Radio Antilles was a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

operated by the Antilles Radio Corporation which began broadcasting in 1963. It was located on the British

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

island of

Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with r ...

. The broadcast studios were located in the capital city of

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

, with the transmission site at O'Garro's on the southern slopes of the Soufriere Hills volcano near Morris.

Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...

became a shareholder in 1972 and added some low-power shortwave transmitters at the O'Garro's site which came into service in 1978. Radio Antilles' transmitter site was badly damaged by

Hurricane Hugo Hurricane Hugo was a powerful Cape Verde tropical cyclone that inflicted widespread damage across the northeastern Caribbean and the Southeastern United States in September 1989. Across its track, Hugo affected approximately 2 million peop ...

, rebuilt in 1992, and then shut down and abandoned at the start of the volcanic eruptions in 1995. Both the studio and the transmitter site were eventually burned and buried completely by

lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...

and

pyroclastic flow A pyroclastic flow (also known as a pyroclastic density current or a pyroclastic cloud) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of bu ...

deposits.

Programming

From the beginning, the station operated in English on 930 kHz AM and covered the entire Caribbean region. A lower-powered French service operated on 740 kHz to serve the nearby Francophone islands. In 1977, this service was later supplemented by a relay station on the island of St Vincent operating on 1450 kHz to extend coverage to the island of

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...

. In 1968, Spanish programmes were introduced and ran until 1981 when they had to be halted for commercial reasons. In September 1983, the English and French programmes were merged into a single, bilingual service using all three frequencies but this proved unpopular with the English-speaking audience and returned to English. Following

's involvement, a satellite downlink station enabled international broadcasters to use airtime on the 930 kHz transmitter.

Radio Canada International Radio Canada International (RCI) is the international broadcasting service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Prior to 1970, RCI was known as the CBC International Service. The broadcasting service was also previously referred to as ...

began relays in January 1984 followed by

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...

in 1985 and

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

in 1986.

Programming

See also