Radio Centraal is a Belgian "underground" radio station in the old city center of Antwerp. It began broadcasting on 31 October 1980 on 103.9 FM as one of the first pirate radio stations which started around the country in protest against the broadcasting monopoly of the national state networks. It always was and still remains an independent radio project with many experimental programmes and niche music. The station is structured as a not-for-profit organisation. The contributors are all volunteers and all the on-air talent finance the investment and cover the running costs of the project. In this way, Radio Centraal can stay independent from local government or commercial sponsors. Most programming is in Dutch, but there are many programmes in English and other languages. The station offers a starting platform for aspiring, ambitious and creative radio broadcasters, who are given licence to experiment in sound, editorial, music, reportage and language. Several have gone on to have careers in Belgian national media. Original founder members such as Jan Balliauw and Stefan Blommaert now work at VRT television as international correspondents.
Since the studio is located close to the Steen on the river front boulevard, Radio Centraal can be said to have its fingers on the pulse of a living city. It has organised and supported many inner city cultural activities, parties and "art" radio projects over the years.
Further reading
Understanding alternative media, Olga Guedes Bailey, Bart Cammaerts, Nico Carpentier, ISBN0-335-22210-2
A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or, in the United States, multichannel video programming distributors. Until the mid-1980s, broadcast programming on television in most countries of the world was dominated by a small number of terrestrial networks. Many early television networks such as the BBC, CBS, CBC, NBC or ABC in the USA and in Australia evolved from earlier radio networks.
The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcasts radio news, speech and discussions in more than 40 languages to many parts of the world on analogue and digital shortwave platforms, internet streaming, podcasting, satellite, DAB, FM and MW relays. In 2015, the World Service reached an average of 210 million people a week. In November 2016, the BBC announced that it would start broadcasting in additional languages including Amharic and Igbo, in its biggest expansion since the 1940s.
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the state media outlet British Broadcasting Corporation. The service provides national radio stations covering the majority of musical genres, as well as local radio stations covering local news, affairs and interests. It also oversees online audio content.
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing and commercial financing, and avoid political interference or commercial influence.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations (AM/FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's state-owned enterprises.
Radio New Zealand, commonly known as Radio NZ or simply RNZ, is a New Zealand public-service radio broadcaster and Crown entity that was established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. It operates news and current-affairs network, RNZ National, and a classical-music and jazz network, RNZ Concert, with full government funding from NZ On Air. Since 2014, the organisation's focus has been to transform RNZ from a radio broadcaster to a multimedia outlet, increasing its production of digital content in audio, video, and written forms.
All India Radio (AIR) aka Akashvani, is an Indian state-owned public radio broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. It was established in 1936. It is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, an Indian television broadcaster. Headquartered in the Akashvani Bhavan building in New Delhi, it houses the Drama Section, the FM Section, and the National Service, and is also home to the Indian television station Doordarshan Kendra, (Delhi).
Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting.
The VRT is the national public-service broadcaster for the Flemish Community of Belgium.
RTL is a French commercial radio network owned by the RTL Group. Founded in 1933 as Radio Luxembourg, it broadcast from outside France until 1981 because only public stations had been allowed until then. It is a general-interest, news, talk and music station, broadcasting nationally in France, Francophone Belgium, and Luxembourg. Until 2022, RTL was also broadcast on long wave frequency 234 kHz from Beidweiler which could be picked up in large parts of the continent. It has a sister station called Bel RTL tailored for the French Community of Belgium. As of 2018, RTL is France's most popular radio station with an average of 6.4 million daily listeners that year.
Radio enjoys a huge following in the United Kingdom. There are around 600 licensed radio stations in the country. For a more comprehensive list see List of radio stations in the United Kingdom.
Roj TV was an international Kurdish satellite television station broadcasting programmes in the Kurmanji, Sorani and Hewrami dialects of the Kurdish language as well as in Persian, Zaza, Arabic, and Turkish.
Belgischer Rundfunk (BRF) is the public-service broadcasting organisation serving the German-speaking Community of Belgium. Based in Eupen, with additional studio facilities in Sankt Vith and Brussels, BRF produces one television and three radio channels.
Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Alan Crawford initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly. Unlicensed by any government for most of its early life, it was a pirate radio station that never became illegal as such due to operating outside any national jurisdiction, although after the Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 it became illegal for a British subject to associate with it.
The Voice of Vietnam is the Vietnamese national radio broadcaster. Directly controlled by the government of Vietnam, it is tasked propagating the policies of the Party and the laws of the state.
Antwerpen-Centraal railway station is the main railway station in Antwerp, Belgium. It is one of the most important hubs in the country and is one of the four Belgian stations on the high-speed rail network. From 1873 to early 2007, it was a terminal station. The current building, designed by the architect Louis Delacenserie, was constructed between 1895 and 1905. On 23 March 2007, a tunnel with two continuous tracks was opened under part of the city and under the station. The train services are operated by the National Railway Company of Belgium (NMBS/SNCB).
Bush Radio is a popular and pioneering community radio station in South Africa. The station broadcasts programs in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa from Salt River, Cape Town on 89.5 MHz FM, with a music and talk format aimed at the 18 to 39 age group.
Raidió Fáilte is an Irish-language community radio station, broadcasting from Belfast, in Northern Ireland. It started broadcasting under its current licence on 15 September 2006 having operated as a pirate radio station for some time prior to that.
Radiofabrik is Salzburg’s community radio. It is an independent, non-commercial, non-profit radio station in Salzburg, Austria.
This article covers the radio landscape in Flanders and Brussels, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium known as the Flemish Community.
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