Media Network Queens Day 1987

It is April 30th as this entry is published. Its a national holiday to celebrate the Queen's Birthday, although Beatrix is not actually having a birthday today. Her late mother was born on April 30th and this is a better time of year than the queen's official birthday on 31st January (1938). So when she was inaugurated in 1980, Queens Day didn't move. The programme attached to this entry is also from Queens Day, but as broadcast on Thursday 30th April 1987....23 years ago. In this show we learn that VOA Europe goes stereo and will also carry commercials, through a barter arrangement with Westwood One We hear the plans for satellite scrambling in MAC mode. AWR Guam signs on. There's also a feature on Audience research - Tom Fikkert of Radio Netherlands and Graham Mytton who was Head of the International Broadcasting Audience Research department at BBC World Service. I find it fascinating to hear how shortwave was declining back then. Finally, clandestine radio expert John Campbell reports on some fascinating books he discovered at book fairs across the North-West Europe.