[A-DX] Das Erbe von Radio St. Helena wird digitalisiert

[Christian Milling]

Nachdem Radio St. Helena vor gut 6 Jahren im Dezember 2012 abgeschaltet
wurde und durch SAMS1 ersetzt wurde, macht sich nun ein Inselbewohner an die
Digitalisierung der noch vorhandenen Tonbänder, die, samt dem alten
Equipment von Radio St. Helena dem Inselmuseum übertragen wurde. 

Article: Radio St Helena Tapes Being Digitised
By Jeremy Johns, St Helena Sentinel, 11. Oktober 2018

Content from Radio St Helena is taking the journey from reel-to-reel tapes,
into a modern digital platform.
The conversion project originated after Radio St Helena closed in December
2012, and all tapes and equipment were given to the Museum of St Helena.
It was intended to digitise the tapes using the old reel-to-reel players,
and to make the digital versions of the recordings accessible to the public.
This plan wasn’t seen through until Museum Curator Adam Sizeland took up
post in 2015. He attempted to start the conversion, only to discover that
the reel-to-reel player was no longer working.
Attempts at the Museum to fix the player proved unfruitful and resulted in
Edward Baldwin (Chairman of the St Helena Heritage Society) purchasing a
working, second-hand player and shipping it to St Helena. It arrived in
February 2018.
Still, digitisation didn’t begin until PTFilm returned to the island this
year, with the soundman interested in finding tapes about liberated African
history, citizenship and the Airport - PTFilm found such recordings and
began digitisation, which laid the groundwork for the larger project.
Island resident John Turner (http://sainthelenaisland.info/) is now carrying
out the work.
The digitisation and archiving is quite a long process, as each tape has to
be played and recorded onto a computer in real time, Adam said. I estimate
there could be several hundred or even a thousand tapes, and some have a
playtime of an hour or more. As well as this, every detail of each tape has
to be recorded into a spreadsheet.
Once complete the Museum would like to create a public interface - a
computer in the Museum with headphones and a screen where visitors could sit
and access the archives, search for and listen to any of the recordings, and
could also request copies of the recordings on a memory stick.
SAMS is hoping to partner with the Museum to bring you some content on SAMS
Radio 1, details will follow as this progresses.