Malaysia
- 1786 - 1795 British claim Penang and Malacca falls to Britain
- 1909 Unfederated Malay States in the Malay Peninsula organized, joining the Federated Malay States and Straits Settlements as components of Malaya
- 1926 Malayan Wireless Committee submits recommendations for permanent government radio service.
- 1930 Reports of reception of shortwave frequencies from the BBC in London but peak listening hours in South East Asia did not synch .
- 1932 Empire Service transmissions to South and South East Asia began
- 1935 Authorization of the British Malaya Broadcasting Corporation (BMBC) granted.
- 1937 BMBC's first transmission
- 1940 Government-owned Malayan Broadcasting Corporation takes over assets of BMBC.
- 1953 The BBC establishes a relay station in Tebrau.
- 31 August 1957 Official Declaration of Independence from the British
In January 1930, an editiorial from the Straits Times expressed views of what might have been widely held among British expatriates of the day. At that point, the BBC was broadcasting on short wave for distant listeners from 1927 on an experimental basis from Chelmsford, but the poor reception of BBC broadcasts through relays was frustrating for those eager to use the medium.
The B.B.C. is an institution of which we may well be proud. It gives by far the best wireless service to the world. Our only quarrel with it at the present time is that it has done little or nothing for those of us who live in Malaya. (A Threat to the BBC,1930).
Complaints persisted through various articles and letters to the editor in newspapers published in British Malaya from 1930 onwards. In an article titled "Radio in Malaya" in the Malaya Tribune, the writer invites readers to listen to the King's Speech, noting that the BBC will broadcast it. However, the writer adds, "it will probably be very difficult to hear it in Malaya, for Chelmsford has been little more than a faint whistle for many days" (Malaya Tribune, 17 January 1930, Page 8). The article suggests there is a possibility that one or more Dutch stations might relay the program, in which case "Malayan listeners might hear the King quite well."
The article also sarcastically critiques a review of the shortwave station in Chelmsford, where a Mr. Chattan assures his English readers that reception from the station compares favorably with other stations and that "reports from the Far East are equally favourable." The writer counters with, "where do these people get their information from? Batches of letters have gone to the BBC complaining about the disgracefully poor service of 5SW" (Malaya Tribune, 17 January 1930, Page 8).
When the BBC finally launched its Empire Service in 1932 using dedicated short-wave technology transmitting from Daventry, the response was enthusiastic. It was considered a turning point for radio in British Malaya. By mid-June 1933, Malayan listeners could tune into Empire programmes for seven and-a-half hours each day.
The programming included news bulletins, music (both live and from gramophone recordings), religious services, talks, and sports reports and the ubiquitous tolling of the BIg Ben. Additionally, a reliable radio schedule titled “Empire Radio To Night” was published in the daily press, marking a significant improvement over the earlier days when the Malaya Tribune relied on its readers to submit reception reports and schedules of “likely transmissions.”
A letter from a listener on a Malayan estate recalls their experience of the first Christmas broadcast, describing how "as we sat down to dinner that night, Big Ben boomed through the house – and to an exile, that experience alone is far from being unmoving" (World Radio, 1933 c).
Other listeners in Malaya, describing themselves as "five quite typical English people, rather less, than more, emotional than most." wrote in to express the significance of the King's inaugural speech:
"Nothing we could say would adequately express what it meant to us .. to hear the King speak, as if he were actually standing beside us here in our tropic garden.. We have little to hold on to these days .. and we lose the sense of belonging anywhere .. in the space of a few minutes all that is altered - faith in the King and a sense of belonging to him, loyalty and pride of race, as well as a feeling of unity, restored what we were losing." (World Radio 1933c E4/6)
The relay of radio signals from Daventry to parts of what is now Malaysia, continued through the 30's to the early 40's.
World War II
The outbreak of World War II in Europe and the impending threat of Japanese aggression in Asia introduced new challenges. The British Ministry of Information established the Far Eastern Bureau in Singapore to combat enemy propaganda in Asia. The proximity of Singapore
In 1947, the Straits Times announced Britain's plans to increase the "range, volume and variety of radio broadcasts to the people of South East Asia" by building in Malaya 5 or 6 transmitters of equivalent power to the BBC's shortwave overseas transmitters in South Johore. The article also says that most of the British broadcast material to be transmitted from Malaya will be pre-recorded or relayed from London. The total cost to Britain to broadcast from Malaya would be from 15 to 20 Million dollars.(The Straits Times, 9 September 1947, Page 7)
A BBC relay station, was built in Tebrau and was constructed on a huge rolling estate of several hundred acres in the year 1953. The original transmitters were six in number; four new units at 7.5 kW and two 100 kW units transferred from the old BFBS base at Jurong on Singapore island.
In the early 50's, broadcasting activities in Malaya were operated from its temporary studio in Jalan Young (now know as Jalan Cenderasari) in Kuala Lumpur and later in 1956, were moved to the Federal House, Kuala Lumpur. It was here that broadcasting in Malaysia grew with the establishment of several stations throughout the country including Sabah and Sarawak. Commercial advertisements were first aired on radio in 1960. This became a new source of revenue for the Government. An interesting point to note is that 'deejays' began to use the introduction "INILAH RADIO MALAYSIA" (This is Radio Malaysia) to greet listeners.
Broadcasting further carved another milestone when Television services were introduced on 28 December 1963 from its studio, Dewan Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Ampang. Broadcast operations then moved office to Angkasapuri Complex which began its telecast on 6th October 1969, Radio and Television were merged under the Ministry of Information. The growth of the first channel, Rangkaian Satu encouraged the second channel to be established on 17th November 1969.
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787 items
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J.B Clark inquires regarding the situation on P.I.D. request. He also states that the Far East Division has also shown interest in the Burmese scripts. More »Message
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J.B. Clark notes that; a) They were asked by the government to take over responsibilities on Far Eastearn Broadcasting Services now based in Singapore. b) There is no detailed considerations on the date when they will take on the responsibilities nor is there on staffing needs and other arrangements. c) J.B Clark recommends that the circumstances not influence any action they take as the Foreign Office remains the responsible body. d) J.B Clark notes that should they take on any responsibilities, they should consider staffing heads for the UK, contract staff, and local staff. More »Message
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JB Clark writes to thank Dumeresque and commend him on the production of Radio Malaya News Volume 1. He also notes a few personal matters. More »Message
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J.B.Clark informs L.F. Rushbook that the suspension of the dispatch of scripts were not intelligent as Mr. Bakers group just had not had to respond. He also hopes that the supply will resume. More »Message
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Macgregor forwards notes fram the Agent for Malaya More »Message
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Macgregor thanks the sender for his notes on broadcasting development. More »Message
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Macgregor requests for E.C Robbins to read the draft constitution and give his thoughts. More »Message
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Macgregor speaks on the changes made to the scheduling for the building of a high powered transmitter in Singapore. He suggests setting a meeting with a Sir John Pratt to clear up possible issues. More »Message
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Roberts attatches the letter previously sent to Mr. Kennedy seeking approval from Hayes. More »Message
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The sender clarifies and corrects a few errors made in a previous letter with regards to the radio frequncies chosen by the Broadcasting Sub-comittee. He also agrees with the alterations which were proposed in said meeting. More »Message
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A recording of a Java suite, featuring Gamelan and piano music by Leopold Godowsky, with arrangements for tuned percussion. The content is likely copied from a commercial or broadcast recording. The recording starts at 01:23:53, and the entire duration is 1 hour, 35 minutes, and 30 seconds. The Java suite is found at the end without any introductions. The performers are unidentified. More »Topic: Culture |Audio
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Recording consists of a 78 RPM mono disc from the BBC Archive (catalog number 22570) featuring Javanese music and street vendors' mechanical sounds. The disc has two sides and measures 30 cm. It is labeled as an analogue disc and is stored under the catalog number 9CL0029181. The disc also includes actualities and is affiliated with the BBC. More »Soundscape (urban) |Topic: Culture |Audio
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Letter attaching comments of the sender on the broadcasting proposal made by V.H. Winston. More »Message
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Selangor, Penghulu, a male singer, performed the Mon-Kmer language folk song "JinjangJinjang" in 1955, recorded by Radio Malaya and archived by the BBC. The song is designated as folk music and dance music with a mixed chorus and drums. This historical recording provides a glimpse into the music and culture of then British Malaya. More »Music |Topic: Culture |Audio
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John Henry Antill, CMG, OBE (8 April 1904 – 29 December 1986) was an Australian composer best known for his ballet Corroboree. (Wikipedia) More »Person
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John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to as JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A Democrat, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the U.S. Congress prior to his presidency. Born into the prominent Kennedy family in Brookline, Massachusetts, Kennedy graduated from Harvard University in 1940, joining the U.S. Naval Reserve the following year. During World War II, he commanded PT boats in the Pacific theater. Kennedy's survival following the sinking of PT-109 and his rescue of his fellow sailors made him a war hero and earned the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, but left him with serious injuries. After a brief stint in journalism, Kennedy represented a working-class Boston district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953. He was subsequently elected to the U.S. Senate, serving as the junior senator for Massachusetts from 1953 to 1960. While in the Senate, Kennedy published his book, Profiles in Courage, which won a Pulitzer Prize. Kennedy ran in the 1960 presidential election. His campaign gained momentum after the first televised presidential debates in American history, and he was elected president, narrowly defeating Republican opponent Richard Nixon, the incumbent vice president. Kennedy's presidency saw high tensions with communist states in the Cold War. He increased the number of American military advisers in South Vietnam, and the Strategic Hamlet Program began during his presidency. In 1961, he authorized attempts to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion and Operation Mongoose. In October 1962, U.S. spy planes discovered Soviet missile bases had been deployed in Cuba. The resulting period of tensions, termed the Cuban Missile Crisis, nearly resulted in nuclear war. In August 1961, after East German troops erected the Berlin Wall, Kennedy sent an army convoy to reassure West Berliners of U.S. support, and delivered one of his most famous speeches in West Berlin in June 1963. In 1963, Kennedy signed the first nuclear weapons treaty. He presided over the establishment of the Peace Corps, Alliance for Progress with Latin America, and the continuation of the Apollo program with the goal of landing a man on the Moon before 1970. He supported the civil rights movement but was only somewhat successful in passing his New Frontier domestic policies. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. His vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, assumed the presidency. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination, but he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby two days later. The FBI and the Warren Commission both concluded Oswald had acted alone, but conspiracy theories about the assassination persist. After Kennedy's death, Congress enacted many of his proposals, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Revenue Act of 1964. Kennedy ranks highly in polls of U.S. presidents with historians and the general public. His personal life has been the focus of considerable sustained interest following public revelations in the 1970s of his chronic health ailments and extramarital affairs. Kennedy is the most recent U.S. president to have died in office. (Wikipedia) More »Person
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John Martin writes to WM Goatman, making the following requests: 1. Program Information Service & Publicity 2. Programs Rebroadcast 3. Scripts 4. London Transcription Recordings More »Message
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It states that a Mr. Baker was requesting the broadcasting script of Mr.Winsteadt as he is an admirer of his work. The sender then asks if relaxing the rule of circulating manuscripts to private consumers might lead to more requests of the same nature. More »Message
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The memo states that they have attached messages from the British Military Administration that are to be released on the end of July. More »Article
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John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith, KT, GCVO, GBE, CB, TD, PC (/ˈriːθ/; 20 July 1889 – 16 June 1971), was a Scottish broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom. In 1922, he was employed by the BBC, then the British Broadcasting Company Ltd., as its general manager; in 1923 he became its managing director, and in 1927 he was employed as the Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation created under a royal charter. His concept of broadcasting as a way of educating the masses marked for a long time the BBC and similar organisations around the world. An engineer by profession, and standing at 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) tall, he was a larger-than-life figure who was a pioneer in his field. (Wikipedia) More »Person
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John Goodwin Tower (September 29, 1925 – April 5, 1991) was an American politician and military officer who represented Texas in the United States Senate from 1961 to 1985. He was the first Republican elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas since Reconstruction. Tower is known for leading the Tower Commission, which investigated the Iran-Contra Affair in the Reagan administration. Born in Houston, Texas, he served in the Pacific Theater of World War II. After the war, he worked as a radio announcer and taught at Midwestern University (now Midwestern State University) in Wichita Falls. He switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in the early 1950s and worked on the 1956 presidential campaign of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Tower lost Texas's 1960 Senate election to Democratic Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, but performed relatively well compared to his Republican predecessors. With the Democratic victory in the 1960 presidential election, Johnson vacated his Senate seat to become Vice President of the United States. In the 1961 special election, Tower defeated Johnson's appointed successor, Bill Blakley. He won re-election in 1966, 1972, and 1978. Upon joining the Senate in 1961, Tower became the first Republican Senator to represent a state in the South since 1913. He was the only Southern Republican in the Senate until Strom Thurmond switched parties in 1964. A political conservative earlier in his career, Tower staunchly opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Starting in 1976 with his support of Gerald Ford rather than Ronald Reagan in the 1976 Republican primaries, Tower began to alienate many fellow conservatives. He became less conservative over time, later voicing support for legal abortion, gay rights, and opposing President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983. Tower retired from the Senate in 1985. After leaving Congress, he served as chief negotiator of the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks with the Soviet Union and led the Tower Commission. The commission's report was highly critical of the Reagan administration's relations with Iran and the Contras. In 1989, incoming President George H. W. Bush chose Tower as his nominee for Secretary of Defense, but his nomination was rejected by the Senate. After the defeat, Tower chaired the President's Intelligence Advisory Board. Tower died in the 1991 Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2311 crash. (Wikipedia) More »Person
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Sir John Tusa (born 2 March 1936) is a British arts administrator, and radio and television journalist. He is co-chairman of the European Union Youth Orchestra from 2014. chairman, British Architecture Trust Board, RIBA, from 2014. From 1980 to 1986, he was a main presenter of BBC 2's Newsnight programme. From 1986 to 1993, he was managing director of the BBC World Service. From 1995 to 2007, he was managing director of the City of London's Barbican Arts Centre. (Wikipedia) More »Person
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Johor Sport Club (Joget): An instrumental Malaysian folk dance in the joget style, performed by violinist Hamzah Dolmat and his group Rakan2. The performance features unestablished instrumentation, most likely flute, violin, accordion, and frame drum. More »Music (Instrumental) |Topic: Culture |Audio
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C. Lawson-Reece suggested that the opening announcement be embodied in the news readers script for convenience. More »Message
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Recording features a performance of Kapi Radja (King of the apes) by the Gamelan Orchestra from Pilatan, Indonesia. The music is traditional Kebiar music, including folk songs and music, recorded on a 30 cm disc with 2 sides at 33 rpm. The label for this recording is BBCARCHIVELP19654 and the performance starts at 00:03:05.16. More »Music |Topic: Culture |Audio
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In a rare find, the BBC ARCHIVE 19654 label matches the KebiarModern dance in Classical Style from Bali Music (Instrumental) album, which contains 1 disc with 2 sides and plays at 33 rpm on a 30 cm record. The album, which starts at 00:06:10.09, features the Gamelan Orchestra from Pilatan, Indonesia, providing a unique blend of traditional and modern dance music from Bali. More »Music |Topic: Culture |Audio
