Wanted: information on Cold War‐era radio collections from Europe

[posted on behalf of Brandon Burke, Archivist for Recorded Sound Collections at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives at Stanford University and the current Chair of the IASA Broadcast Archives Section].

I am co-Chair of the Cold War Communication Project (CWCP) of the Library of Congress Radio Preservation Task Force (RPTF), where one of my projects is to compile and publish a list of archival Cold War-era radio collections -- both sound recordings and associated papers -- from across Europe. (American broadcasters such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty are already accounted for.)

Again, to be clear, we are looking for:

The identification and location of archival European national (i.e. state-produced) radio broadcast collections. In particular, from the years 1945-1991.

The impetus for this request is an as-yet-unnamed CWCP "comparative analysis project" whereby researchers compare radio coverage of particular Cold War-era historical events (Chernobyl Disaster, Romanian Revolution, Malta Summit, August 1989 free elections in Poland, etc.) from multiple vantage points. The results of these analyses will be published as an online exhibit with streaming audio clips on the CWCP web site (currently in beta).

I ask anyone with tips, particularly those representing institutions with Cold War-era radio broadcast collections, to please contact me at brburke@stanford.edu.

Many thanks,

Brandon Burke
Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6010
mobile: 415.308.1627
email: brburke@stanford.edu