Updated
Kevin De Reus has lived in the same 24-kilometre-radius his whole life.
Born
and raised in Iowa in the US, Kevin now calls his grandfather's farm —
just 12 kilometres from where he grew up in central Des Moines — home.He is married, has five children and has worked at the same company for 20 years.
And while he admits he has not travelled much in his 52 years, it hasn't stopped Kevin from listening to the news from Australia since 1980 — with the help of a shortwave radio.
Listening from the other side of the world
Photo:
This 1940 Zenith Radio is still used by Kevin at least once a month. (Supplied: Kevin De Reus)
Even half a world away, he says the broadcast was one of the clearest of the stations he listened to.
"Radio Australia always held a special place in my heart just because it was in the South Pacific and I didn't know much about that area — and the signal was always good from that part of the world," he says."Most recently, over the last two to three years as I was listening in the morning hours here on 9.580, the signal was so good. It really was about the only English broadcaster at that time of the day that had news and information.
"Most mornings I would get up and turn on the shortwave radio at 7:00am (local time) and listen to the news from Australia and then I would drive to work.
"So many of the stations just aren't on the air anymore. BBC doesn't broadcast to North America anymore. I can't even hardly hear the Voice of America in English anymore to tell you the truth. So Australia had the strongest signal.
"That's why it was hard for me to hear [Radio Australia] was going to go off the air."
A familiar, gentle sound
Shortwave radio refers to a radio transmission that uses shortwave frequencies which can carry over large distances, and consequently, are perfect for broadcasts over large spaces.
Kevin says what he'll miss most about Radio Australia is the familiar sound of the broadcast he grew up listening to.
"The signal would fade in and out and if there was a thunderstorm you didn't want to listen because there was a fear you would get hit by lightning," he says.
"But I grew up with the sound, so for me, I miss that. When I was a kid and I would listen in the evening hours, the signal would just fade gently — in and out — and I could always hear and understand everything but the signal would just come and go a little bit.
"To me it was a very soothing sound. But I think I'm kind of unique in that way and my family prefers to not hear static."
'You're listening to shortwave radio'
Kevin says his obsession all started with a childhood toy.
Photo:
Four generations of the De Reus family pose for a photo on the farm in 1998. (Supplied: Kevin De Reus)
"I was 14 years old and I had a set of citizen band radios — you know, those walk-talkies you'd carry around [which] a lot of children had here in the States at the time," he says.
"You could talk to your friend one, two, three, four blocks away. But this particular radio, for whatever reason, was able to pick up a … transmission in English in the afternoons when I came home from school."
Kevin says he knew it was picking up an AM radio transmission but when he went looking for it on the radio, he couldn't find it.
"Well one day I heard them say at the top of the hour, 'This is the Voice of America in Washington, DC', so I went to school and I asked my science teacher, 'What in the world is the Voice of America?'.
"He smiled and looked over at me and said, 'You're listening to shortwave radio. You need to go out and get a radio that is designed for that'. So I did."
Starting off with a small transistor radio, Kevin could hear broadcasts from the BBC and Radio Moscow.
But the quality was not good and so, about a year later when Kevin was about 15, he got his own digital readout shortwave radio.
"That very first night [in 1980], Radio Australia was the fourth station I was able to listen to and I was so excited because it's — well, what seems to be — on the other side of the world.
"And I've been listening to shortwave, and Radio Australia, ever since then."
Finding Tennant Creek
But shortwave became much more than a hobby to Kevin, who says that his interest in geography was really only sparked after he started hearing other countries on the shortwave.
"I remember one time the teacher was talking — about the country of Australia — and trying to quiz kids on the major cities and everything and they were getting most of the answers correct," he says.
"So he thought he would be tricky and ask if anyone knew where Tennant Creek was and I got a smile on my face and I went up to the map and I pointed at it and the teacher looked at me and he goes, 'How did you know that? That's in the middle of nowhere. How did you know where Tennant Creek was?'
"And I looked at him and I said, 'Well I've been listening to Radio Australia and I'm curious about the country so I got the globe out and I start looking at the map and I find that Tennant Creek's out there in the Northern Territory'."
Photo:
On one of his few trips outside the US, Kevin, wearing a grey
shirt in the front row with "no facial hair", travelled to Ecuador in
1986 to complete a summer internship at Quito's HCJB Radio. (Supplied: Kevin De Reus)
A letter from Australia was a 'really big deal'
Kevin thinks the biggest highlight of his years listening to shortwave were receiving letters from broadcasters."All the letters that I would get from Radio Australia and other broadcasters too, were a big deal to me. It was a lot like a pen pal you know.
"And some of those responses from Australia when they wrote and said, 'Hey listen in, we're going to read your letter on the air' — that was a big deal to me, that was a really big deal.
"I still remember the night Keith Glover read my name, read my letter on the air. I actually have it somewhere at my parent's house on an old reel-to-reel tape recorder."But I remember running down the steps from my bedroom yelling for my mum and dad, 'They read my name on the air from Australia, can you believe that?'
"So back in those days Radio Australia really tried to reach out to the listeners. But it was different then.
"You still reach out, I mean I can tell when I've been on your website — which has been more in the past six months then I had been previously — but I think it's because the internet is so interactive and we're so used to that we don't think the relationship is as significant.
"It was really a relationship between the broadcaster and the listener. It took several weeks to get letters back and forth but now, everything is instant, so I see that as being a big change. Not bad but different."
Radio Australia continues to be available on FM radio stations throughout the Pacific and on partner stations.
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