http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt996nd6jz Online items available Register of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast records Finding aid prepared by Hoover Institution Archives Staff Hoover Institution Archives 434 Galvez Mall Stanford University Stanford, CA, 94305-6010 (650) 723-3563 [email protected] © 2008, 2016 Register of the Radio Free 2000C120 1 Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast records Title: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast records Date (inclusive): 1951-2005 Collection Number: 2000C120 Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Archives Language of Material: Multiple languages Physical Description: circa 7000 linear feet Abstract: American radio broadcasting organization operating Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Includes sound recordings of broadcasts, scripts, correspondence, and memoranda relating to broadcasts by Radio Free Europe to audiences in Eastern Europe and to broadcasts by Radio Liberty to audiences in the Soviet Union. Digital copies of select records also available at https://digitalcollections.hoover.org. Physical Location: Hoover Institution Archives Creator: RFE/RL, Inc. Access Collection is open for research. Portions of the collection stored off site. Portions of the collection in process open only by request. Digital copies of select records also available at https://digitalcollections.hoover.org. Boxes 1 to 4556 are stored off-site. It may be possible to have a limited number of boxes brought to the archives reading room for examination. A minimum of two days notice is required. Please contact the Hoover Institution Archives for information. Use copies of some sound recordings in the collection are available for immediate access. To listen to other sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible. Publication Rights For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast records, [Box no.], Hoover Institution Archives. Acquisition Information Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 2000. Accruals Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at http://searchworks.stanford.edu/ . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number of boxes listed in this finding aid. Alternate Forms Available Digital copies of select records also available at https://digitalcollections.hoover.org. Other Institutions with Related Archival Materials Access to RFE/RL Russian Service sound recordings is handled by the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (OSA). They have a fully-searchable database available on their website at http://www.osaarchivum.org/digital-repository Access to RFE/RL Polish Broadcasting Department sound recordings is handled by Polish Radio. They have a fully-searchable database available on their website at http://www.polskieradio.pl/68,Radia-Wolnosci Access to Hungarian Broadcasting Department sound recordings is handled by the National Széchényi Library. The site Magyar Október, http://www.magyaroktober.hu/ , provides access to programs broadcast by Radio Free Europe between October 22 and November 12, 1956. Other institutions with collection materials related to RFE/RL include the following (click on the name of the institution for more information): Bulgarian National Radio (Sofia, Bulgaria) Czechslovak Documentation Centre (Prague, Czech Republic) Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library (New York, United States) Film Archives, National Archives of Estonia (Tallinn, Estonia) Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center (Bloomington, United States) National Archives of Latvia (Riga, Latvia) Register of the Radio Free 2000C120 2 Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast records National Digital Archives (Warsaw, Poland) National Széchényi Library (Budapest, Hungary) Open Society Archives (Budapest, Hungary) Shevchenko Scientific Society, Inc. (New York, United States) Ukrainian Historical and Educational Center of New Jersey (Somerset, United States) Scope and Content of Collection The RFE/RL Broadcast Archive consists of the materials produced by RFE/RL for its radio programs. While the primary elements of this collection are tapes and scripts, arranged by broadcast department or language service, there is also a good deal of derivative and associated documentation created, received, or collected in the course of the daily functioning of the broadcasting service. Such documentation includes editorial and research files, program logs and broadcast schedules, special programs, work plans, program lists, listener mail, papers of individual employees collected or produced in the course of their duties, and other types of documentation. The most important set of such derivative documents is the Daily Broadcast Analyses (DBAs), which form the Daily Broadcast Analyses series. The DBAs were used by management and the broadcasting departments and language services to track the quality and content of programming. A special department, the Broadcasting Analysis Department, existed to collect data on programming and compile it into DBAs, which were then distributed to management and back to the appropriate desks. In the collection, they are arranged according to the category of origin: Radio Free Afghanistan, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Europe Baltic, Radio Liberty Nationality Services, Radio Liberty Russian Service. The RFE DBAs contain texts of all the services and departments together for each day. DBAs were not issued every day, so the collection contains gaps. A separate category of translated scripts or parts of scripts is also part of the DBA series and listed at its end. The Albanian Monitoring Subsection Records series consists of the papers of one of its employees, Nicolo Prenushi. An Albanian Language Service as such existed for a brief period of time in the early 1950s, leaving only the Monitoring Subsection thereafter. The Azerbaijani Service Records series contains scripts and other materials, primarily collected writings and research files created by the service chief, Mirza Michaeli. The Bulgarian, Czechslovak, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, and Slovak Broadcast Departments and Services series contain similar material, arranged by physical form and chronologically thereafter, but it should be cited by date as the box numbers will change. Many early scripts and programs are available only on microfilm. There is a register for these in a binder available in the Archives reading room, labeled "Programs on Microfilm," covering primarily the 1950s. The News and Current Affairs Department Records series contains the news budget, which includes reports from wire agencies and other sources on events during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and Prague Spring of 1968, as well as certain other topics. The series also contains scripts – printed versions of news events and interviews as read by announcers – with sound bites of the event, speech, or interview on audio tapes. The Sound Recordings series consists of broadcast recordings, monitoring recordings, off-air recordings, and music recordings. Broadcast recordings of RFE/RL broadcasts were captured either in the studio or direct from a transmitter. They constitute the defining record of what RFE/RL committed to air. Typical content includes news reports, interviews, speeches, sermons, dramatic programming, and music. Monitoring recordings represent radio broadcasts other than RFE/RL that were monitored on a radio in the RFE/RL office and recorded to tape. Off-air recordings are raw captures of interviews, speeches, literary readings, music performances, etc. that would have been edited for use on future broadcasts. Music recordings are predominantly commercially issued popular, classical, and folk releases collected for on-air play; they are sometimes called a service’s “music library.” It is important to note that music related broadcast programming, such as the Romanian Broadcasting Department’s “Metronome” program, are considered broadcast recordings since they contain whole programs as they were heard on air. While part of the larger whole, each language service operated independently, with different practices regarding programming logs, the labeling of tapes, etc. Nearly all services reused tapes in an effort to conserve resources, particularly in the early years. Consequently, it is not uncommon for a language service to be missing sound recordings in multi-year spans, in some cases with significant gaps on the order of decades. Scripts are generally a more complete resource than recordings, which are usually scattered across time; scripts of early RFE programming are available on microfilm or paper even when no recordings may exist. Scripts are also available for many of the extant broadcast recordings and can serve as an index to their content. If an item of interest is found in a script, the date of that script can be used to search for a sound recording of the same date. This is the most convenient way to approach the recordings, as Register of the Radio Free 2000C120 3 Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast records most have not been