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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast records
2000C120
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Table of contents
Title: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast records
Date (inclusive): 1917-2014
Collection Number: 2000C120
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
Multiple languages
, English
Physical Description:
264 manuscript boxes, 136 audio boxes
(205 Linear Feet)
Abstract: American radio broadcasting organization operating Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Includes sound recordings of broadcasts,
as well as documents used for creating broadcasts including scripts, correspondence, and memoranda relating to broadcasts
by Radio Free Europe to audiences in Eastern Europe and to broadcasts by Radio Liberty to audiences in the Soviet Union. The
entire collection is 7,704 linear feet (15,207 boxes).
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
RFE/RL welcomes the re-use, republication, and redistribution for research and educational purposes of audio, video, text,
and graphic content produced by RFE/RL, Inc., its legal predecessor organizations, and its constituent language Services.
Users of RFE/RL content from this website must include in their work the information: "Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty content,
including but not limited to recordings of broadcasts, program scripts, graphic and video content and web-based content, is
protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Used with the permission of RFE/RL, Inc., 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington,
DC 20036, USA. "www.rferl.org".
Users of RFE/RL content cannot alter the meaning, name or integrity of the content. The sale of RFE/RL content is strictly
prohibited. Some of the RFE/RL content on this website may contain content created by outside parties ("Third-Party Content").
Before using any RFE/RL products containing Third-Party Content, you must first obtain permission from the owner of the rights
to the Third-Party Content. Unlimited reproduction for institutional or other use of RFE/RL content found on this website
is not permitted without the express written permission of RFE/RL.
Learn more about the Terms of Use for RFE/RL content on the RFE/RL website. Inquiries about copyright permission involving
materials in RFE/RL archival collections should be emailed to: Martins Zvaners, RFE/RL Deputy Director of Communications.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2000.
[Identification of item], Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast records, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution
Library & Archives.
Digital copies of select records also available at
https://digitalcollections.hoover.org
From 2017-2022 all Broadcasting Department and Service records were converted from series level description with attachments,
to individual finding aid records. During this conversion process the entire collection was renumbered and description re-evaluated.
Additional materials have been added, as well as previously undescribed sound recordings to each record.
Scope and Content of Collection
The RFE/RL Broadcast department records consist of the materials produced by RFE/RL for its radio programs. The extent of
the entire collection is 7,704 linear feet and 15,207 boxes. While the primary elements of this collection are sound recordings
and scripts (arranged by broadcast department or language service), there is also a good deal of derivative and associated
documentation created, received, or collected in the course of the daily functioning of the broadcasting service. Such documentation
includes editorial and research files, program logs and broadcast schedules, special programs, work plans, program lists,
listener mail, papers of individual employees collected or produced in the course of their duties, and other types of documentation.
The
News and Current Affairs Department records contain the news budget, which includes reports from wire agencies and other sources on events during the Hungarian Revolution
of 1956 and Prague Spring of 1968, as well as certain other topics. The records also contain scripts – printed versions of
news events and interviews as read by announcers – with sound bites of the event, speech, or interview on audio tapes.
The majority of the collection consists of department and language service finding aids, which contain a
Sound Recordings series, these consist of broadcast recordings, monitoring recordings, off-air recordings, and music recordings. Broadcast recordings
of RFE/RL broadcasts were captured either in the studio or direct from a transmitter. They constitute the defining record
of what RFE/RL committed to air. Typical content includes news reports, interviews, speeches, sermons, dramatic programming,
and music. Monitoring recordings represent radio broadcasts other than RFE/RL that were monitored on a radio in the RFE/RL
office and recorded to tape. Off-air recordings are raw captures of interviews, speeches, literary readings, music performances,
etc. that would have been edited for use on future broadcasts. Music recordings are predominantly commercially issued popular,
classical, and folk releases collected for on-air play; they are sometimes called a service's "music library." It is important
to note that music related broadcast programming, such as the Romanian Broadcasting Department's "Metronome" program, are
considered broadcast recordings since they contain whole programs as they were heard on air.
While part of the larger whole, each language service operated independently, with different practices regarding programming
logs, the labeling of tapes, etc. Nearly all services reused tapes in an effort to conserve resources, particularly in the
early years. Consequently, it is not uncommon for a language service to be missing sound recordings in multi-year spans, in
some cases with significant gaps on the order of decades. Scripts are generally a more complete resource than recordings,
which are usually scattered across time; scripts of early RFE programming are available on microfilm or paper even when no
recordings may exist. Scripts are also available for many of the extant broadcast recordings and can serve as an index to
their content. If an item of interest is found in a script, the date of that script can be used to search for a sound recording
of the same date. This is the most convenient way to approach the recordings, as most have not been indexed for content. In
some cases, as with the Polish Broadcasting Department records, a database can be used to find appropriate sound recordings.
From its earliest days through August 1995, when the radios adopted logging media to record all transmitters at once, nearly
all recorded sound produced or recorded by RFE/RL was captured on 1/4-inch open reel tape. Exceptions include an early set
of Crusade for Freedom recordings on lacquer disc and particular services capturing limited broadcast runs, raw interview
footage, and/or varying production elements on cassette and cartridge tape. Cassette, DAT and MiniDisc served this same purpose
in the years following 1995.
From August 24, 1995 through October 31, 2006, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty committed its broadcast recordings to multi-channel
logging media. Recordings of programs broadcast August 24, 1995 through August 26, 1999 are saved on VHS tapes encoded using
Racal Wordsafe machines while recordings broadcast September 25, 1999 through October 31, 2006 are on DDS tapes encoded using
an RCS Tracker system. Both systems recorded multiple concurrent tracks of audio, capturing on one tape the content of several
different transmitters. The Racal Wordsafe system captured twelve concurrent tracks, each 25 hours in duration, meaning each
tape has the potential to hold 300 hours of content. Tape is not the only storage mechanism for audio recorded using the RCS
Tracker system – it created audio files independent of tape, to be saved in whatever manner the user preferred – however tape
(DDS in this case) was the method chosen by RFE/RL. Each tape contains upward of eight concurrent tracks; multiple decks operated
simultaneously, affording the capture of all operating transmitters. The reader should note that, for inventory purposes,
tapes from this period are counted as single physical items despite containing multiple recordings from different language
services. Consequently, the sound recordings from this era – see the
Multiple Language Services series description – constitute 6,809 physical items rather than the 55,800 audio recordings.
The Daily Broadcast Analyses (DBAs), which form the
Daily Broadcast Analyses series, were used by management and the broadcasting departments and language services to track the quality and content of programming.
A special department, the Broadcasting Analysis Department, existed to collect data on programming and compile it into DBAs,
which were then distributed to management and back to the appropriate desks. In the collection, they are arranged according
to the category of origin: Radio Free Afghanistan, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Europe Baltic, Radio Liberty Nationality
Services, Radio Liberty Russian Service. The DBAs contain texts of all the Services and Departments together for each day.
DBAs were not issued every day, so the collection contains gaps. A separate category of translated scripts or parts of scripts
is also part of the DBAs and listed at its end.
Other Institutions with Related Archival Materials
Access to RFE/RL Russian Service sound recordings is handled by the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (OSA). They
have a fully-searchable database available on their website at
www.osaarchivum.org
Access to RFE/RL Polish Broadcasting Department sound recordings is handled by Polish Radio. They have a fully-searchable
database available on their website at
www.polskieradio.pl
Access to Hungarian Broadcasting Department sound recordings is handled by the National Széchényi Library. The site
Magyar Október , provides access to programs broadcast by Radio Free Europe between October 22 and November 12, 1956.
Other institutions with collection materials related to RFE/RL include the following (click on the name of the institution
for more information):