REPEAT FRS's 44th Anniversary !
Our complete 44th Anniversary will be repeated on 5840 kHz next Friday November 8th. Starting at 16:52 UTC/ 17:52 CET.
Being active since the 1980 Summer, FRS-Holland has built up a comprehensive archive. Roughly, the archive can be divided into sound and paper/digitized documents.
Firstly, we have an extensive collection of original program cassettes. A large part of these has already been digitized (in mp3 format). Additionally, there are production elements on CD, but mainly on minidisc. Not to forget the jingle archive on minidisc and a few tapes. This includes fully produced jingles, promos, as well as ‘bare’ spoken liners (voice-overs).
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Starting with the ‘FRS goes DX’ magazine (1982-1997) and further ‘FRS Newsletter’ and ‘FRS News’. A large portion has been digitized as pdf files. We still have at least one copy of each magazine ever released. Also included are info sheets mainly from the 1980s, special booklets issued for anniversaries (30 years, 40 years), info sheets compiled specifically for the presenters containing all the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of a broadcast (kept in special binders) and: the so called ‘scripts’ from all ‘FRS goes DX’ shows. In the pre digital period all those scripts were handwritten (see photo)!
Furthermore, numerous letters received over those 40+ years from all parts of Europe and beyond. Under the category of ‘miscellaneous,’ you can include: newspaper and especially magazine articles about FRS (think, for example, of pop polls and station profiles).
For more detailed info about ‘FRS goes DX’, ‘FRS Newsletter’ and ‘FRS News’ go to Fact Files –> ‘FRS Newsletter’ and ‘FRS News’.
For quite some time, Jan van Dijk and Peter Verbruggen have been working on a multi-year project: digitizing all original program cassettes. They follow a fixed pattern: Peter digitizes the complete programs on cassette, storing them per month/year on his computer. Each time a broadcast (ranging from 2 to 5+ hours) is saved in digital mp3 format, the files are uploaded using the file transfer protocol (FTP). Then Jan starts audio editing and creates a summary of each individual program, roughly between 2 and 7 minutes. These files are then placed back in the FTP area and downloaded by Peter for the FRS archive. So, these short mp3 files end up on this site with a small ‘detour’. In 2010, many cassettes were digitized and edited due to the celebration of 30 years of FRS-Holland. In the years that followed, work continued irregularly. The process proceeds in chronological order, starting with the programs from 1980 and progressing to the moment when cassettes were replaced by digital program files. That moment occurred in the second half of 2002. We’re making good progress, but nonetheless, it will still take some time before we can conclude the project.