Podcast Summary: The Promised Podcast – "The 'Radio Days' Edition"

Date: March 26, 2026
Host: TLV1 Studios

Episode Overview

This special episode dives into a seminal moment in the history of broadcasting in Israel/Palestine: the inauguration of the Palestine Broadcasting Service (PBS) in March 1936. The episode uses the story of the country’s very first radio station—its high hopes, political complications, and cultural ambitions—as a lens to reflect on both the roots and the ongoing challenges of building shared identities in Israel and Palestine. Through lively storytelling, the host explores the power, promise, and paradoxes of radio as both a tool for unity and a battleground for identity, ultimately connecting this story to contemporary questions of coexistence and hope.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Stage: A Podcast Made in Perilous Times

• The episode opens with host Noah explaining the uncertainty of producing podcasts during ongoing security crises, with frequent rushes to bomb shelters disrupting daily life.
  • "This ballistic fact of life has podcast logical implications... those implications include not knowing we'll get the podcast done until it is actually done." — Noah [01:40]
• Despite challenges, the episode presses on to deliver a unique story about shared radio history.

2. 1936: Birth of Radio in Palestine

• The historical moment: March 30, 1936, saw the inauguration of the Palestine Broadcasting Service (PBS) atop a windy hillside in Ramallah.
• Attended by an extraordinary gathering of British, Jewish, and Arab dignitaries, including:
  • David Ben-Gurion, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, mayors of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa, the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, consuls from multiple nations, and others.
• The press described some guests “muffled in greatcoats. Some thoughtfully brought rugs, but others shivered in spring attire.” [04:09]

3. The Promise of Radio: Hopes, Intentions, and Colonial Ambitions

• The initial vision, articulated by High Commissioner Arthur Wauchope:
  • "Broadcasting... will not be concerned with politics. ... Its main object will be the spread of knowledge and of culture. Nor... will the claims of religion be neglected. ... We shall try to stimulate new interests and make all forms of knowledge more widespread." [07:14]
• Wauchope’s speech includes examples of how radio could help farmers, improve music appreciation, and offer programs of benefit to all communities.
• The PBS was modeled on similar colonial broadcasting ventures, such as All India Radio, reflecting the British (and European) ambition to use media for both uplift and control.
  • "If you'd asked the men who ran these operations ... you'd get an answer that sounds idealistic and was probably sincere, if also awarely partial... to elevate the locals by bringing them culture..." [13:30]

4. The Challenge of Identity: Naming and Content

• Early on, naming the station proved contentious—each group had its own preferred terminology ("Palestine," "Eretz Yisrael," "Filastin"), none satisfactory to all:
  • "...in Hebrew, the Palestine Broadcasting Service translated to Shrut hashidur be'eretz Yisrael... This made Palestinian leaders mad. ... This is how the station came to the compromise of announcing itself as the Voice of Jerusalem, with broadcasts begun in each language by saying, 'This is Jerusalem calling.'" [22:19]
• Jews were disappointed by the avoidance of "Eretz Yisrael," to the point of proposed boycotts:
  • "We propose a listener boycott of the station." – Haaretz ad [24:08]

5. Launch Day Programming: Multilingual, Multicultural Aspirations

• The opening broadcasts featured greetings and content in English, Arabic, and Hebrew—each read by a representative of that community:
  • "This is Jerusalem calling." – High Commissioner Arthur Wauchope [10:39]
  • "Hakuna al-Quds, idha'at Filastin." ("This is Jerusalem, the Palestine Broadcasting Service.") – Amin Bey Abd el Hadi [11:00]
  • "Achai b'Tzion shomim ivriim... Shalom uvracha mieYerushalayim." ("My brethren in Zion... Peace and blessing from Jerusalem.") – Dr. Avraham Katzenelson [11:12]
• Hebrew programming included Chana Rovina’s dramatic reading of Bialik’s "Scroll of Fire," and a cello sonata by Thelma Yellin—setting a tone of high culture.
  • "After Chana Ruvina's long reading of Bialik's long, sad poem, Chemda Feigenbaum, Zinder said, 'we present to you tonight Eccles Cello Sonata with the soloist Thelma Yelein.'" [32:41]
• There was palpable excitement in the Jewish community at simply hearing Hebrew broadcast over the airwaves:
  • "This thing of the world now in this language that always somehow seemed to be not of this world." [36:10]
• A children's poem at the time captured the wonder and thrill:
  • "There is radio in the village, there is radio in the city. The radio can talk, the radio sings songs... Hello Tel Aviv, hello Jerusalem." [37:30]

6. Radio's Hope for Building Common Ground and Its Limitations

• Intellectuals, like E. David Goitein, dreamed that radio could forge “a larger patriotism” across linguistic and communal divides, even suggesting Arabic lessons for Jews and Hebrew lessons for Arabs:
  • "Our parochialism may be broken down by wise broadcasting and a larger patriotism may spring from the microphone..." [39:27]
• Avigdor Hameiri’s poem, published in Haaretz, envisioned radio as a beacon for unity, justice, and peace:
  • "Let hatreds melt away and vengeance let evil cease. Here in the heart of Jerusalem beat waves of splendor and upon wavelength 449 the tidings of salvation will come." [42:15]

7. History’s Tragic Turn: Hopes Undone by Violence

• Within weeks of PBS’s launch, the Arab general strike of April 1936 ushered in years of revolt, militias, deepening divisions, and a shattering of the vision for shared nationhood.
  • "...the idea of a radio station amplifying and creating and celebrating common ground between Arabs and Jews here came to seem more like a fantasia than a realistic plan." [47:15]

8. Reflection: Alternate Futures and the Endurance of Hope

• The host draws a line from these events to more recent hopes, such as the stalled Olmert–Abbas peace talks of 2008, and laments today’s inability to imagine difference and coexistence.
  • "Of all the dismal things about our dismal times, one of the most dismal is the fact that we seem to have blasted and bombed and blustered out of ourselves the ability to see that things could be very different than they are today." [53:10]
• Yet, the episode ends with a note of hope, quoting the poetic vision that “a message of peace and happiness will break through the fog,” even if not “at 449 meter wavelength and at 668 kilohertz.” [55:18]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the promise of radio:
  "It was Arthur Wylkopp's hope that the unity that would be promoted would be a unity amongst and between the Muslims, Christians, Jews, Druze, Baha'i, and all the others in the land. But of course, these people did not even have a common language each among themselves. And surely there was no common language shared across religions and across ethnic divides. What would a broadcasting service that served all of them even be?" — Host [20:55]

• On the constraints of the present:
  "It was not long ago that we still had the capacity to see that things could be different. The fact that we cannot see it now is not because things cannot be different. Because if there's one thing that history shows us more than anything else, it is that things not just can, but always will develop different than what we expect." — Host [54:24]

• On the lasting resonance of hope:
  "I anyway think that he was right. Time will come and a message of peace and happiness will break through the fog." — Host [56:02]

Key Timestamps

• [01:40] – Introduction, podcasting during crisis
• [04:09] – Setting the scene at the 1936 PBS inauguration
• [07:14] – High Commissioner Arthur Wauchope's idealistic speech
• [10:39] – [11:12] – Multilingual opening announcements
• [13:30] – Colonial ambitions of radio
• [22:19] – "This is Jerusalem Calling": the compromise and controversy over naming
• [24:08] – Jewish disappointment, proposed boycott
• [32:41] – Hebrew artistic programming: Bialik and Thelma Yellin
• [37:30] – Children's wonder at radio
• [39:27] – Radio as a tool for building shared identity
• [42:15] – Hameiri’s poetic vision for radio
• [47:15] – The unraveling: violence and the end of radio’s shared promise
• [53:10] – Lament on the loss of imaginative capacity
• [55:18] – Hope for peace, "a message... will break through the fog"

Tone & Style

The episode combines the erudition, melancholy, and dry humor characteristic of The Promised Podcast. It is deeply informed by historical detail, political awareness, and a sincere, sometimes aching hopefulness—about both what has been lost and what, perhaps, can still be reclaimed.

Conclusion

By tracing the history and dreams surrounding the launch of radio in Mandate Palestine, this episode delivers both a captivating historical lesson and a poignant meditation on identity, language, and the never-quite-lost hope for coexistence in Israel/Palestine. For listeners, it’s a moving reminder that the present’s boundaries are neither eternal nor inevitable, and that new waves—broadcast or otherwise—might still bring change.