Apartheid South Africa's radio psyops — the story of "Radio Truth"

Today, 30 March 2019, is the last day of operations of the shortwave transmitting station at Bloemendal – usually referred to by the name of the nearby town of Meyerton – about 25 miles south of Johannesburg.

The Meyerton station is operated by the communications company Sentech which runs the transmitters across South Africa that carry most of the country's TV and radio services.

Sentech is a state-owned company that was hived off from the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in the 1990s. The Meyerton site was one of the assets that Sentech inherited from the SABC.

The closure brings to an end more than 53 years of transmissions from Meyerton. The SABC began transmitting its domestic radio services from the new station in October 1965. The Radio RSA external service was inaugurated, using the Meyerton site, on 1 May 1966.

The political nature of broadcasts from Meyerton changed radically over the course of that half century, reflecting developments in South Africa and the region. During the first half of its life the Meyerton station was named after the main architect of apartheid, H.F. Verwoerd (assassinated while serving as prime minister in 1966), while the second half was spent in the post-apartheid era.

In that post-apartheid period, many well-known names in global radio – including the BBC World Service, the Voice of America, Germany's Deutsche Welle and Japan's NHK – hired airtime on the Meyerton station to broadcast their shortwave signals to Africa.

Meyerton also aired the SABC's own external services: Radio RSA (between 1966 and 1992) and its post-apartheid successor Channel Africa (from 1992 until the present). It was also used extensively to relay some of the SABC's domestic radio services.

Alongside these open broadcasts, Meyerton is assumed to have been used in the 1970s and 1980s to transmit various clandestine radio stations that operated in support of the apartheid government's efforts to subvert some of the black-ruled states in southern Africa.

This article looks at one of these stations, Radio Truth, which was on the air between March 1983 and September 1990.

Radio Truth: objectives and techniques

Radio Truth presented itself as being run by patriotic Zimbabweans who were concerned at the direction their nation was being taken by the Mugabe government, which had taken power when the country (formerly Rhodesia) gained independence in 1980.

In reality, the station's purpose was to serve the interests of the South African government by undermining the Mugabe regime.

This was done through various propaganda themes, including exploiting resentment among the minority Ndebele people towards Robert Mugabe's dominant Shona community.

Ndebele insurgents were active, with presumed South African support, in Matabeleland (western Zimbabwe) from 1982. Radio Truth was launched the following year. [1]

Anti-Communism was a constant theme in the station's output. Joseph Hanlon described Radio Truth in his 1986 book Beggar Your Neighbours: Apartheid Power in Southern Africa:

Its message is hardly subtle; it defends South Africa and claims that the former [Rhodesian] colonial government had been a 'pro-Western Christian democracy', while it points out that 'quietly but inexorably the tentacles of Marxism are embracing all spheres of life in our country'.

Hanlon also noted that "Radio Truth was probably connected with anti-Mozambique and anti-Angola stations that broadcast from the same area". More about this below.

Radio Truth was still banging an anti-Communist drum towards the end of its life. A commentary broadcast in April 1990 said:

We are unashamedly anti-Marxist. We believe this to be an evil and worthless ideology that can only bring disaster to our land. We will expose its ruthless nature, its reliance on force, and its utter failure to bring anything but fear, misery and poverty to those countries that subscribe to its principles. We believe fervently in the principles of democracy and the outstanding merits of free enterprise. We value highly the basic freedoms inherent in the democratic system and traditions: freedom of thought, expression, association and worship, and the right to life and liberty for every individual.

To this end, we will support all those groups and associations dedicated to the same philosophy. Where they are denied a platform by government of party decree, or by mob violence, Radio Truth will ensure that their voice is heard. [...]

We are not a relic of colonialism, nor do we envisage white rule ever returning to Zimbabwe. We accept black rule, but we wish it could be just, efficient and democratic. For all these reasons, Radio Truth is strongly opposed to the concept of a one-party state, which conflicts with everything that we stand for. We will resist ZANU-PF because we know that their policies can bring nothing but hardship and misery to our people and will destroy our national pride. So stay tuned to Radio Truth, the voice of a free Zimbabwe.

Background: Southern Africa's battle of the airwaves

Southern Africa had been fertile ground for clandestine and subversive radio in the 1970s. Activity centred around Rhodesia, where Ian Smith's government was fighting insurgents of the China-backed Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA – the armed wing of the underground political party ZANU) and the USSR-backed Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA – the armed wing of the rival ZAPU).

Rhodesia became both a target for, and source of, such broadcasts. After Rhodesia became independent, as Zimbabwe, in April 1980 some of the focus switched to South Africa.
By the early 1980s South Africa was running clandestine radio stations targeting Angola and Mozambique, both under Marxist governments following their independence from Portugal in 1975.

Against Angola, two stations – Voz da Verdade (Voice of Truth) and Voice of the Resistance of the Black Cockerel – had been active from South Africa since the late 1970s. The latter station spoke on behalf of Jonas Savimbi's rebel movement UNITA and was often known by the acronym Vorgan, based on its Portuguese name, Voz de Resistência do Galo Negro.

Against Mozambique, Rhodesia had run Voz da África Livre (Voice of Free Africa) from July 1976. Broadcasts from Rhodesia ended in February 1980 (two months before independence) but resumed from South Africa the following month. The Mozambican authorities named the station Radio Quizumba (Hyena). In June 1983 the station's name was changed to Voz de Resistência Nacional de Moçambique (Renamo), formalising its support for the insurgents of the Renamo (Mozambican National Resistance, MNR) group. [2]

(The story of the radio activities of Renamo, and of Renamo's creation in the 1970s by Rhodesia's Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), deserves a separate article. For some details, see the 1992 book by Hilary Andersson, Mozambique: A War against the People. Rhodesia sought to use Renamo to undermine the Frelimo government that had taken power in Mozambique after independence. The Voz de Renamo radio station closed down after South Africa and Mozambique signed a non-aggression pact known as the Nkomati Accord in March 1984. Broadcasts resumed, probably from within Mozambique, in the 1990s.)

By mid-1983, by which time Radio Truth was also on the air, the South Africans were therefore running at least four separate subversive clandestine radio stations against three countries – Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

South Africa also ran various psychological radio operations in the 1970s and 1980s targeting the Cuban military forces deployed in Angola in support of that country's Communist government. I'm not covering these Spanish-language operations in this article as I'm not as confident in asserting that they emanated from Meyerton as I am with Radio Truth, Voz da Verdade, Vorgan and Voz de Renamo. This is partly because their activities are much less well documented than the English and Portuguese-language stations. [3]

Launch of Radio Truth: taking time to establish a regular schedule

Radio Truth began broadcasting in March 1983. It was first heard by BBC Monitoring with test transmissions on 10 March and its first commentary on 25 March. (Just over a year later, on 26 March 1984, Radio Truth noted that it was marking its first anniversary, using the occasion to deny that it was a South African operation and to assert that its broadcasts were not specifically aimed at the Ndebele community. Instead, it said it was the "voice of all anti-ZANU-PF parties and peoples" in Zimbabwe.)

Broadcasts appear to have been daily from the start, though the precise transmission schedule took a while to settle down. 

Initially the station was on the air with a morning programme in English (at 0630-0700 Zimbabwe time) and an evening broadcast in Shona and Ndebele (at 1900-1930 Zimbabwe time).

The Shona and Ndebele services were suspended in January 1984, resuming in August 1984.

Frequencies:

All Radio Truth broadcasts were on a single shortwave frequency, initially 6010 kHz in the 49-metre shortwave band.

In April 1983 the frequency was changed to 4902 kHz in the 60-metre band, but in June 1983 there was a further move to 5015 kHz. (Note: 5015 was one of the channels used by state radio in Harare both before and after independence.)

Radio Truth remained on 5015 kHz for the rest of its life. (The evening transmission was carried on the frequency of 3370 kHz in the 90-metre band for a week in December 1986. This may have been because the 60-metre band aerial at Meyerton was unavailable for use at that time.)

The schedule expands

By late 1986, Radio Truth's schedule had been expanded with the addition of an evening repeat of the morning's English programme.

By the middle of 1987 there had been a further expansion with the addition of a morning transmission in Shona and Ndebele. The daily schedule was then (Zimbabwean local times):

0600-0630 Shona and Ndebele programme
0630-0700 English programme
1900-1930 Repeat of the morning's Shona and Ndebele programme
1930-2000 Repeat of the morning's English programme

This schedule remained in place until the station closed in September 1990.

Links with other stations

The New York Times reported in October 1983:

Three radio stations beam anti-Government propaganda into neighboring countries from South African territory, in part as retaliation for the antiapartheid broadcasts beamed the other way. A station called the Voice of the Resistance of the Black Cockerel has been broadcasting in Portuguese and vernacular languages in support of the Savimbi movement [in Angola].

The Voice of the Mozambique National Resistance came on the air in July [1983], four months after Radio Truth, which broadcasts in English, Shona and Ndebele to Zimbabwe.

The schedules of Voz da Verdade, Vorgan and Radio Truth were consistent with the use of the same transmitting facilities. For example, in January 1985 both Voz da Verdade and Radio Truth were using the same frequency (5015 kHz) for their dovetailed morning programmes (at 0330-0415 and 0430-0500 GMT respectively). Meanwhile, Vorgan was using 4950 kHz at 0430-0630 and 1730-1930 GMT, with Voz da Verdade using that frequency at 2000-2045 GMT.

The 1986 book Destructive engagement: southern Africa at war by Phyllis Johnson and David Martin, describes an incident in November 1983 when, presumably because of operator error, listeners tuning in for a scheduled broadcast by Radio Truth instead heard on its frequency the signature tune of the anti-Mozambique station Voz da África Livre.

Where was Radio Truth broadcast from?

Several sources in the 1980s named Meyerton as the transmitter site, though these may not have been separate individual confirmations. (See for example the above-mentioned book by Johnson and Martin, and the 1992 book South Africa's destabilisation policy: the Zimbabwe experience by Donald P. Chimanikire.)

Meyerton was indeed the obvious location. There was certainly no shortage of transmitters available there.

The website of the authoritative Transmitter Documentation Project lists a total of 17 transmitters being installed at Meyerton between 1966 and 1979.

The most powerful of these (four of 250 kilowatts and three of 500 kW) would have been used for the Radio RSA external service. The remaining 10 transmitters (all of 100 kW) were shared by Radio RSA and the SABC's domestic services.

The 1985 edition of the World Radio TV Handbook showed that at any one time a maximum of nine frequencies were in use by Radio RSA and four by the domestic services. That would have left up to four transmitters available to be used by the clandestine stations.

There was a suggestion in 1985 that the broadcasts were coming from an older SABC transmitting station at Paradys, near Bloemfontein. But elsewhere it is reported that the Paradys station closed in the late 1960s once Meyerton became fully operational.

The Paradys station was listed as still active in the 1968 edition of the World Radio TV Handbook, but the listing had disappeared by the time of the 1972 edition.

I assume that Meyerton was just the transmitter site, with the programmes being produced elsewhere. My guess is that the programmes were recorded, rather than going out live. One can only speculate where the recordings were made. It might have been at the SABC’s Auckland Park studios in Johannesburg. If this was the case, the recordings would have been played out by the Auckland Park control room down the lines used to feed the Radio RSA and SABC services to Meyerton.

Allegations of US involvement denied

The US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, David Miller, cut short his tour of duty in April 1986 following repeated criticisms by the Harare government of US foreign policy. Just days before Miller's decision was announced, Zimbabwean Information Minister Nathan Shamuyarira accused the United States of providing funds and personnel to Radio Truth. 

The US Embassy in Harare called the charge "preposterous" and Miller was later quoted as saying it had "no factual basis".

Writing to Radio Truth

Radio Truth gave out two addresses for listeners' letters, both of which tell a story.

The main address was a Post Office Box number in the UK, which was first announced over the air in October 1984. It was given as "Mr J. Brown, P.O. Box 4, Stockbridge, Hants [Hampshire]".

The postcode was SO20 6LB, though Radio Truth's staff appeared to be unfamiliar with the British postal system. Postcodes for three London districts and five other large British cities start with a single letter, but all others start with two letters. In the case of Stockbridge, this is SO (for Southampton).

However, the announcer at Radio Truth would read out the start of the code as "S zero", rather than giving the letter O. The announcer also announced a dash between the two parts of the code, which is never done in the UK.

Similarly, in replies from Radio Truth, the postcode was given various non-standard forms, such as incorrect spacing (e.g. S 020 6LB) and use of punctuation (e.g. S.020 6LB).

The replies were indeed signed "J. Brown".

Although letters sent to "J. Brown" at the address in Stockbridge were answered, this tiny Hampshire town was almost certainly not Radio Truth's HQ.

Two letters from Radio Truth received by listeners and now available online were dated 17 June 1986. In both cases they were in response to letters sent several months earlier (in one case as far back as January of that year). In both replies, "J. Brown" apologised for the delay and attributed it to "extreme pressure of work which has kept our limited staff fully occupied".

The delay may have instead been the result of mail sent to the P.O. Box in Stockbridge being collected only infrequently and then forwarded to South Africa to be answered (and perhaps the replies having to be returned to the UK to be posted from there – to maintain the pretence of a UK base for the station).

In addition to the UK address, Radio Truth also asked listeners to contact the station c/o a Mr Stanley Hatfield at the address of an apartment complex in Silver Spring (incorrectly given as "Silverspring"), a Maryland suburb of Washington DC.

An investigation by Robert Horvitz on behalf of Radio Netherlands in 1986 established that mail sent to "Stanley Hatfield" at the Maryland address was collected by the Rev Ndabaningi Sithole, a one-time ally of Mugabe who by the mid-1980s was an opponent of the Zimbabwean government living in self-imposed exile in the USA. Sithole told Horvitz that he forwarded the mail to another, undisclosed, address.

The end of broadcasts

Radio Truth closed down in September 1990 as southern Africa moved into a new era. Events in the region had been moving fast. The hardline South African President P.W. Botha was replaced by the reformist F.W. de Klerk in August 1989. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Communist regimes across Eastern Europe later that year made Radio Truth's anti-Marxist rhetoric seem redundant. The following February, Nelson Mandela was released from prison.

De Klerk's government moved to improve relations with South Africa's neighbours, including Zimbabwe, a development that Radio Truth itself noted. A commentary broadcast by the station on 24 July 1990 said:

Political analysts see a slight thaw in the frosty relationship between our ZANU-PF government and the Pretoria regime. This was attributed, in part, to years of patient work behind the scenes by South African diplomats and representatives. It was noted that, for the past 10 years, Comrade Mugabe and his colleagues have spurned every offer of cooperation and dialogue except, of course, on the economic front, when the assistance has been to their advantage.

Even when other leaders of Frontline States began talking to the South African government at official level, our president refused to allow any government-to-government contact. He sustained, even intensified, his international campaign to isolate South Africa and toughen economic embargoes.

The first possible sign of change featured in Minister Mahachi's announcement about the lifting of our state of emergency. He referred to the good neighbour policy being pursued by Pretoria, which was now seriously extending the hand of friendship. How far ZANU-PF intends to reciprocate, if at all, remains to be seen.

Hopes have been raised that Odile Harington might be given an early release from jail on compassionate grounds. She was initially sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for trying to infiltrate the ANC cells in our country. This vicious sentence was subsequently cut in half on appeal, when note was taken of her terrifying ordeal at the hands of her captors and interrogators. She was cruelly tortured, starved and sexually abused – facts ignored by the original trial judge, Mr Justice Sandura.

South African spy Odile Harington, referred to in that commentary, was released by Zimbabwe at the start of November 1990, in a move that the UPI news agency at the time linked to the closure of Radio Truth less than two months earlier:

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Zimbabwe has released a South African woman serving a 12-year prison sentence for spying on the African National Congress. The release marked a significant thawing of relations between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the South African government.

Odile Harington, 29, released Thursday [1 November 1990] after serving nearly three years of her sentence, was put aboard a special flight back to South Africa and received a welcome from President Frederik de Klerk in Pretoria Friday, a government statement said. [...]

The Zimbabwean news agency, Ziana, confirmed Friday that Harington was pardoned by Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980 and remained a most consistent foe of apartheid among the southern African leaders.

"The president's decision was prompted by the general improvement in the political climate in southern Africa, including the cessation of hostile acts against Zimbabwe by the South African government," Zimbabwean Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa told Ziana.

Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, had been the target of South African destabilization efforts since the end of white minority rule in 1980, including scattered sabotage attacks by South African agents. At the center of the southern African region, Zimbabwe not only sheltered ANC exiles but allowed its territory to be used as a base for guerrilla attacks into neighboring South Africa.

While leaders of less prosperous southern African states, including Zambia and Mozambique, have welcomed moves by South Africa to patch up relations with its black-ruled neighbors and expand economic ties, Mugabe has remained publicly cool toward de Klerk.

The thaw began publicly last month when a parliamentary delegation visited Harare and held talks with Zimbabwean legislators and the South African government halted broadcasts of the anti-Marxist Radio Truth into Zimbabwe.

Recordings of Radio Truth

There are two compilations on YouTube of fairly good quality off-air recordings of broadcasts by Radio Truth, both of which start with the station's bird-call tuning signal.

The first is said to be recordings of the 30-minute English-language morning broadcasts of 1 and 2 November 1984. Note the announcer reading out the UK postal address and speaking of the "evils of Marxism".

The second includes two complete English broadcasts, and some vernacular material. These recordings are also said to have been from 1984. However, one of them refers to the outcome of the 9 June 1985 presidential election in Mali, and appears to have been made shortly before the June-July 1985 general election in Zimbabwe.

Notes and sources

The quotes from Radio Truth's broadcasts and details of its schedule, and that of the other clandestine stations, have been taken from BBC Monitoring publications of the time.

Other notes: 

[1] The New York Times explained in November 1987: "The anti-Government rebels have operated in the Matabeleland countryside surrounding this city [Bulawayo] since 1982, generally with violent protests against what they assert is Prime Minister Robert Mugabe's unfair treatment of the opposition leader Joshua Nkomo as well as Mr. Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union and the Ndebele ethnic group supporting it. Western diplomats in the region say the dissidents are believed to be receiving supplies and training from neighboring South Africa. Some weapons have been traced to South Africa, and Radio Truth, a station that supports the dissidents, is beamed into Zimbabwe from South Africa."

[2] Renamo's formal name was later changed slightly from Resistência Nacional de Moçambique to Resistência Nacional Moçambicana.

[3] These Spanish-language stations targeting Cuban forces included Radio Siboney, Cubanos en África and one said to have been operated by the anti-Castro exile group Agrupación Abdala. Cuban military forces were deployed in Angola from 1975. Their withdrawal began in 1989 and was completed in 1991.

© 2019. Material may be reproduced if attributed to Chris Greenway and any original source.

From my archive: Radio in the 2011 Libyan civil war

I wrote the article below in early September 2011, while the Libyan civil war was still in progress and Muammar Gaddafi was still alive. An edited version was published in the 2012 edition of the World Radio TV Handbook under the title Radio and the Arab Spring.

Here is some background that may be useful for the modern reader.

The Tunisian and Egyptian presidents were overthrown in January and February 2011 respectively in events that were part of what would become known as the Arab Spring.

In Libya, after weeks of public unrest, the revolt against Gaddafi began in earnest on 17 February 2011. 

Within days, insurgent forces had captured a number of the Gaddafi regime’s radio stations and were using them to air broadcasts under the name Voice of Free Libya.

NATO forces joined the conflict in March. Tripoli fell to the rebels in August. Gaddafi was eventually captured and killed in October.

Voice of Free Libya aired over three powerful AM transmitters

Libyan rebel radio

"From the slopes of the great Green Mountain, this is the Voice of Free Libya radio!" 

These words, broadcast over a powerful (500-kilowatt) mediumwave (AM) transmitter captured by rebels in early 2011, seemed to echo dramatic radio announcements from Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968 and various places since. 

In fact, radio had a very limited role in most of the Arab uprisings. Libya was a special case. 

Within days of the start of the uprising in mid-February, rebels in eastern Libya had seized the government's powerful AM transmitters in El Beida (which aired the announcement above) and Benghazi (on 1125 and 675 kHz respectively), and were using them effectively. The only hiccup came when the radio studios in Benghazi were destroyed in the initial confusion of the uprising and an improvised one had to be set up before broadcasts could start. 

In the west of the country, rebels quickly took over the local radio station in Libya's third city, Misrata, but initially only aired on FM. Use of the 500-kW AM transmitter in Misrata began in March, providing a signal on 1449 kHz that could be heard after dark across much of Europe. Later, the Benghazi and Misrata Voice of Free Libya stations became audible worldwide via live internet streams. 

FM on, but shortwave off

Rebel-controlled FM stations sprang into life in at least six other Libyan towns. 

Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital, became a media hub for the opposition. Outlets launched there included the official Voice of Free Benghazi, youth station Shabab Libya FM, English-language Tribute FM, and Libya FM (relaying a satellite channel set up by musician Hamid El Shaeri). 

Also on Benghazi's FM dial were relays of the audio streams of various TV channels including Qatar-based opposition Libya al-Ahrar and pan-Arab Al-Jazeera, along with a relay of BBC Arabic radio. 

Libya FM was also relayed by rebel-controlled FM stations in other parts of the country.

An announcer at the rebels' Radio Free Nalut (98.2 FM) in western Libya in July 2011
Photo credit: Mohamed Madi

Libya was once both a source and a target for a number of clandestine shortwave broadcasts. An exiled opposition radio, Sawt al-Amal (Voice of Hope), operated until 2006. But with the rebels of 2011 running so many stations inside the country, there was no need for such broadcasts from transmitters abroad. 

After the rebels captured Tripoli, they launched their own Radio Libya on former Gaddafi-controlled transmitters in the city (1053 AM and 96.6 FM). 

Low priority

Earlier, the Gaddafi government's use of radio had been hampered by the rebels' capture of much of its AM and FM transmitter network. It tried to mitigate this by using a single shortwave transmitter to beam its domestic service to rebel-controlled territory, though it's unclear whether this had any audience. 

Radio enthusiasts outside Libya were disappointed with the lacklustre and irregular output of the government's Voice of Africa shortwave station, mostly made up of recorded material unrelated to the news of the day. 

The government invested much more effort in its TV broadcasts and was surprisingly successful in maintaining both programming and transmissions, despite NATO air strikes and pressure on satellite operators to drop them. 

Two pieces of evidence showed the lack of importance the Gaddafi authorities placed on radio: they used some of their remaining radio transmitters simply to relay the audio channel of state TV, and they were happy to drop satellite distribution of most of their radio networks. 

Little jamming of radio, much more of TV

Unlike in Iraq in 1991 and 2003, and Afghanistan in 2001, no special Western radio broadcasts were aimed at Libyan civilians. NATO used shortwave radio for psychological warfare transmissions targeting the military, but although these caught the interest of curious enthusiasts outside Libya, I saw no evidence that they had an impact on their intended audience inside the country. However, they did attract jamming. No Libyan jamming of other foreign radio broadcasts was confirmed during the crisis.

In contrast, Gaddafi's media campaigned vigorously against Al-Jazeera TV, denouncing it as the "Khanzeera" (Arabic for "pig") channel. Jamming of Al-Jazeera's satellite signals in January and February was blamed on Tripoli. Al-Jazeera said the interference had been traced to a building used by the Libyan intelligence service. 

In return, Libyan state TV's satellite signals were intermittently jammed - perpetrator unknown.

Egypt and Tunisia

In neighbouring Egypt, the authorities also sought to halt the unrest by disrupting Al-Jazeera's operations. They also cut off the country from the global internet for more than five days in late January. However, they do not seem to have regarded foreign terrestrial radio broadcasts as a threat as no jamming of them was reported. 

As with its Libyan counterpart, the government's Radio Cairo external service, a disappointment to listeners for years because of the poor technical quality of its shortwave signals, was of little worth for those seeking news from Egypt. 

One of Libya's other Arab neighbours, Tunisia, saw some clandestine radio activity during its revolution, though this was online, rather than over-the-air, broadcasting by stations such as Radio Kalima (Dignity). The key news source in the early days of the Tunisian unrest was Al-Jazeera TV, in particular its dedicated North African evening news programme "Maghreb Harvest".

Conclusions: Radio and the Arab Spring

• TV and the internet have almost entirely replaced radio as Arab audiences' preferred source of information.
• But particular circumstances in Libya allowed the rebels there to make good use of radio.
• Elsewhere, opposition groups used social media and satellite TV to get their message across.
• Arab governments also fought their media battles online and on TV. They paid little attention to radio, either offensively (their own broadcasts) or defensively (jamming).
• There was little evidence that shortwave radio had any impact.
• In a year when a number of major international radio broadcasters announced substantial cuts, none significantly expanded their shortwave operations in response to the crises.

The main conclusion from the historic events in these countries in 2011 is that, 15 years after the launch of Al-Jazeera, radio has been replaced by satellite TV and the internet as the preferred source of information for most Arab audiences.

© 2011 and 2019. Material may be reproduced if attributed to Chris Greenway and the World Radio TV Handbook.

From my archive: Clandestine radio activity in East Africa hots up in 1988

I wrote the article below in 1988. It was published in the September 1988 edition of  Communication, the journal of the British DX Club (an association of radio enthusiasts and hobbyists).

If you find this article interesting, have a look at two others I wrote at the time: 
Clandestine radio in East Africa in 1987 
Sudanese clandestine radio activity in 1987 

The 1988 article:

There have been several changes to the clandestine radio scene in east Africa since my last articles on this subject appeared in Communication (May and September 1987). The two major developments causing these changes have been an upsurge in the activities of groups opposed to the present government in Ethiopia and an improvement in that country’s relations with Somalia.

Developments in Ethiopia

The Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) is the largest and most active of several organisations which have been fighting against the Ethiopian government since the early 1960s. These groups wish to restore to Eritrea (a region of northern Ethiopia) the autonomy it enjoyed in the period after the Second World War. 

In March 1988 the EPLF launched a massive military offensive in Eritrea. This offensive attracted considerable attention abroad and the EPLF’s radio station, Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea (VOBME), played a major role in publicising the Front’s victories which, it was claimed, included the death, injury and capture of tens of thousands of government troops.

In the neighbouring region of Tigray, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) used the preoccupation of government forces with the EPLF to intensify their own campaign of guerrilla warfare. The TPLF and EPLF also took the opportunity of the improvement in their fortunes to re-establish cooperation between themselves, which had broken down a few years ago over ideological differences. 

Following this renewal of relations, both VOBME and the TPLF’s own station, Voice of the Tigray Revolution (VOTR), began to give publicity not only to their own activities but also to each others’ and to those of other rebel groups opposed to the Ethiopian government. VOTR itself has been heard again after a period of inactivity. 

Some years ago both stations shared the same transmitters. Now the VOTR seems to have acquired its own facilities. Both VOBME and VOTR claim to broadcast from “liberated areas” of Eritrea and Tigray respectively and I think those claims are genuine, given that it is known that much of the two regions is in rebel hands.

Somalia and Ethiopia end their radio war...

Meanwhile, other opposition stations continue to broadcast their message from outside Ethiopia or, to be more precise, Sudan. 

In the past Somalia has also acted as a base for anti-Ethiopian radio activities. However, in April 1988 Somalia and Ethiopia reached an agreement providing for the normalisation of diplomatic relations, the exchange of POWs captured in the 1977-78 war between the two countries and the cessation of hostile propaganda activities. 

Within a few days of this agreement two stations had closed down: Radio Halgan (which broadcast from Addis Ababa in support of two Ethiopian-backed Somali opposition groups) and Voice of the Western Somali and Somali Abo Liberation Fronts (which broadcasts from Mogadishu to the ethnic Somali population in the Ogaden desert region of eastern Ethiopia, or “western Somalia” as they referred to it).

... but Sudan and Ethiopia step up their hostilities

Although the Somali-Ethiopian “radio war” has come to an end, that between Ethiopia and Sudan continues, despite peace talks between the two governments. In fact, the propaganda battle has intensified and there are now three clandestine or semi-clandestine stations operating from Sudan, almost certainly from the same site. 

Two are aimed at Ethiopia: Radio Voice of Ethiopian Unity (which supports a US-backed opposition group) and Voice of Oromo Liberation (the Oromos are a large ethnic group who live mainly in southern Ethiopia). 

The third station is National Unity Radio (NUR), which started life in 1986 as a “black” operation designed to counteract the propaganda of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). However, since October 1987 NUR has adopted a more “official” line. Suspicions that all these three stations are using the same transmitting facilities in Sudan were heightened when they all went off the air at the same time when Sudan was hit by the recent disastrous floods.

Meanwhile, Radio SPLA continues to broadcast from Addis Ababa, and in recent programmes has been criticising the Sudanese government’s handling of the disaster.

Schedules (all subject to frequent variation):

Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea: 0400-0700, 0900-1100 and 1400-1700 GMT on 14330 and 7485 kHz (both highly variable).

Voice of the Tigray Revolution: 0400-0500, 1500-1630 and 1900-2030 GMT on 9343, 9311 and 7830 kHz.

Radio Voice of Ethiopian Unity: 1800-2000 GMT. Try 11180, 9665, 9660, 9655, 9430, 9425, 7200 and 7100 kHz (no more than two frequencies are used at any one time).

Voice of Oromo Liberation: 1530-1600 GMT on 9550 kHz.

National Unity Radio: 1400-1500 GMT on 11710, 9550, 9435 or 7100 kHz (no more than two frequencies are used at any one time).

Radio SPLA: 1100-1200 and 1300-1400 GMT (including English) on 11710 and 9550 kHz.

Reception of all these stations in theoretically possible in the UK. 

Happy hunting! Chris

© 1988 and 2019. Material may be reproduced if attributed to Chris Greenway and the British DX Club.

From my archive: Sudanese clandestine radio activity in 1987

I wrote the article below in 1987 when I was living in Kenya. It was published in the September 1987 edition of Communication, the journal of the British DX Club (an association of radio enthusiasts and hobbyists).

Some brief explanations may be useful for the modern reader:

The SPLA was the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army.

The clandestine radio stations mentioned in the article were all broadcasting in the shortwave bands, then widely used by listeners across Africa. As the article was written for radio enthusiasts mainly living in the UK it included details of the frequencies – given in kilohertz (kHz) – that the stations might be heard on.

If you find this article interesting, have a look at two others I wrote at the time:
Clandestine radio in East Africa in 1987 

Clandestine radio activity in East Africa hots up in 1988

The 1987 article:

In the May [1987] edition of Communication I explained how the poor relations between Sudan and Ethiopia had led to a “radio war” between the two countries, albeit a one-sided one, with the Ethiopians putting facilities at the disposal of the highly-professional Radio SPLA (the station of the rebels fighting in southern Sudan) but with the Sudanese authorities seemingly unwilling or unable to mount an effective reply. 

Although the official Sudanese radio in Omdurman remains a poor match for Radio SPLA, both in propaganda and technical terms (its main MF transmitter on 1296 kHz is frequently off the air for several days at a time), it appears that a clandestine radio organisation (possibly linked to the Sudanese armed forces) is now attempting to hit back at Ethiopia.

The story began last September [1986] when Radio SPLA started to suffer deliberate interference from a rival station which broadcast anti-SPLA programmes at the same time and on the same frequencies. The usual result was that listeners could hear neither station clearly. 

The new station seemed to be experimental as the exact times for each broadcast changed daily; some days there were no broadcasts, and indeed the programmes were not heard for weeks on end. It seems that, perhaps to support its credentials as an unofficial operation, the anti-SPLA broadcasts deliberately operate for just a month or so at a time, followed by a period of dormancy. This on-off approach has been used by other clandestine broadcasters, such as some of those targeted by the Soviet Union against China.

Fresh tactics

In its latest period of operations the station has changed its original tactics. Instead of jamming Radio SPLA it broadcasts immediately before and after the rebel station, but still on the same frequency. To add to listeners’ confusion, it uses the same signature tune as Radio SPLA. 

Although these tactics display a certain degree of cunning, the anti-SPLA station’s propaganda message is equally as crude as its opponents. Even to the casual listener it is clear that the station is putting forward an official viewpoint. Although it does not use a station name as such, it announces that its programmes are aimed specifically at the Sudanese armed forces. 

Its propaganda is also weakened by only being in Arabic, whilst many of the southern Sudanese who support the SPLA speak English or a tribal language.

Previous Sudanese clandestine radio activity

Up to a few years ago, in fact until the overthrow of President Nimeiry in 1985, Sudan was a centre for clandestine broadcasting in the region. The Nimeiry government was supported by the USA and so not surprisingly two stations active at that time and based in Sudan were aimed at anti-US regimes - Colonel Gaddafi's Libya and the Soviet-allied South Yemen. 

Voice of the Libyan People operated on 15040 and 11640 kHz. In March 1984 Gaddafi even sent the Libyan air force to try and bomb it off the air (the attempt failed). 

Voice of the Free Sons of the Yemeni South (VFSYS) used the unusual frequency of 11180 kHz. Although VFSYS was not heard after Numayri’s downfall, 11180 kHz continued to be used sporadically for a while for relays of the official Sudanese radio.

New station targeting Ethiopia

And now 11180 kHz has reappeared with another operation. In July a new anti-Ethiopian station took to the air. Radio Voice of Ethiopian Unity (RVEU) uncompromisingly attacks the Marxist government in Addis Ababa. This is not surprising as it is run by the main right-wing group of Ethiopian dissidents, the Ethiopian People’s Democratic Alliance, which is based in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and is said to be subsidised by the US Government to the tune of half-a-million dollars a year. 

At first, RVEU used frequencies in the crowded 31 and 41 metre shortwave bands. Now it has shifted to the out-of-band channels of 9430 and our old friend 11180 kHz. Reception here in Nairobi is excellent; so far the Ethiopians do not appear to be jamming RVEU, as they do another opposition station, Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea.

The Sudanese government denies supporting RVEU and the station itself claims to be broadcasting from somewhere near the Sudanese-Ethiopian border. My own belief is that RVEU is using the same facilities as the anti-SPLA station, probably located near Khartoum, or its sister city, Omdurman.

© 1987 and 2019. Material may be reproduced if attributed to Chris Greenway and the British DX Club.

From my archive: Clandestine radio in East Africa in 1987

I wrote the article below in 1987 when I was living in Kenya. It was published in the May 1987 edition of Communication, the journal of the British DX Club (an association of radio enthusiasts and hobbyists).

Some brief explanations may be useful for the modern reader:

In 1987, Eritrea was still part of the communist-run state of Ethiopia. The communist government would be defeated by insurgents in 1991, bringing de facto independence to Eritrea, which was formalised in 1993. The Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea station described below had been launched in 1979. After independence it became the state broadcaster of the new country of Eritrea.

Also mentioned is the territory of South West Africa. In 1987 this was under the control of South Africa (then still in the apartheid era). South West Africa would become independent as the new country of Namibia in 1990.

The clandestine radio stations mentioned in the article were all broadcasting in the shortwave bands, then widely used by listeners across Africa. As the article was written for radio enthusiasts mainly living in the UK it included details of the frequencies – given in kilohertz (kHz) – that the stations might be heard on.

If you find this article interesting, have a look at two others I wrote at the time: 
Sudanese clandestine radio activity in 1987 
Clandestine radio activity in East Africa hots up in 1988

The 1987 article:

There are five countries bordering Kenya and in four of them guerrillas are in rebellion against the central government, so it is not surprising that this is a fertile region for clandestine broadcasting. Most of this is connected with Ethiopia, either as the originator or target of various stations. 

Ethiopia: Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea

Ethiopia contains a number of ethnic groups and some of them are unhappy with the domination of the country by the ruling Amharas. In Eritrea, in the north of the country, the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) and similar groups have been fighting for regional autonomy since the 1960s. They have managed to wrest permanent control of substantial territory from the Addis Ababa government. It is from this “liberated territory” that the EPLF operates its radio station, Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea. 

By its choice of frequencies, all outside normal broadcast bands, it seems likely that VOBME is using modified amateur radio transmitters. 

Programmes in five languages of the area are broadcast in three transmission blocks each day: at 0400-0600, 1430-1630 and 1800-2000 GMT. Several frequencies (all highly variable) are used for each broadcast: 14320 kHz (or thereabouts) seems to have been the most consistent over the years. 

I believe that the station has been heard in the UK, although its low power, variable frequencies and Ethiopian jamming make it a formidable challenge. 

Sudan: Radio SPLA

The Eritreans receive support from a number of countries, including, or so it is widely suspected, neighbouring Sudan. Naturally this displeases the Ethiopian government and so it is partly as a counterweight that Ethiopia gives military and other support to the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) which is fighting an extensive guerrilla war in southern Sudan. 

As part of this aid, the government-controlled Voice of Revolutionary Ethiopia puts its facilities at the disposal of Radio SPLA for two hour-long broadcasts a day in several tribal languages of southern Sudan, as well as English and Arabic. 

Radio SPLA is the most professional clandestine station I have heard. Its programmes are skillfully produced and presented, and in propaganda terms it leaves the dull output of the official radio in Omdurman far behind. The English broadcast is at 1300-1330 on 9550 and 11710 kHz, which should make it possible for it to be heard in the UK during the winter. 

Broadcasts to/from Somalia: Radio Halgan & Voice of the Western Somali and Somali Abo Liberation Fronts

In addition to its quarrel with Sudan, Ethiopia has a long-standing border dispute with Somalia in which radio plays a role.

Voice of Revolutionary Ethiopia allows its facilities to be used by two dissident Somali groups - the Somali National Movement and the Democratic Front for the Salvation of Somalia - which operate Radio Halgan (“Struggle Radio”) and use it to broadcast military claims and other propaganda daily in Somali at 1700-1800 GMT on 9590 and 7265 kHz. 

Somalia’s answer to Radio Halgan is Voice of the Western Somali and Somali Abo Liberation Fronts which broadcasts to the Somali community living in eastern Ethiopia (or “western Somalia” as Mogadishu describes the area). This uses Radio Mogadishu’s external service transmitter on 6095 kHz for its daily 0930-1000 GMT broadcast. The chances of hearing this one outside the east African region must be thin as even here in Nairobi the signal is very weak. 

Beaming to southern Africa: Radio Freedom & Voice of Namibia

Neither Radio SPLA nor Radio Halgan admit that they are coming from Ethiopia. However, two stations broadcasting to southern Africa are quite happy to say that they are using the Ethiopian state radio's facilities. 

They are Voice of Namibia, which is operated by the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO), and the African National Congress’s Radio Freedom, both of which broadcast mainly in English daily at 1900-1930 and 1930-2000 GMT respectively on 9595 kHz. 

Both of them, but particularly Radio Freedom, are well run and make use of revolutionary music to enliven the propaganda message. Furthermore, the commentaries are not just long tirades but include carefully chosen and edited recordings of remarks by various leaders of the ANC and SWAPO. 

Radio Freedom and Voice of Namibia also use radio facilities in several other African countries. The broadcasts from Ethiopia have been heard in the UK.

© 1987 and 2019. Material may be reproduced if attributed to Chris Greenway and the British DX Club.

Psychological radio operations in the Yemen war

Disclaimer: This is a personal blog post, reflecting only my views. 

A change for this blog! Rather than radio stations long gone, a look at some that are currently active in the war in Yemen.

Political and media background

Rebels of the Houthi movement seized control of the Yemeni capital Sanaa in 2014. The following year Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states, with US backing, began a military intervention in Yemen to fight the rebels and support President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and his government. The intervention continues to this day.

At the time the foreign military intervention began in March 2015, President Hadi (who had already fled from Sanaa for the southern port city of Aden) went into exile in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi authorities provided him with satellite television channels to back his cause among audiences back in Yemen and in the region. Satellite TV viewing is very common across the Arab world, and any political faction worth its salt operates at least one such channel.

In contrast, radio is now generally much less important in the region. However, radio may be playing a significant role in the information war that accompanies the Yemeni conflict as it is less vulnerable than television or online media to the damage caused during the fighting to the power, mobile phone and internet infrastructures.

With that in mind, it is notable that alongside various Saudi-backed TV channels, three radio stations supported by the Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels are beaming into Yemen from abroad.

A regular programme on Radio Al-Azm (see below) is
The Spider's Web, about Saudi Arabia's enemy in the war
Image taken from Radio Al-Azm's Twitter account

In the order in which they came on the air, the three anti-Houthi radio stations are:

Radio Sanaa

This is the station of the exiled government under President Hadi, who continues to spend most of his time in Saudi Arabia. Along with Hadi’s "Yemen TV", which uses the same name and branding as that of the main channel of the state television in the Yemeni capital, Radio Sanaa presents itself as the country’s legitimate state broadcaster. 

Radio Sanaa has been on the air since November 2015, presumably from Saudi Arabia. It is on the air around the clock on shortwave (11860 kHz).

Radio Al-Azm ("Determination")

Radio Al-Azm is run by the state-owned Saudi Broadcasting Authority (known until July 2018 as the Saudi Broadcasting Corporation). 

The station has more than one target audience. It's a morale boosting service for Saudi military personnel fighting the Houthi rebels. But Radio Al-Azm will be aware that it also has significant potential civilian audiences on both sides of the Saudi-Yemen border. It's based in the southern Saudi city of Jizan and has been been on the air since September 2017.

Radio Al-Azm is on the air 24/7 via a number of AM (mediumwave) and FM transmitters in the Saudi regions of Jizan and Najran, bordering Yemen, and on a shortwave frequency, 11745 kHz (note how close that is to Radio Sanaa's shortwave channel of 11860 kHz).

Radio Al-Azm advertises its programmes on its Twitter account.

Headphones and rifles on Radio Al-Azam's logo

Voice of the Republic (Sawt al-Jomhouria)

Voice of the Republic is an information operation of one of the factions within Yemen that is fighting the Houthis. It has a substantial presence on the airwaves, being available via local FM transmitters within Yemen, on satellite and on a powerful AM transmitter in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Affiliation: Voice of the Republic is run by the "National Resistance Forces" (NRF), also known as the "Guards of the Republic", commanded by Brigadier-General Tariq Muhammad Abdullah Saleh. The NRF is based at Mocha (Al-Mukha) on Yemen’s west coast. It is part of the Saudi-backed pro-government coalition.

Launch date: Voice of the Republic reportedly began broadcasting in mid-May 2018. 

The website Sahafah24 reported on 14 May that Brigadier-General Saleh and his "Guards of the Republic" had launched the station in Mocha on 93.1 FM.

Expansion of coverage: Less than a month later (5 June), the website News Yemen reported that transmissions had been expanded from Mocha and now covered Hodeidah (Hudaydah), further north on the coast, on 104.1 FM. 

Then on 28 June, the website Al-Wefaq News reported that the station was also being transmitted on 1170 AM. 

The UAE connection: The signal on 1170 AM is coming from a very powerful (800 kW) transmitter at Al-Dhabbaya in the UAE. Note that the UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.

Before it switched to relaying Voice of the Republic, the transmitter on 1170 AM had carried the UAE government station Radio Abu Dhabi.

Although Voice of the Republic is on the air on FM and satellite around the clock, it is only relayed on the AM transmitter in the UAE during the hours of darkness, when the signal will reach the target area in Yemen by skywave propagation. 

Also on satellite: In addition to its terrestrial transmissions on AM and FM, Voice of the Republic is also available on satellite. It can be heard on the Eutelsat 7 West A satellite at 7.3 west. The transponder frequency is 12360 MHz, horizontal polarisation. This particular transponder is leased to the UAE company du.

Transmissions from Eutelsat 7 West A are often incorrectly referred to in the Middle East as coming from Nilesat, because it is in almost the same orbital location as Nilesat 201 at 7.0 west, and many satellite users say they have a "Nilesat dish" pointing at that position. 

Recording: You can hear the announcer mention the station's name, Sawt al-Jomhouria, and "Nilesat" in this recording.

Further reading

For more about Radio Sanaa and Radio Al-Azm, see an article by veteran radio enthusiast and Arabist Hans Johnson published in Radio World in June 2018.

© 2019. Material may be reproduced if attributed to Chris Greenway and any original source.