HFCC - International Broadcasting Delivery

Oldrich Cip has been associated with radio since childhood - first as an amateur radio hobbyist and later as a staff member of Czechoslovak and Czech Radio in the departments of International Broadcasting.

A college graduate in the field of Humanities, he spent most of his working life as a frequency manager and schedule planner.

For quite a number of years he conducted a radio column for hobbyists under the pen-name Peter Skala.

After the end of the Cold War he came up with the idea that broadcasters from both sides of the conflict should come together and develop a new system of planning and co-ordination for shortwave broadcasting.

A group started this activity back in 1991 and later was established as the HFCC.

Oldrich has been Chairman of the HFCC since 1998.

He lives in Prague and is married with two adult sons.

His hobbies include woodworking, restoration, guitar and country music, vintage graphics and photography.

Sergio Salvatori joined Vatican Radio at the Santa Maria di Galeria transmitting station in 1986 and has been working there since then.

He moved to the Frequency Management Department in 1993, mostly dealing with HF matters, and started to attend the HFCC Conferences in the same year.

Sergio was elected to the post of Systems Development Co-ordinator (jointly with Gerald Theoret) in February 2010.

Sergio enjoys jogging and travelling.

Horst Scholz

1974 academical graduation from the Technical University Aachen as Diplom Ingenieur in Telecommunication Engineering.

From 1975 to 1985 in charge of planning transmission facilities for Deutsche Welle and developing countries.

Since 1985 in charge of frequency management and international co-operation with ITU, EBU, ASBU, ABU and DRM.

Since 1990 vice chairman of the High Frequency Coordination Committee.

From 2006 until his retirement in February 2011 Chief Engineer of Deutsche Welle.

Since June 2011 he acts as consultant to MEDIA BROADCAST GmbH.

He is married and has one adult son.

Hobbies: Cooking, mountaineering, meeting friends

Gary Stanley joined the BBC World Service in 1986, initially as Transmitter Engineer at the Cyprus relay station, and then Senior Transmitter Engineer at the UK MW site at Orfordness.

In 1997 he moved to the Scheduling and Frequency Management department, becoming Frequency Manager for Merlin Communications, then VT Communications and now Babcock International Group. He became Senior Frequency Manager in 2010.

Between 2003 and 2012 he was the ABU-HFC representative on the HFCC Steering Board.

Gary was elected Rapporteur in January 2012.

He is married with one adult son and enjoys photography, bird watching and ballroom dancing.

Gerald Theoret was elected to the post of Systems Development Co-ordinator (jointly with Sergio Salvatori) in February 2010.

1982 Bachelor Degree in Urban Studies from the "Université du Québec" (Montréal, Québec, Canada)

1986 Environmental Science Certificate from the "Université du Québec" (Montréal, Québec, Canada)

Since 1986 University courses at the "Université du Québec" and the McGill University in Computer Sciences and Project Management.

From 1987 to 1993 Program Schedule Planner at Radio Canada International.

Since 1993 Shortwave Frequency Manager at Radio Canada International and at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

He is married and has two adult children.

Gerald enjoys fishing trips, reading (particular interest in Politics, Economy, Science and History) and biking.

Jeff White is General Manager of Radio Miami International (WRMI), a commercial shortwave station in the United States that has been on the air since 1994 (under the FCC FMO).

He is a Journalism graduate from Northern Illinois University near Chicago, where he served as news manager for several years.

Jeff worked for several more years as a freelance journalist for a number of radio networks, including Christian Science Monitor Radio, National Public Radio, NBC, Radio Netherlands and others.

He carried out many audience research studies for international broadcasters such as the BBC, VOA, Radio Canada International, Deutsche Welle, etc.

Jeff has served as Vice President and President of the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters (NASB), which represents the privately-owned shortwave broadcasters in the United States.

Jeff is the NASB representative in the HFCC Steering Board. On behalf of the NASB, Jeff has chaired the organising committees for the HFCC/ASBU conferences in Mexico City (A05), Dominican Republic (B09), Zurich (B10) and Dallas (B11).

In their free time, Jeff and his wife Thais like to travel, especially by cruise ship. He always takes a shortwave receiver with him.

Geoff Spells joined the BBC at the technical Receiving Station in 1972. After moving to World Service in Bush House in 1977, Geoff became one of the two Frequency Managers keeping this role on privatisation in 1997 first in Merlin Communications and then VT Communications. As part of his duties, Geoff contributed to the work on HF Broadcasting in the EBU and ITU. He attended all World Radio Conferences from 1984 to 2007 dealing with HF broadcasting issues. Geoff has continued working in this field as a Consultant to VT Communications and Babcock Communications since his retirement in 2005. Geoff held the post of rappoteur on the HFCC Steering Board until January 2012

Geoff enjoys travelling, walking and reading and is currently learning ballroom and latin american dancing.