Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Shortwaves now and in the 1980s

Shortwave listening has changed a lot in the last two decades. Several international broadcasters of the 1980s are now silent on the shortwaves. Some of the changes have been caused by technological change - shortwave listening just is not anymore as popular as it was in the 1980s.

In many countries international broadcasting was and still is financed by the government. Some countries have financed international broadcasting as a means of keeping own citizens abroad in touch with what is happening at home. In case of industrialized countries this has become more ore less redundant in light of the easily available internet connections. Who would listen to shortwave transmissions when one can read online newspapers from the home for free? Or who would listen to barely audible news transmissions if one can listen to an internet audio stream broadcast by one of the local radio companies?

According to many broadcasters, the answer is nobody. Or at least the audience has become smaller and smaller and it has been difficult to explain the governments that there really is a need for international broadcasting on the shortwaves even in the 21st century.

No comments:

Post a Comment