NIROM (''Nederlandsch-Indische Radio-Omroep Maatschappij''; Dutch East Indies Radio Broadcasting Corporation) was the privately funded territorial broadcaster of the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

. It was one of the precursors of

Radio Republik Indonesia (Radio of the Republic of Indonesia, abbreviated as RRI, stylized in logo in all-lowercase) is a public radio network of Indonesia and one of Indonesia's two national Public Broadcasting Institutions, the other being the public television n ...

. NIROM was founded in 1928 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

but only started broadcasting on 1 April 1934. Starting in

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

, it gradually extended its range across the Indonesian archipelago. NIROM operated 27

transmitters In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna with the purpose of signal transmissi ...

by 1939, broadcasting mostly on

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (app ...

. NIROM was founded by a license fee, which dropped in rate as the number of listeners grew. In 1939, NIROM had 70,000 listeners; by then the license fee was 1.25 East Indies guilders. PHOHI, the shortwave station of the

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

company based in the Netherlands, was one of the stakeholders in the company. Broadcasting initially was in

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

only; from 1935 onwards an ''Oriental Programme'' was broadcast in local languages. In 1934 NIROM started publishing a listing magazine, ''De NIROM-bode'', which eventually became the Dutch Indies' most widely circulated publication. From 1935 onwards a bi-weekly magazine ''Soeara NIROM'' was published in Malay for non-European listeners, which became a weekly magazine from 1940 onwards. NIROM broadcasts were occasionally relayed to the Netherlands. On Queen's Day 1935, NIROM provided a live broadcast of speeches by the governor-general B.C. de Jonge and the chairman of the

Volksraad The Volksraad was a people's assembly or legislature in Dutch or Afrikaans speaking government. Assembly South Africa * Volksraad (South African Republic) (1840–1902) * Volksraad (Natalia Republic), a similar assembly that existed in the Natalia ...

, followed by a performance of the popular singer Miss Riboet, who regularly sang for NIROM. Relays continued after the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940 through

Radio Oranje ''Radio Oranje'' (; "Radio Orange") was a Dutch radio programme on the BBC European Service broadcast to the German-occupied Netherlands during World War II. It was transmitted from London and broadcast programmes of approximately 15 minutes. ...

; for instance, Indonesian politician

Haji Agus Salim ''Haji'' Agus Salim (; 8 October 1884 – 4 November 1954) was an Indonesian journalist, diplomat, and statesman. He served as Indonesia's Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1947 and 1949. Early life Agus Salim was born Masjhoedoelhaq Salim ...

addressed Dutchmen in the

occupied territory Military occupation, also called belligerent occupation or simply occupation, is temporary hostile control exerted by a ruling power's military apparatus over a sovereign territory that is outside of the legal boundaries of that ruling powe ...

in January 1941. Announcer Bert Garthoff gained fame by concluding NIROM's broadcasts on the day of the surrender to Japan on 8 March 1942 with the words "Listeners we're closing now. Farewell, until better days. Long live the Fatherland, long live the Queen." Garthoff later told that the station's employees were told by the Japanese authorities to "carry on as usual". This they did by concluding the broadcasts with the Dutch National Anthem, much to the surprise of the listeners. When the Japanese found out about this, they executed three NIROM employees in retaliation.

References

{{reflist Radio in the Dutch East Indies Radio networks Radio stations established in 1934 Radio stations disestablished in 1942