BFBS:

British Forces Broadcasting Services

BFBS went on air at the end of 1943 when an experimental Forces Radio station was opened in a harem in Algiers. Since then, its two networks have broadcast from 20 countries and 67 radio stations to a total of 200 million listeners around the world. In fact it is so popular that even the tracker-dogs are listening to it!

BFBS 2 provides a mix of talk/news radio via relays of BBC Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live, supplemented by BFBS programming, including classical and other specialist music. Its coverage of sport, so popular among the forces audience, is second to none.

Both BFBS 1 and BFBS 2 are transmitted by satellite from Buckinghamshire and are received worldwide. Stations in Germany, Cyprus, the Falklands, Kosovo, Gibraltar, Northern Ireland, Belize and Brunei generate up to 12 hours a day of their own output on BFBS 1.

BFBS's spectacular programming has resulted in several Gold and Silver Medals at the New York Radio Festival and a Grand Award for a recent BFBS branding package. It is entered on the Sony Awards Hall of Fame and has won frequently at the annual Sony Awards.

Today, BFBS is reaching out to servicemen and women in the UK with studios up and running in Northern Ireland. And in a broadcasting first for the UK, a complete bespoke Gurkha service is up and running for Shorncliffe in Kent.

December 1943 - British Forces Experimental Station Algiers goes on air.
July 1945 - British Forces Network Germany goes on air in Hamburg's Musikhalle.
January 1956 - British Forces Network pioneers the use of FM transmissions in Germany.
July 1974 - BFBS Cyprus plays key public service role during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
April 1982 - BFBS' request show for the Falklands Task Force gets 7600 messages in 12 weeks.
March 1984 - BFBS elected Patron Member of the Radio Academy.
December 1990 - For the first time in 45 years BFBS operates in a war zone - in the Gulf War.
September 1992 - BFBS goes on air across Bosnia & Croatia.
September 1997 - BFBS opens its all-new digital studio complex in Buckinghamshire.
March 1999 - BFBS begins broadcasting in Macedonia
August 1999 - BFBS begins broadcasting in Kosovo.
Early 2002 - BFBS begins broadcasting in Bosnia.

Successful

"BFBS is very successful among the listeners, which is why a second radio station on the Balkans is to be opened in Banja Luka, Bosnia early 2002," BFBS station manager Jonathan Bennett explains. Together with his crew, Sean Ridley and Neil Carter he has entertaining the soldiers with local inputs from the Balkans in 3 live-shows a day. Saturday and Sunday only, respectively 1 and 2 shows due to the fact that they are only a 3-members crew.

From the web-site www.bfbs.com it is possible for family, relatives and friends to sent dedications to their beloved soldiers all over the world. The dedications will be announced on the local stations, as the BFBS-crew knows that the social aspect is very important for the soldiers.

But not only the soldiers fancy the radio station. Dougal a black Labrador, tracker-dog who has the assignment to find bodies or disappeared people, has loudspeaker built into her doghouse. The reason is that she keeps the dog handlers and the other dogs awake, because she is barking every time she hears the slightest noise. BFBS is broadcasted 24-hours a day in her doghouse, it calms her down and everyone can get to sleep during the nights.

"We go where the Forces go" Jonathan Bennett tells me and continues "Where ever there are British troops, we follow." With his 20 years in BFBS remembers many missions; "The only places I haven't been is Algier and Canada."

"BFBS was present in the Golf, like we have a crew stand-by and ready to go if British troops are going into Afghanistan. It is a very exiting job, and a number of the BFBS-staff are former Service men. In fact some of the crewmembers here have been serving the Forces, I my self and Sean Ridley, who by the way will be the station manager of the new station in Banja Luka."

BFBS Forces Television began in 1975 when all programmes were taped in London and broadcast from a caravan in Germany. By the early 1980's live news and sport were added, transmitted along the longest microwave link in Europe.

Nowadays, BFBS Television broadcasts around the clock via satellite, reaching audiences across Europe to Cyprus, Turkey and the Middle East, westwards to include bases in Canada and Belize, and south to Ascension and the Falkland Islands. In MNB C the broadcasts are spread via cable-network throughout the camp.

Jonathan Bennett, tell me that a new second channel, BFBS 2, will be on air in the Balkans just in time for Christmas. "BFBS 2 will primary be for the Balkans," he tells me.

Already BFBS 2 is nicknamed "the lads' channel" (and ladettes, too, of course), it will be broadcasting six hours every night from 18.00 CET to 23.59, starting on Saturday 22nd December.

The original BFBS television channel, which will be known as BFBS 1, will, of course, also be available: it will offer its high-quality mix of drama, sport, soaps, news and current affairs, entertainment and children's programmes 24 hours a day.