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‘The Brightness You Bring into Our Otherwise Very Dull Existence’: Responses to Dutch Global Radio Broadcasts from the British Empire in the 1920s and 1930s

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The MacKenzie Moment and Imperial History

Part of the book series: Britain and the World ((BAW))

Abstract

During the first half of twentieth century, protagonists from the imperial powers constantly sized up each others’ empires and these ‘politics of comparison’ were part and parcel of the international system of the late colonial period. This contribution explores new ways in which historians can study the complex dynamics of ‘comparative empires’ through the prism of the history of global radio broadcasting. Radio is an inherently transnational medium as the ether knows no boundaries, a quality that was instantly recognised by contemporaries who witnessed the birth of radio in the interwar years. Consequently, broadcasters from different imperial powers instantly tried to find ways to use radio as an instrument to brush up prestige abroad. The Dutch company Philips pioneered intercontinental radio technology and set up an experimental transmission station in 1927, best known by its call sign PCJ. From the start, letters came pouring in showing that its programmes were listened to all over the world, including various parts of the British Empire. To accommodate different kinds of listeners, the Philips radio company developed a polyglot format focusing on light entertainment, the ‘Happy Station’ presented by Eduard Startz. I will critically analyse source material about this programme, including a selection of British listeners’ letters, to think about how radio affected the ‘politics of comparison’ between the British and Dutch empires in the late colonial period.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Eduard Startz, Even naar Indië (Amsterdam: Strengholt, 1935), 41–43.

  2. 2.

    Ann Stoler, ‘Tense and Tender Ties: The Politics of Comparison in North American History and (Post) Colonial Studies’, Journal of American History 88 (2001), 27.

  3. 3.

    John M. MacKenzie, ‘Introduction’, in John M. MacKenzie, ed., European Empires and the People: Popular Responses to Imperialism in France, Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011), 11.

  4. 4.

    Simon J. Potter, Broadcasting Empire: The BBC and the British World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012); and René Witte, De Indische radio-omroep: Overheidsbeleid en ontwikkeling 1923–1942 (Hilversum: Verloren, 1998).

  5. 5.

    Rebecca P. Scales, ‘Métissage on the Airwaves: Toward a Cultural History of Broadcasting in French Colonial Algeria, 1930–1936’, Media History 19 (2013), 305–21.

  6. 6.

    John M. MacKenzie, ‘Propaganda and the BBC Empire Service, 1932–42’, in Jeremy Hawthorn, ed., Propaganda, Persuasion and Polemic (London: E. Arnold, 1987), 37–54.

  7. 7.

    Over de wereld weerklinkt Neerlands stem. De Nederlandsche kortegolfomroep. PHOHI, PHI, PCJ 1936 (Eindhoven [1937]), 3.

  8. 8.

    John M. MacKenzie, Propaganda and Empire: The Manipulation of British Public Opinion 1880–1960 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1986), 2–3.

  9. 9.

    Huub Wijfjes, Radio onder restrictie. Overheidsbemoeiing met radioprogramma’s 1919–1941 (Amsterdam: Stichting Beheer IISG, 1988); and Frank van Vree, De Nederlandse pers en Duitsland 1930–1939. Een studie over de vorming van publieke opinie (Groningen: Historische Uitgeverij, 1989).

  10. 10.

    I have explored this debate in my article Vincent Kuitenbrouwer, ‘Radio as a Tool of Empire: Intercontinental Broadcasting from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies in the 1920s and 1930s’, Itinerario 40 (2016), 83–103.

  11. 11.

    Martin Bossenbroek, Holland op zijn breedst: Indië en Zuid-Afrika in de Nederlandse cultuur omstreeks 1900 (Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 1996), 201–2; Kees van Dijk, The Netherlands Indies and the Great War, 1914–1918 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 12–14; and Vincent Kuitenbrouwer, War of Words: Dutch Pro-Boer Propaganda and the South African War 1899–1902 (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2012), 107.

  12. 12.

    Van Dijk, Netherlands Indies, 141.

  13. 13.

    Van Dijk, Netherlands Indies, passim.

  14. 14.

    Vincent Kuitenbrouwer, ‘The First World War and the Birth of Dutch Colonial Radio’, World History Bulletin 31 (2015), 28–31.

  15. 15.

    Rudolf Mràzek, Engineers of Happy Land: Technology and Nationalism in a Colony (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002), 170.

  16. 16.

    Ivo Jules Blanken, Geschiedenis van Philips Electronics N.V. Deel III (1922–1934) (Leiden: Nijhoff Uitgevers, 1992), 265–69.

  17. 17.

    Blanken, Geschiedenis van Philips Electronics, 279–81.

  18. 18.

    Erich DeWald, ‘Taking to the Waves: Vietnamese Society Around the Radio in the 1930s’, Modern Asian Studies 46 (2012), 147–48.

  19. 19.

    For a detailed account of this experiment, see an undated historical memorandum, Philips Company Archives (PCA), file 814.23. See also: Hans Vles, Hallo Bandoeng. Nederlandse radiopioniers 1900–1945 (Zutphen: Walberg, 2008), 91–100.

  20. 20.

    Algemeen Handelsblad, evening edition, 29 April 1927.

  21. 21.

    See, for example, editorials in Algemeen Handelsblad, Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, and Het Vaderland, 2 June 1927.

  22. 22.

    See, for example, Algemeen Handelsblad, 18 June 1927; and Het Volk, 21 June 1927.

  23. 23.

    Potter, Broadcasting Empire, 38–39.

  24. 24.

    BBC Written Archives Centre (WAC), file E4/1, Memorandum, G. Marcuse, 28 May 1927.

  25. 25.

    Wireless World, Vol. XX, No. 23 (8 June 1927), 2.

  26. 26.

    Asa Briggs only mentions the Eindhoven broadcasts briefly in a footnote. Asa Briggs, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, Volume II:The Golden Age of Wireless (London: Oxford University Press, 1965), 371.

  27. 27.

    PCA, file 814.23. [Unreadable] of Philips office in London to A. Philips, 24 May 1927.

  28. 28.

    PCA, file 814.23. Cutting Meyerijsche Courant, 17 August 1927.

  29. 29.

    PCA, file 814.23. Cutting Evening News, 24 May 1927.

  30. 30.

    BBC Written Archives Centre (WAC), file E4/1, Memorandum of telephone conversation with Mr. Phillips of the Post Master General’s Office, 16 September 1927; and Potter, Broadcasting Empire, 38.

  31. 31.

    Potter, Broadcasting Empire, 41–43.

  32. 32.

    This paragraph and the following one draw from the first sections of Kuitenbrouwer, ‘Radio as Tool of Empire’.

  33. 33.

    Arjen Taselaar, De koloniale lobby. Ondernemers en de Indische politiek 1914–1940 (Leiden: CNWS, 1998).

  34. 34.

    Witte, De Indische radio-omroep, 55–57.

  35. 35.

    Blanken, Geschiedenis van Philips Electronics, 273.

  36. 36.

    Piet Gerbrandy, Het vraagstuk van de radio-omroep (Kampen: J. H. Kok, 1934), 17.

  37. 37.

    The Second World War was a watershed in the history of Dutch international radio broadcasting. First of all, the Germans put an end to PHOHI. In London, where de Dutch government in exile stayed, the station Radio Oranje started broadcasting in the Summer of 1940, using BBC hardware. This station was the direct predecessor of Radio Nederland Wereldomroep (RNW) that was founded in 1947, which was modelled on the BBC World Service.

  38. 38.

    MacKenzie, ‘Propaganda and the BBC Empire Service’, 38; Thomas Hajkowski, The BBC and National Identity in Britain, 1922–53 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010), 25.

  39. 39.

    MacKenzie, ‘Propaganda and the BBC Empire Service’, 39; Emma Robertson, ‘“I Get a Real Kick Out of Big Ben”: BBC Visions of Britishness on the Empire and General Overseas Service, 1932–1948’, Historical Journal of Film Radio and Television 28 (2008), 459–73; and Potter, Broadcasting Empire, 46.

  40. 40.

    John M. MacKenzie, ‘In Touch with the Infinite: The BBC and Empire, 1923–1953’, in John M. MacKenzie, ed., Imperialism and Popular Culture (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1986), 167. Historians have only paid attention to the spoken word of BBC broadcasts, and no analysis of the musical program exists.

  41. 41.

    MacKenzie, ‘Propaganda and the BBC Empire Service’, 48–50.

  42. 42.

    Potter, Broadcasting Empire, 25.

  43. 43.

    Martin Beijering, ‘Overheidscensuur op een koloniale radiozender: De Philips Omroep Holland Indië en de Indië Programma Commissie’, in Karel Dibbets, Sonja de Leeuw, Huub Wijfjes, Bert Hogenkamp, Rene Witte, Michel Hommel, and Bernadette Kester, eds., Jaarboek voor mediageschiedenis: Nederlands-Indië 4 (1992), 49.

  44. 44.

    Witte, De Indische radio-omroep, 47.

  45. 45.

    Beijering, ‘Overheidscensuur’, 51.

  46. 46.

    After an intermission during the Second World War (when he retreated from public life), Startz continued with this programme for RNW up until his forced retirement 1969. From then on, Happy Station was presented by Tom Meijer up until 1993. RNW management terminated the programme in 1995. In 2009, Keith Perron, a Canadian living in Taipei, revived the show, which can be heard as a podcast via the website of his company PCJ Media. http://www.pcjmedia.com [accessed 11 March 2016].

  47. 47.

    Jerome S. Berg, On the Short Waves, 1923–1945: Broadcast Listening in the Pioneer Days of Radio (London: McFarland, 1999), 72–73. For the term ‘disc jockey’, see: Robert D. Haslach, Netherlands World Broadcasting (self-published, 1983) 22; and http://www.beeldengeluidwiki.nl/index.php/Edward_Startz [accessed 14 March 2016]. The term ‘master of ceremonies’ was already mentioned in a letter from 1927. PCA, file 814.23. J.E. Davidson, Nairobi to Philips Laboratory, 30 July 1927.

  48. 48.

    ‘The Happy Station’, Algemeen Handelsblad, 22 October 1933.

  49. 49.

    PCA, file 814.23. P. Prioko, Poland to PCJ, 14 July 1936.

  50. 50.

    Startz described these trips in the lucidly written booklets Even naar Indië (1935) and Hoe je’t ziet (1941).

  51. 51.

    A. W. J. de Jonge, ‘Startz, Eduard Franz Conradin (1899–1976)’, in Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland, http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/bwn1880-2000/lemmata/bwn2/startz [accessed 11 March 2016].

  52. 52.

    See, for example, PCA, file 814.23. A.R. Rangschari, Madras to PCJ, not dated.

  53. 53.

    PCA, file 814.23. Phra Nararay [?], Siam to Eduard Startz, 5 January 1938.

  54. 54.

    http://www.beeldengeluidwiki.nl/index.php/Edward_Startz [accessed 6 May 2016].

  55. 55.

    PCA, file 814.23. J. Bernstein, USA to Eduard Startz, 26 December 1929.

  56. 56.

    PCA, file 814.23. C.M. Smith, India to Eduard Startz, 10 February 1936.

  57. 57.

    I PCA, file 814.23. C.M. Smith, India to Eduard Startz, 10 February 1936. It is possible that the letter writer meant ‘Home on the Range’ instead of ‘Down on the Range’.

  58. 58.

    PCA, file 814.23. B. Murphy, L. Bridgnell and R. Kelly, India to E. Startz, not dated [1938]; and H.L. Low, New Zealand, 16 August 1938.

  59. 59.

    Startz, Hoe je ‘t ziet, 49–50.

  60. 60.

    PCA, file 814.23. A.O. Schoumer [?], Australia to PCJJ, 22 September 1927.

  61. 61.

    PCA, file 814.23. J.W. Bushnell, South Africa to PCJJ, 23 [no date] 1927.

  62. 62.

    MacKenzie, ‘Propaganda and the BBC’, 42; Robertson, ‘I Get a Real Kick Out of Big Ben’, 463.

  63. 63.

    Berg, On the Short Wave, 73. Footage of this jingle featured in a RNW promotion-film from 1955, when Startz hosted the Happy Station for that station, http://verhalen.beeldengeluid.nl/happystation [accessed 8 February 2018].

  64. 64.

    PCA, file 814.23. H.J. Whittle, India to PCJ, 2 August 1931.

  65. 65.

    Briggs, History of Broadcasting II, 397.

  66. 66.

    PCA, file 814.23. T.E.T. [?] Thomas, Tobago to PCJ director, 15 June 1938.

  67. 67.

    Quotation from anonymous letter, 11 February 1935. In: Over de wereld klinkt Neerlands stem PHOHI P.C.J. 60 landen spreken hun oordeel uit over de Nederlandsche kortegolfomroep ([Eindhoven], [1935]), 17. Original emphasis.

  68. 68.

    PCA, file 814.23. E. Duprey, Trinidad to E. Startz, 2 July 1938; [unreadable] Woodcock, India to E. Startz, 8 May 1938.

  69. 69.

    PCA, file 814.23. D. Johnston, Australia to PCJ, 15 March 1938.

  70. 70.

    ‘Goodwill […] voor den naam van ons land’. Over de wereld klinkt Neerlands stem PHOHI PCJ ([Eindhoven], [1936]), 3.

  71. 71.

    See, for example, Wireless World, Vol. XX, No 23 (8 June 1927), 2.

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  1. University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Vincent Kuitenbrouwer

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  1. Department of History, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA

    Stephanie Barczewski

  2. School of History, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

    Martin Farr

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Kuitenbrouwer, V. (2019). ‘The Brightness You Bring into Our Otherwise Very Dull Existence’: Responses to Dutch Global Radio Broadcasts from the British Empire in the 1920s and 1930s. In: Barczewski, S., Farr, M. (eds) The MacKenzie Moment and Imperial History. Britain and the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24459-0_16

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