 |
 |
|
One evening, shortly after my arrival at the mission on my second assignment as a Force Welfare Officer in 1995, I was with friends at the San-Pub (Medical Pub). We were listening to the same old CD for quite some time and it was this moment when the idea for a radio station with UNDOF was born. Listening to the same old music was pure boredom and we were in a need of varieties of new songs to entertain us apart from listening to news and other forms of entertainment.
I was informed that few years back that the signalers of AUSBATT had operated a self-made transmitter with low power output. This was called Radio Death Valley and from time to time depending on the timing, they would be on air until it was closed down by Vienna. This was partly because of the risk involved that no one wanted to take full responsibility in the event of unforeseen problems with authorities and liabilities.
To avoid this I had made a feasibility study and checked with all the relevant parties on the situation including legal aspects of reintroducing another radio station.
It was during my birthday celebration at the Sun Pub on 7 September 1995, when I was able to announce that there will be a radio station in UNDOF within months.
As UN was facing financial constraints, I had to find sponsors for the necessary equipment and tools. I had tried to obtain a transmitter from the Austrian Broadcasting Cooperation (ORF) but was informed there was none available. I then I remembered that I had met the Chairman of the Deutsche Welle during my studies at the university in Linz and I dared to contact him. He had asked me to send him a short fax of my request. Few days later to my surprise, I received a fax from the Chairman that the transmitter is ready to be collected at the Bayrischer Rundfunk in Munich as a permanent personal loan to myself. I requested a free air ticket from Damascus to Munich from Austrian Airlines but due to the high season they were unable to provide me with one. Luckily I had good contacts with my travel agents in Tiberias and they managed to organize me a free ticket to pick up the equipment.
The next task was to find a suitable location for the radio station. Since my office was in a container and there was plenty of space available, I installed the radio equipment there. All of the equipment such as mixing board, music CDs and CD-player were my property at this time except the stereo-set which belonged to UNDOF and two microphones from AUSBATT music club. The signalers of AUSBATT than installed the antenna and by mid November we successfully started to broadcast music. This was however for short time only as we wanted to test the equipment in determining its power output and its range of coverage.
One would think that to run a radio station would be easy. However such task was a challenge to me as I was not trained. Luckily there was Klaus Poluk from AUSBATT who used to work for Radio Uno, a private radio station in Austria. Klaus was more than happy to train a handful of people who wanted to volunteer to work at the station. The training was tough for us, as Klaus was teaching us on how to use the right tone, volume and speech to have an impact on our listeners.
The 5th December 1995 was an eventful day that marked my effort in running the radio station. The FC Gen. Koster, CAO Antonio Bautista, CO AUSBATT LtCol Lindner and other members were present when Radio UNO went live on air for the first time at 3pm transmitted on 95,90 FM.
During the day we broadcasted music from a CD-changer only interrupted by news during lunch hour which were read by either Klaus or myself. In the evening we were broadcasting all different kind of programs. At this time, the station was run by Austrians only.
Next task was to find a nice name for our radio station as we could not use the name Radio UNO as it is the legal property of an other station in Austria. So we had a brain storming and the word Gecko came to my mind. Everybody agreed to use Gecko as our radio name as it is easier to remember and I designed the logo - a Gecko - for the station. The Gecko is a natural habitat that lives on the Golan Heights and was able to be used as a brand for our station.
Later Radio Gecko moved to a new location that was former used as the Austrian PX. Through the sales of Radio Gecko T-Shirts and sponsors from the UN and AUSBATT PX we were able to acquire brand new equipment such as CD-players designed for radio station, a new mixing board, headphones and microphones from the Austrian company AKG.
Since its first establishment in 1995, Radio Gecko was recognized and became an institution in UNDOF. Soon Polish, Canadian and Japanese UN-members joined the Austrian´s radio team as DJ´s and entertainers.
On a personal note Radio Gecko was a personal achievement of myself and the rest of my team. To see it grow from a small radio that first started from an idea born in the Sun Pub to what it became today is fulfilling and makes me proud.
I would like to wish Radio Gecko and its team success and many happy years to come.
Author: Anton Rettenbacher, MBA (Creator of Radio Gecko)
Copyright for "Radio Gecko" and "The most refreshing radio in Syria"
|
|
|
|
|
