From its inception in 1945 until the late 1960s, the Voice of Vietnam was the only means of communication that could reach distant and remote areas. On New Years Eve, millions of listeners eagerly awaited the moment when President Ho Chi Minh would recite his Tet poem. It was not uncommon to see entire villages gathering around a radio set to listen to the most beautiful voices of the VOV on the show "Contes nocturnes". For Luong Xuan Bang, from Thai Binh, the Voice of Vietnam is a part of his youth
“When I was a teenager, people who had a small radio set on their belt were very proud of it, as were those who first had a cell phone. We used to go to our neighbor’s house to listen to his radio, ”he recalls. "After that, when we had our own radio set, we listened all day long, to the point of knowing by heart every show, every host"
Even today, the credits of the shows that made the Voice of Vietnam famous are kept at the Production and Archiving Center, along with historical archives, recordings of meetings and important events in the country, said Vu Hai Quang, vice president of the VOV.
"The Voice of Vietnam was born 5 days after the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the current Socialist Republic of Vietnam, which it has supported for 75 years, through two wars and the period of Renewal", he recalls . " From this glorious history we keep extremely precious records such as the proclamation of independence by President Ho Chi Minh, songs that have survived the ravages of time, and voices that have gone down in legend. I am thinking in particular of Kim Cuc, the emeritus host who announced the victory of April 301975 and of the English-speaking host Trinh Thi Ngo who marked the memory of all the American soldiers who listened to her ".
A technician from Production and archiving center . Photo: VOV
During the war, in addition to maintaining the functioning of the national radio, one of the major missions of technicians was to save these recordings considered a real national treasure, says Nguyen Van Tu, former executive of the Production and Archiving Center. .
“During the anti-American resistance, the Voice of Vietnam was repeatedly evacuated. And every time, my predecessors had to find a safe place to keep the records ”, he tells us. "They always made a copy which they left in Hanoi."
In 2008 with the help of Deutsch Welle, the Voice of Vietnam was able to digitize more than 30000 hours of sound recordings. She nevertheless continues to take care of her old tapes. By transforming them into computer files, technicians try to renew them with chemicals.
Now that it has grown into a multimedia group, the Voice of Vietnam also keeps photos, videos, graphics and written materials, says Nguyen Nang Khang, deputy director of the Production and Archiving Center.
"We have a dual mission: to provide recordings to program producers and to preserve the sound heritage of the radio," he says. "Digital transition requires, today we can store our digitized recordings both physically and in 'digital clouds'"
Over time, the Voice of Vietnam archive fills up. Sounds of life, statements and news today may very well become historical documents for the future. The technicians are proud to constitute and safeguard this heritage which will be passed on to future generations, which in turn will continue to enrich it.
Van Hai
