Solomon Islands Broadcasting
Service
By Nadabule baraheheda
September 25, 2015
At 6 pm on
Tuesday the 23rd September, 1952, listeners in the British Solomon Islands
Protectorate (BSIP) tuning to 1030 kilocycles in the mediumwave band heard these
words on their radio sets:
“This is station VQO Honiara commencing the
initial programme of the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Service”.
The SIBS
had been established by the British colonial Government to develop radio
broadcasting within the Protectorate and to take-over from the weekly
information transmissions previously being carried out on Sunday mornings on the
inter-island Teleradio (shortwave) network.
The new SIBS station, VQO,
transmitted with a power of 400 watts and used a transmitter built by the Chief
Wireless Officer, Ron Calvert, from parts of an old radio aircraft beacon left
behind by the US military near Henderson Airport at the end of the war. The
first staff members were all volunteers and, apart from Ron Calvert, included
William ‘Billy’ Bennett, Kay Poole and, as Programme Director, Colin Allan, at
that time the Assistant Secretary to Government.
The first SIBS broadcast
was on the air from 6pm to 8pm and started with an address by the High
Commissioner for the British colonial Western Pacific, His Excellency Mr. R.C.S.
Stanley. He gave a suitably uplifting speech and included the news that the
Headquarters of the High Commission would be moved from Fiji to Solomon Islands
and established in Honiara from January, 1953.
After Mr. Stanley’s
opening presentation, the Chief Wireless Officer, Ron Calvert, gave a talk on
the SIBS and what it hoped to achieve. This was followed at 6.45pm by music from
Bill Bennett’s group, known as the Honiara String Band. The opening SIBS
programme then included half an hour of music from the popular Hollywood film
and stage show, South Pacific, presented by Colin Allan, and concluded at 8pm
after more recordings of Western dance music and classical recordings.
In
the following months, the SIBS broadcast programmes for one hour, 6pm to 7pm,
daily except Sundays, before gradually increasing its services to a more regular
and longer schedule. The SIBS continued until the 1st January, 1977 when new
legislation (passed by Government in 1976) brought into being the independent
Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC).
The establishment of the
SIBS followed five years of information programmes broadcast over the Teleradio
network. This weekly, half hour transmission included shipping information,
copra prices, Government news and items of general interest and could be heard
by any out-stations which had a two-way radio set, such as the AWA 3BZ
Teleradio.
The service originally started at
3.30pm on the afternoon of Saturday 18th October, 1947 over Government wireless
station VQJ2. At the time, the station was located near the canoe shed close to
what is now the Cenotaph in Mendana Avenue, Honiara. It later moved to new
quarters on Vavaya Ridge. Bill Bennett was the first Solomon Islander to present
information on the weekly programme, while Kay Poole (the Government Public
Relations Officer) compiled the news, Ron Calvert handled the technical
equipment and David Trench, then Secretary to Government, was in charge of the
whole operation. After receiving feedback from listeners, the weekly broadcast
changed its schedule and moved to 10.30am on Sunday mornings where it continued
for 258 programmes until it was superseded by the SIBS in 1952.
Decorated
war hero, Bill Bennett MM, MBE, went on to a full-time career as a broadcaster
with the SIBS and became the best-known voice on radio in Solomon Islands.
During his service, he undertook many assignments, including a three month
training course at the BBC in London and, after retirement, became the first
Chairman of the Board of the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation
(SIBC).
Prior to World War Two, the British colonial Government had
experimented with an information service broadcast from the main wireless
station, which was then based at BSIP headquarters at Tulagi in the Florida
Islands group. In 1938, a weekly news broadcast (10.15am on Mondays) was
transmitted to those out-stations throughout the BSIP which had two-way radio
equipment to receive shortwave signals. The service came to an end in late 1939
when World War Two was declared.
However, radio in Solomon Islands goes
back even further. In 1923, the Methodist Mission at Roviana, New Georgia
purchased a Marconi telephony/telegraphy set and began transmitting messages on
the 17th August that year. The main purpose of the station (which could send
signals in both Morse code and by voice) was to allow telegrams and other cable
traffic to be sent to the Government station, Tulagi Radio, for onwards
transmission to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. However the Mission also
allowed its choirs, singing in the Roviana language, to transmit over the
wireless to entertain listeners elsewhere within the BSIP. The Mission’s brass
band also presented concerts which were heard by passing ships and were used to
entertain passengers and crew. The Methodist Mission station was operated by
Solomon Islanders, Milton Talasasa, being one of the earliest Morse code
signallers to transmit cable traffic.
Wireless in the BSIP was initially
established in 1915, when the Government purchased equipment from the Marconi
Company in the UK and established Tulagi Radio. The station had its transmitting
towers on the flat area of ground near what was then the Tulagi golf course. The
station began test transmissions in 1915 and started full service in January,
1916. It carried all Government and commercial messages by Morse code and could
send and receive signals as far as Fiji, Australia and New Zealand. The Tulagi
Radio building and towers were regularly bombed by Japanese aircraft during
World War Two, but were only put out of action when destroyed by Allied naval
gunfire during the landings on Tulagi and Gavutu on the 7th August,
1942.
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