TWIDDLE the dial of a short-wave radio and you never know what you will get. Through the hiss of static you may hear Cuban propaganda, football from Brazil or Chinese opera. Unlike other radio broadcasts, short-wave transmissions, bouncing off the ionosphere, can connect any two points on earth. One hazard is physics: signals wane and wax during the day. Another is governments. In the cold war communist regimes jammed Western stations. Now the threat is budget cuts.
On June 24th the state-funded Radio Canada International (RCI) ended its short-wave broadcasts and went online only. On June 29th Radio Netherlands did the same. Wojtek Gwiazda of the RCI Action Committee, a ginger group, says politicians think short-wave sounds an old-fashioned way to spend taxpayers’ money.
Even aficionados accept that the glory days are gone: political freedom and new technology means listeners have more choice now, while local rebroadcasts and internet streaming give foreign stations more hum for the hertz. But short-wave remains a good way of reaching remote areas and poor people (a basic receiver costs as little as $10). Graham Mytton, who used to run the BBC’s audience research, says it is cheap, easy to use and the only medium that gets through everywhere. A natural disaster, he notes, can take local transmitters off air and bring down the internet, but a battery-powered radio will still work.
China is expanding its short-wave broadcasts—both to reach listeners abroad and (some say) to disrupt transmissions from unwelcome foreigners, such as the Voice of America (VOA). The largest remaining short-wave broadcaster, VOA says it has no plans to junk its transmitters: its short-wave audience has actually grown over the past decade in countries like Myanmar (where it claims a quarter of the adult population listens, and three-quarters in rural areas).
Digital short-wave broadcasts would be clearer and could carry bits of text too. The technology (known as DRM) has existed for years. But listeners will not buy pricey new radios without content, and broadcasters will not go digital without listeners.
Other stations are filling the newly empty spectrum. World Christian Broadcasting of Tennessee has built a new site in Madagascar which will beam multilingual music, news and religious programming to South America, Africa and the Middle East at an annual cost of over $3m.
Others see commercial possibilities. Globe Wireless, an American firm, has long used short-wave for maritime e-mail service to thousands of ships. Although the data speeds (at only 2,400 bps) are not as zippy as a satellite link, the service is cheaper—and keeps going if solar flares or space debris hit satellites, says the firm’s boss, David Kagan. The short-wave voice may be old and hoarse. But it still dependably carries a message.
(Source: Economist)
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