Army Radio to begin broadcasts from Jerusalem in two weeks

The opening ceremony for news broadcasts from Jerusalem will be held on Thursday October 25th.

By ANNA AHRONHEIM
Updated: OCTOBER 11, 2018 02:57
A SOLDIER from Army Radio at the station in 2013. (photo credit: REUTERS)
A SOLDIER from Army Radio at the station in 2013.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Army Radio will begin broadcasting from its new home in Jerusalem in two weeks, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced on Wednesday.
The opening ceremony for news broadcasts from one of Israel’s main news radio stations will be held on Thursday, October 25, during the Dekel-Segal program.
Shortly before the opening ceremony, Liberman along with Army Radio Commander Shimon Elkabetz, officials from the Defense Ministry and the IDF, will lay the cornerstone for a new Army Radio headquarters to be built to replace its new temporary home.
The radio station will eventually be moving from its longtime studios in Jaffa to a new 2,500-sq. meter military compound constructed near the main entrance to Jerusalem. The new studios will be equipped with advanced digital technology and are to include a news desk and editing rooms.
The compound is expected to be built within three years. Until then, Army Radio will broadcast from its existing studios in Jerusalem. The work on the new compound, which will also have a new recruiting station, is led by the Defense Ministry’s engineering and construction department.
The new studio will include studios for Army Radio – known in Hebrew as “Galei Tzahal” – and its sister music station, Galgalatz, as well as the digital broadcasting system.
Last year, Liberman announced that the Galei Tzahal and Galgalatz stations would cease being subordinate to the IDF and instead become part of the Defense Ministry, but a month later walked back on his plans after a discussion with Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit.
According to statement by the Defense Ministry, it was decided that the move would not only hurt Army Radio’s independence of a public broadcaster and diminish the channel’s “unique character,” but the legislative process to move the channel would be difficult to push through.
Army Radio began its broadcasts in 1950, after taking over for the pre-state Hagana’s broadcasts.
“When I took up the post of Defense Minister, I decided that Army Radio must broadcast from the most worthy place – Jerusalem, our eternal capital,” Liberman said on Wednesday. “Now we’re setting the first facts on the ground and within two weeks of the trial, ‘You’re listening to Army Radio from Jerusalem’ will turn from vision into reality.”
“In September 1950, David Ben-Gurion announced the establishment of the military radio station Galei Tzahal. Seventy years later, with the most ‘Israeli’ sound in the country, the station begins the transition to a new permanent residence in the capital,” Elkabetz said.
In honor of the occasion, the station will be holding a special broadcast day entirely from Jerusalem, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. As part of the special program, news will be broadcast every hour on the hour from Jerusalem, and festive edition broadcasts will be preceded by a special broadcast signal.


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