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“Those FM listeners are, however, not exposed to as wide a variety of BBC programming than was available on shortwave,” he said. public radio stations than via shortwave when the shutdown occurred. Kim Andrew Elliott, a former VOA contributor who reports on international broadcasting at his Web site, adds that BBC World Service was attracting more listeners via U.S.

Spectrum that once carried international news and programming is now host to U.S. “The result is that North Americans don’t get much in the way of shortwave programming these days. “After the BBC ended its North American broadcasts, other broadcasters followed suit,” said Magne. The move, hotly contested by avid shortwave listeners, had a domino effect. (Byford is now BBC deputy director general.) In 2001, then-BBC World Service Director Mark Byford decided that local AM/FM rebroadcasting, satellite radio and the emerging Internet made it possible to stop shortwave broadcasts to North America. Magne said he believes it was the BBC World Service that speeded shortwave’s decline in North America. Others have created satellite services and/or partner with local stations in key targets, and most now stream their programming on the Internet.” “As a result, some have closed down their shortwave services altogether. “AM broadcasting is expensive, and, since the end of the Cold War, many Western governments don’t see the need to spend large amounts on transmitting their output on shortwave,” said Sennitt. “Shortwave audiences have been in decline since then.” “We reached an apex in shortwave radio listenership in 1989, when the Cold War ended,” said Magne.

He is publisher of Passport to World Band Radio, the annual shortwave radio tuning guide that thrived for 25 years but suspended publication in 2009. But shortwave was in trouble before these new media took hold, said Larry Magne. It is easy to blame the Internet and international satellite television for the decline in shortwave radio listenership. “Shortwave is still significant in much of Africa, South Asia and parts of Latin America.” “Other regions vary from country to country,” said Sennitt. “Media Network” began in 1981 as a weekly shortwave program in 2000 that show ended in favor of its current online presence. He is one of the world’s most respected experts on shortwave radio and the editor in charge of the Radio Netherlands Worldwide “Media Network” Web site.

“There has been a massive decline in shortwave listenership, especially in Europe and North America,” said Andy Sennitt. In fact, the BBC World Service no longer beams programming via shortwave to the Americas or most of Europe. In North America and Europe, many of the major broadcasters have disappeared or minimized their presence. Scan across the shortwave bands and you’ll find that much has changed. But back when there was no awareness of the Internet and no international satellite TV, shortwave was where many news-hungry North Americans went first. Granted, most of that audience was outside of North America. If you wanted to know what was happening in Cuba, Tel Aviv or what was then called Bombay, you could tune to Radio Havana, Kol Yisrael or All India Radio directly.Īt the time, the BBC estimated global shortwave listenership to be in excess of 120 million people weekly. There was also Radio Moscow - once the mouthpiece of old-style Soviet propaganda - the Voice of America, Radio Netherlands, Deutsche Welle from West Germany and Radio Berlin International from East Germany. Most hours of the day, the BBC World Service boomed in, especially at night on 6175 kHz. As recently as 25 years ago, shortwave radio was a preferred source of breaking international news in North America.