15pm, so I could tune in just after coming home frmo school. It was fascinating to hear about what was really going in the GDR, a country that was presented in such a two-dimensional way by the Western media. Every day I tuned in was a learning experience in so many ways. I too remember the "Give Peace a Chance" programme. Anyone else remember "Panorama", which I think was about developments in other socialist countries. Then there was "Did You Know?", with interesting and sometimes offbeat snippets about life in the GDR. "Stamp Album", which was presented by Robin Parker, was a weekly must for me, as an avid stamp collector. I amassed a wonderful collection of late 1980s GDR first-day covers courtesy of "Stamp Album", all you had to do was write in an request the FDC in question and it was sent to you. RBI was also very generous in terms of the publications it sent to listeners, which were highly informative and very well produced. On the whole, RBI broadcasts were the best from the socialist countries and certainly were the most professional, though I do have to admit to having a soft spot for Radio Tirana and its constant battle with revisionism of all hues.