The BBC’s Atlantic Relay station on Ascension Island celebrated the golden anniversary of its inaugural shortwave radio broadcast by going digital.
On Sunday, Aug. 28, at 11:55 a.m. GMT, content distributor Babcock International ensured a Digital Radio Mondiale broadcast for a special BBC digital transmission from its Atlantic relay station on 21715 kHz.
Having begun in 1966 by providing BBC World Service programs to Africa and South America, today, the Atlantic relay station provides more than 250 hours of BBC programming weekly to East and West African in English, French, Hausa and Somali. This anniversary broadcast was available to West and South Africa until 2:00 p.m. GMT.
Special features of the broadcast included audio of the Bow Church Bell in London like in older broadcasts and greetings from the island’s staff and visitors.
In addition, another DRM transmission (BBC English) was broadcast from 2 to 2:30 p.m to Brazil on the same frequency.
