Radio Brazzaville

Over in Africa, the French territory of the Congo did exactly the same as the neighbouring Belgian territory, as was mentioned in the programme last week.

At the same time as the new Radio Brazzaville was under construction, so was the new OTC in neighbouring Belgian Congo.

The two cities, Brazzaville and Leopoldville, are in reality twin cities, situated across the Congo River from each other, though they were actually located in two separate countries, French Congo and Belgian Congo.

Both stations, Radio Brazzaville and OTC in Leopoldville, were constructed at the same time, with 50kW RCA transmitters from the United States.

Both stations were officially inaugurated in May 1943, though the Belgian station was the first one on the air with regular programming.

These two stations were just 5 miles apart.

Radio Brazzaville supported the Free French movement in London, and it became the voice of the Free French to Africa and to the world.

Much of the programming was produced locally, though it's understood that they also relayed the BBC in London and VOA Washington at times.

Interestingly, the CPRV QSL collection in the United States holds a QSL card issued from the BBC office in New York verifying the BBC relay via OTC Leopoldville on nine seven eight three kilohertz.

At the same time as OTC Leopoldville was under construction, so was a new Radio Brazzaville station in neighboring French Congo.

The two cities, Leopoldville and Brazzaville, are in reality twin cities located across the Congo River from each other, though they were actually located in two separate countries, Belgian Congo and French Congo.

Both stations, OTC and Radio Brazzaville, were constructed at the same time with 50-kilowatt RCA transmitters, though the Belgian station was the first on air.

These two stations were just five miles apart.

As a matter of interest, the shortwave station located at Leopoldville also acted as a relay station for the Voice of America during two different eras.