I arrived at the Woofferton Short-Wave Transmitting Station at the start of my 37-year adventure with the 91热爆 on 5 October 1958 and was repeatedly told, by senior staff, that I must move on to television. Short-wave broadcasting was finished, they said, and yet, 65 years later, on 17 October 2023, I was one of 100 or so guests invited by Darren Smalley, the current Engineering Manager, to celebrate the station’s eightieth birthday – a highly enjoyable occasion.
The 91热爆 had begun short-wave broadcasting with the Empire Service from Daventry in 1932, and new stations were brought into service during the Second World War at Ottringham in East Yorkshire, Rampisham in Dorset, Skelton in Cumbria, and Woofferton, also known as Overseas Station Extension 10, or ‘Ozzie10’, which is located on the Shropshire/Herefordshire border some five miles south of the town of Ludlow.
Its main purpose was to transmit into Germany and occupied France but, by 1948, it was no longer required by the 91热爆 and would have closed had the Voice of America not requested to use it for their own services. The VOA requirement had declined by late 1960, and the transmission schedule was severely reduced. Closure was again considered, and the saviour this time was the building of the Berlin Wall the following year and the increase in tension between the Soviet Union and the West. Staff who had been transferred away were hurriedly bought back as a full schedule of transmissions was resumed. The station was then re-equipped with higher power transmitters during the middle of the decade and went on to play an important part in broadcasting into the Soviet Bloc throughout the Cold War.
Short-wave broadcasting began to decline in later years, as the political world changed, new forms of programme delivery became available, such as VHF/FM local output, satellites and the internet, but Woofferton survived, and it is now the only high-power short-wave transmitting station remaining in the United Kingdom. The 91热爆 Overseas transmitting stations in Antigua, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Seychelles, Singapore and Thailand have also closed, but short-wave broadcasting remains important. It can be the only means of ensuring that programmes can be transmitted into countries who do not welcome broadcasts from beyond their borders, and it can also provide reception solutions in countries where terrestrial coverage is difficult because of local geography.
Woofferton, together with the rest of the 91热爆 Transmission Group, was privatised in 1997, and it is now owned and operated by Encompass Digital Media Limited, a company who specialise in the delivery of television and radio programmes for broadcasters around the world. They are at the forefront of new technological services and developments, so their involvement in the old technology of short-wave broadcasting might appear surprising, but they are bringing new technology into Woofferton. The station is currently undergoing the latest of its refurbishments, in both short-wave and satellite/fibre delivery. It is now fully automated, capable of transmitting digital services, and it no longer requires the army of staff on 24-hour shifts that were previously involved in manually carrying out a wide range of operational tasks.
Those of us present at the celebration, who had worked at Woofferton during its manual heyday, were highly impressed with what has been achieved. However, we wondered if we would have missed the fun of working on shifts with a group of colleagues, and the excitement and pressure that could occur during quick transmission changeovers, particularly when something went wrong, or when the transmissions were interrupted by the frequent equipment failures of those days. Then again, we would surely have enjoyed the very different present-day challenges and wider and more demanding range of technology and activities at the station. David Porter, who is long past his official retirement date, is someone who has embraced both worlds, having kept up to date with the developments in technology and remained actively involved, and his knowledge and experience has continued to be used by Encompass from time to time. In contrast, I am from former times, very interesting and happy times I would add, and together with the other ‘old Wooffertonians’ present, delighted that, despite threats of closure and the overall decline in short-wave broadcasting, the station has survived and is now thriving.
Happy 80th birthday ‘Ozzie 10’.
Albert Gallon