The MWN Archive
65 years of publishing
It is hard to believe that the Circle has been publishing Medium Wave News (MWN) since 1954. At its inception the newsletter was just one sheet of stencil-printed paper published in December 1954. Fortunately we still have a copy of the first edition in the club archive.
Over the years the newsletter gradually grew in size as contributions and technology enabled growth. Until computers came to the fore MWN was usually no more than 8 printed pages published 8 times a year. By the late 1980s content had grown to abour 20 pages per issue and publication 9 times per year
The big expansion of Medium Wave News happened in the mid 1990s and coincided with publication increasing to 10 issues per year.
In recent years MWN has ranged from 44-64 pages per issue and it still appears 10 times per year. With the advent of digital publication we have been able to include more “bonus” content since we aren’t constrained by postal distribution costs. Digital editions have ranged from 70-95 pages in a single issue!
The collection
The Circle is fortunate to have the vast majority of issues of MWN available in a paper archive made up of published magazines and in many cases as printers proofs. To ensure preservation and to enable research the paper copies have been scanned into digital format.
The digital archive includes over 500 issues but sadly there are a few gaps in the early years, which we may now never fill. Fortunately we still have the First Edition.
The archive is a resource that any member can explore.
Here is a recent example of Medium wave News (click image to download full magazine):
To view the front covers and the table of contents of over 300 copies of Medium Wave News click below:
If something catches your eye, the full publication is located in the members-only archive. You’ll find over 500 issues in downloadable and searchable form in the archive
To take advantage of the archive you need to be a member of the Medium Wave Circle, but we also welcome bona fide researchers. If you are not already a member please click below: