Talk:Radio Moscow

Radio Peace and Progress

Radio Moscow had a sister shortwave station called Radio Station Peace and Progress: The Voice of Soviet Public Opinion. There should possibly be an article about that too. Lee M 14:46, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

IIRC, Peace and Progress went on the air in the mid 80's, before Gorbachev took over and I remember on the couple of occasions I listened to it it's programmes were pretty dull. This was not the only extra English-language programme, there were also broadcasts aimed at North America and at the British Isles and (I think) Africa. These only operated for short periods of the day whereas the World Service was 24 hours a day on dozens of frequencies. Any World Radio TV Handbook for the late 80s should have details of all these services (if I knew Wikipedia would come along 15 years later I'd have kept mine)... Rugxulo 15:43, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

I *did* keep mine. GABaker 1803, 23 December 2005.

Peace and Progress broadcast mainly in English and various Chinese dialects. Radio Moscow English programmes appeared to be for the purpose of explaining the Soviet world view to those who were not (yet??) Communists while Peace and Progress was an exercise in preaching to the converted !

Radio Moscow programming could be interesting at times but "Peace and Progress" was as you say interminably dull matched only by Radio Tirana A favourite topic seemed to be the USSR statistics for increases in tractor production !

According to the respected VPRO history radio programme OVT, from 1929-1994 a Dutch language service functioned. They made a two-part documentary about it, interviewing the Dutch presenters. It can be listened to on-line.

http://geschiedenis.vpro.nl/programmas/3299530/afleveringen/3364957/items/6512245/

Peace and Progress claimed to be "The voice of Soviet public opinion" and was (supposedly) operated by "Soviet public organisations" (whatever they were ?!?!) rather than the USSR government (which ran radio Moscow). The notion (Going by the above comments regarding the content of the broadcasts) that "Soviet public opinion" was actually more hardline than that of the government seems somewhat bizarre ? 78.148.169.107 (talk) 09:41, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Here [1] is a short recording of RPP. They appeared to use the same studios (The distinctive acoustics of Radio Moscow's studios were evident even when listening on shortwave) and many of the same announcers as Radio Moscow proper.2.221.95.64 (talk) 18:23, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

Interval signal

"Moscow Nights" has never been an interval signal of Radio Moscow. They used "Shiroka strana moya rodnaya" ("My country's vast"). "Moscow nights" tune had sometimes been used at the close of English programmes, but never as an official interval signal. "Moscow Nights" is in fact interval signal for Radio Mayak - another soviet era Radio, which nonetheless never broadcast in foreign languages. Here's the link to Radio Moscow's original interval signal: Media:http://www.swldxer.co.uk/moscow-is.wma - taken from this page [2] Luitje (talk) 13:48, 16 January 2008 (UTC)luitje

Transcription tapes

I work in a Public radio and television station, and remember receiving letters in the 1980's from Radio Moscow offering to send us recordings of various programs they had produced. The offerings included dramatizations of Classic Russian and Soviet literature, music, and some "documentary" programs on various subjects such as the Second World War, or as it is known in Russia, "The Great Patriotic War."

The recordings were offered for free, and the only condition was that they should be returned to Radio Moscow with an attached label stating whether the tape had been used, not used, or partially used, and the date. The reel-to-reel tapes were already starting to look rather out of date, as almost everything we did was recorded on cassette, and the CD was just starting to come into use.

When attempting to return the tapes, we hit the first obstacle that was so typical of how the Soviet Union operated. Audio tapes were on the "forbidden" list of things sent into the Soviet Union, and the tapes were seized by Soviet Customs despite the fact that they were obviously the property of Radio Moscow. Eventually they told us to mark the packages "ADDRESSEE HAS OFFICIAL PERMISSION TO RECEIVE TAPES."

We ended up not using many of the offerings, and the response from our listeners was almost nil.

RogerInPDXRogerInPDX (talk) 05:19, 5 April 2008 (UTC) RogerInPDX

Frequencies

Shortwave hobbyists generally assumed the programming staff did not actually know what frequencies were being used. Although the station never published its complete time/frequency schedule as radio frequencies were regarded as state secrets by the Soviet government

Im not sure how true this actually is. I used to to listen to Radio Moscow quite a lot in the early-mid 1980's and their "World service" was at times transmitted on anything up to 40 frequencies simultaneously. It was more likely that the list of frequencies was considered too long-winded to read out on air (although European Mediumwave frequencies were announced sometimes). On the North American service (which came in fairly well late at night in Western Europe) there were hourly announcements on the lines of "for listeners in North America transmission on XX.XXX Megahertz is now (closing/available). Radio Moscow can be heard on (12-16) frequencies in the 16, 19, 25, 31, 41 and 49 metre bands" so obviously some staff did have some knowledge of the frequencies in use. Having said that a complete list was never published and lists in publications like the World Radio TV Handbook were based on monitoring/reports (and a certain degree of speculation regarding transmitter site locations). Such official semi-secrecy over something the Soviet authorities would have had an interest in promoting might seem a bit odd but such was the degree of cold war paranoia apparently. 213.40.98.230 (talk) 11:14, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

although European Mediumwave frequencies were announced sometimes

For a time during the 1980's they also announced a transmitter for (based in Cuba) for listeners in the USA on 1040 KHz. Although why they never thought to put a megawatt plus TX (with directional antenna) onto a clearer frequency (like 530 KHz)is a bit of a mystery. 213.40.111.40 (talk) 18:10, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

46.35.185.186 (talk) 14:41, 15 January 2013 (UTC) Radio Moscow World Service was broadcast on something up to 60 frequencies at a time, to all parts of the world, including South Pacific, Africa, Asia, Europe (a separate Ireland and UK Service), South and North America. The North American service was broadcast on about 15 frequencies at a time - on 13, 16, 19, 25, 31, 41 and 49 meters bands, as well as on 1040 kHz from Havana.

Perhaps it should be pointed out that the Medium wave transmissions were so powerful that in the UK you could pick up them at night on a normal car radio. I remember driving home late at night down the M1 in the 1980's listening to Radio Moscow explaining the superiority of the Soviet System. TiffaF (talk) 18:02, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

That's nothing. Their shortwave signals were so powerful that sometimes they broke in on faulty telephone lines and cheap audio amplifiers. 2.221.95.64 (talk) 21:17, 6 September 2015 (UTC)

Near the beginning (0:50) of this 1980 recording [3] from the North American service all 14 frequencies are announced. So clearly the station staff were aware of the frequencies used. 90.202.231.149 (talk) 13:17, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

Pius XII controversy

As part of the research on the so-called "black legend" on Pope Pius XII, some historians have pointed to a 1945 broadcast by Radio Moscow which controversially described bishop Pacelli as "Hitler's Pope". If the history section of the present VOR article ever becomes more detailed, it would be interesting to add valuable information about this historiographical question. [4] ADM (talk) 22:20, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Separate "Voice of Russia" and "Radio Moscow"

This article is called "Voice of Russia", which is the current Russian station, but most of the content is about "Radio Moscow", which was the former USSR station. The two entities are different, I suggest the article be split. I think the transmission network listed refers to the "Radio Moscow" (because it says "consisted" - past tense), but this is not clear.

• Agree, if they are indeed discrete entities as TiffaF says, then there should be two separate articles "Radio Moscow" and "Voice of Russia". The alternative, if both are covered in one article, would be to rename it.  JGHowes  ^talk 13:16, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

• Agree, Tom Paine (talk) 13:34, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

• Agree, 86.112.95.7 (talk) 19:53, 19 March 2010 (UTC) "Radio Moscow" was a international radio service from the USSR. "Voice of Russia" is an international radio service from Russia they are not the same station (even if one inherited some of the staff and studio/transmission facilities from the other). 86.112.95.7 (talk) 19:53, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

While the Voice of Russia took over the studios, transmitters and many of the former staff of Radio Moscow, it is not the same station as that which existed from 1929. I believe there should be a separate entry in Wikipedia for Radio Moscow as distinct to the VOR. I was a regular listener to Radio Moscow from the mid 1970s until its close-down.Coolavokig (talk) 11:43, 12 July 2008 (UTC)