Voice of the World ( Hebrew קול השלום Kol Hashalom) is an offshore radio station that has been broadcasting to the Middle East for 20 years from the former Dutch cargo ship MV Peace (formerly MV Cito ), anchored off the Israeli coast of the Eastern Mediterranean. Founded by Abi Nathan and the New York-based Peace Ship Foundation, the radio station operated almost continuously from May 19, 1973 to November 1993 [1] . The station was restarted, but exclusively as an online station, in August 2009. A second online channel, entitled “Classics of the Voice of the World,” was added in 2014.
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Content
- 1 History
- 1.1 Transmitters
- 1.2 DJs / Presenters
- 1.3 Programs
- 2 Government response
- 3 The sinking of the ship of the world
- 4 Disease and death of Abi Nathan
- 5 See also
- 6 notes
- 7 References
- 8 References
History
The purpose of the Voice of the World was to convey the ideas of peaceful coexistence to the Middle East . She broadcast popular music, represented mainly by British DJs, which was broadcast live from the ship. The main broadcast studio consisted of a Gates Diplomat mixer, Technics SL-1200 players , Sony CD players and Gates NAB cassette machines, which played jingles and commercials. The second studio, for production, had a Gates player, reel tape recorders and a NAB cassette unit.
The Voice of the World was Israel’s first offshore pop station and the first private commercial-funded station [2] . She attracted many advertisers. Initially, the station transmitted at a frequency of 1539 AM and in 1980 added a frequency of 100.0 FM.
Celebrities were involved in broadcasting. The Carpenters , Johnny Mathis and others have recorded messages about the world. John and Yoko Lennon signed hundreds of peace posters that Abe Nathan could sell in difficult times. In the mid-1970s, the radio station attracted over 20 million listeners, from the Middle East to southern Europe and Turkey.
Transmitters
The original AM / MW transmitter was installed in New York until 1972 and consisted of two 25,000-watt Collins units and a Collins adder, giving the station a 50-kW signal in the AM band. The MW signal was transmitted from a horizontal antenna with a central power supply installed between the front and rear masts, a design similar to that used by Radio Veronica and then Laser 558. The station usually operated at 35 kW until the end of 1976, when it was decided to use only one transmitter at a time, leaving the other in reserve. In 1985, the repair allowed the re-launch of two Collins blocks at the same time, which led to the expansion of broadcasting to Turkey , Crete , Greece and Cyprus , areas where the Voice of the World message was not reached for nine years. After these AM transmitters became unusable, the Canadian Nautel 10 kW AM transmitter was installed.
The shortwave transmitter was used for a short time at a frequency of 6240 kHz, but it was abandoned due to interference problems.
The 20 kW FM transmitter installed in Israel was manufactured by Harris with an output of 80 kW. A second 20 kW FM transmitter was also installed on board the ship.
DJs / presenters
Speakers with Voice of the World included Tony Allan, Chris Phelan, Peter Quinn, Nathan Morley, Chris Pearson, Nigel Harris and Grant Benson. Steve Greenberg, who became a Grammy producer and president of Columbia Records , has been a presenter since the early 1980s. Kenny Page was one of the oldest speakers on board from 1970 to 1990.
Programs
The Voice of the World broadcast mainly in English , but included broadcasts in Hebrew, Arabic and French . Several shows lasted almost his whole life, including Twilight Time (daily at 18:00, using the Platters hit as the main theme), the Classical Music program (daily from 19:30) and Late Night ( 00.00 03.00).
A telephone forum chaired by Abi Nathan called “Kol Ha Lion” (Voice of the Heart), and then Ma Laasot? ( Heb. ? מה לעשות , "What to do?") was a direct public dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.
Government Response
The Israeli government “tolerated” the Voice of the world, since Abi Nathan was a famous person in the country; however, the IBA was alarmed by its popularity, and in May 1976 created the state variety service Sieve Gimel. Nathan was imprisoned several times for violating laws prohibiting contacts with enemy states and the PLO .
Sinking the ship of the world
Nathan decided to deliberately sink the ship in international waters on November 28, 1993, after promising to get broadcast licenses and a mooring failure at the port of Jaffa. He closed the station due to high expenses and after signing peace agreements in Oslo , which, he suggested, were a verification mission of the station. On the final day, he instructed the speakers to play the Beatles non-stop. The presenters on the last day were Nathan Morley, Matthew French, Bill Sheldrake and Clive Sinclair.
Abi Nathan's Disease and Death
In 1997, Abi Nathan suffered a stroke and was partially paralyzed. He died in Tel Aviv on August 27, 2008, at the age of 81. [3] On June 10, 2007, Tel Aviv-Jaffa decided to place a plate on the Tel Aviv embankment on Gordon Beach, opposite the place where the anchor ship stood. This memorial reproduces the recordings of “Voices of the World,” including the call sign in Nathan’s voice and explanations in Hebrew and English.
The Israeli radio station Radius 100 (on VoP FM) broadcasts programs dedicated to it, one day a week. The first hour is Twilight Time music. The second is hits, mainly from the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. Among the presenters are Gil Katzir, Mike Brand and Tim Shepard.
In 2003, NMC Music released a CD called Voice of the World with songs and jingles from the station. Soon followed by the film “Sunsets, a film about Abi Nathan directed by Eitan Harris. A double CD compilation was released in 2007 and 2008.
See also
- Pirate radio
Notes
- ↑ HISTORY OF BROADCASTING IN ISRAEL The first broadcasts in Israel began during the time of the British Mandate. . GUIDE TO ISRAEL .
- ↑ "Kohl + ha-shalom" & source = bl & ots = 9X9KqN67sR & sig = ACfU3U0PJNxmQ-A2sU4BWkXI7O0vgXz3_A & hl = en & sa = X & ved = 2ahUKEwjxu6PW89zgAhXS2KQKHQucCzsQ6AEwBHoECAYQAQ # v = onepage & q = " Kohl% 20ha-shalom" & f = false power and politics in the State of Israel: the historical roots and constitutional system . - Open University of Israel, 1997. - ISBN 9650604200 .
- ↑ Kerschner, Isabelle. "Abi Nathan, the Israeli world champion, died at the age of 81." New York Times . Access August 29, 2008