Kol Yisrael

Kol Yisrael ("The Voice of Israel") is the name of Israel's public domestic and international radio service of the state of Israel.

Kol Yisrael began as a domestic service, however, inaugurated upon Israel's independence on May 14 1948 and was a department of the Ministry of the Interior responsible for both domestic and international broadcasts. Subsuently, responsibility for the service moved to the Office of Posts and Telegraphs and then to the Prime Minister's office.

The station inherited the facilities of the former Palestine Broadcasting Service which had been founded as the official broadcaster of the Mandate of Palestine in 1936. Kol Yisrael's staff was made up both of former PBS personnel as well as former staffers at the underground radio stations run by the Haganah.

Kol Yisrael pioneered the use of FM transmission. In the early years, stations were operated in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa [1]. The PBS had had its transmitter in Ramallah but this was lost to Kol Israel due to Ramallah being in the Arab sector and under Jordanian governance.

In March 1950, international broadcasting was begun under the name Kol Zion La Golah ("The Voice of Zion to the Diaspora"). The broadcasts were produced at Kol Yisrael by the World Zionist Organization in cooperation with the Jewish Agency. In 1958, the international service was merged with the domestic broadcaster with both services operating under the Kol Israel name.

In 1965, the Israel Broadcasting Authority, an independent public entity, was created and took over responsibility for Kol Yisrael from the Prime Minister's office. In 1973, the IBA adopted the name Shidurei Yisrael (Israel Broadcasting) for the service's domestic radio and television services. The name Kol Yisrael was revived for the domestic and international radio service in 1979.

A previous station named Kol Yisrael had briefly been operated by the Haganah in 1940 on the 42 metre band. However, the station was soon renamed when the Haganah decided that the Kol Yisrael name should be reseved until independence.

Kol Yisrael's channels include:

• Kol Yisrael Israel Radio International broadcasting internationally in English, French, Persian, Spanish and Russian. The full schedule of Reshet Beit is also broadcast 24 hours a day on shortwave for Hebrew listeners abroad. Much of Reka's schedule is also broadcast internationally.

• Reshet Alef ("Network A") also referred to as Kol Yisrael: General talk and cultural programming, plus news in English at 0700 and 1700
• Reshet Beit ("Network B"): popular radio station.
• Reshet Gimel ("Network C"): radio station devoted for promoting Israeli music.
• Reshet Dalet ("Network D"): radio station in Arabic.
• Reka (Collect immigration radio): radio for immigrants to Israel. Broadcast in 13 languages (mostly Russian). Formerly known as Kol zion la'gola ("Voice of Israel abroad") and Reshet hey ("Network E").
• 88 FM: international pop music.
• Kol ha-musika ("The Sound of Music"): classical music.
• Reshet Moreshet ("the Heritage Network") - religious broadcasting.