"Shortwave is actually experiencing a resurgence"
Mike Terry
what do we base our findings on?
Mainly on the research carried out by the Mighty Merlin Communications, they
that operate transmitters across the World on behalf of the BBC. This is
what they had to say:
"Shortwave radio listeners are growing globally, with shortwave penetration
at its highest in the developing countries. That is not to say that
shortwave is not having an impact in the Western world. Recent surveys
revealed that 97% of regular business travellers listened to international
shortwave." This increase in the shortwave audience, according to Merlin, is
"spelt out dramatically by just one factory in China that is frantically
producing 300,000 shortwave radio sets per month just to support demand.
Grundig in America report growth each year on their sales of shortwave
receivers. There are at least 600 million shortwave radio sets worldwide."
In France, according to a Merlin survey, 70% of households with radio have
access to shortwave. In Slovakia, the figure is 77%. "What is most
interesting," according to Merlin, "is the growth over the last 10 years in
shortwave usage by business travellers, diplomats, aid workers and others
who move about the world as a result of their jobs.
This change has occurred because of the portability of new sets and the
simplicity of their use. Modern synthesized sets, which have the facility of
actually entering the precise frequency number, made shortwave easy for
everyone.
People learned to pre-tune their sets, forgetting about kHz, MHz and
wavebands. The new sets went in pockets, handbags and briefcases. Now sets
weigh as little as 220 grams and are easily available and affordable."
Teledifusion de France, which operates Radio France International's
extensive shortwave transmitter network,
says that "an estimated 2.5 billion people tune in to programmes broadcast
on shortwave, and about a billion receivers pick up shortwave transmissions.
At any given moment, over 200 million receivers are tuned in to shortwave
broadcasts.
Shortwave remains the only means of reaching a broad audience anywhere in
the world, via a simple portable radio that can be bought for around $25.
Listeners include expatriates, business travellers, tourists, or simply
people who want to hear programmes in a language other than their own or who
want to open a new window on the world.
It doesn't matter where you are in the World, with shortwave you can always
be in touch with Europa Radio International and you can't do that with the
Internet or Sky satellite can you? There's always someone who will want to
use the PC or watch the latest episode of the Simpsons. So get yourself a
decent receiver, preferably with digital readout, check out our front page
for the next transmission dates and times and come over and join us, there's
a whole New World to explore.
Write to us c/o PO Box 299, Kent CT5 2YA, UK
E-mail to ad...@europaradiointernational.co.uk
http://www.europaradiointernational.co.uk/shortwave.htm
Michael
"Mike Terry" <miket...@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:3dai1aF...@individual.net...
OUTSTANDING POST !!!!!
This is a good reason for me to get a new radio to add to my collection :-)
In addition... I've always felt that sw was the most severely undermarketed
medium out there. Given the economy of sw air time costs, I cant help
thinking how many people out there with a message or a statement to make
would buy air time to put out their content if only they had an idea of how
cheap and easy it is to do so. You'd could have everything from some jearky
guy's sports talk show to garage rock bands airing their music on sw as an
alternative way to have their work heard by lots of people. The inevitable
accompaniment of that increased demand would be more transmitters going up.
Once the public got wind of all these funn exciting and off beat things to
hear, no doubt, listenership would go up. Once again.. I've always been
ASTOUNDED that sw is so underused and undermarketed. I dont get it.
Michael
Mark
<snippety-doo-da>
>Recent surveys
> revealed that 97% of regular business travellers listened to international
> shortwave.
Hmm, I'd be suprised if 97% of regular business travllers knew what
shortwave radio was!
Mark.
Auckland
New Zealand.
running dogg
WRMI sold airtime to practically anybody to say or do practically
anything for $1 a minute five years ago. I don't know if that's still
the case, but in 2000, as an experiment, I emailed WRMI about doing a
thirty minute program every Sunday night. Yes, they had two slots
available, and they were only $30 a week. What a deal! It's too bad that
WBCQ, which was set up to provide exactly the sort of service that
you're talking about, was forced to rely on endless tapes of Bill
Cooper's Hour Of The Time to pay the bills. I should note that virtually
all of the SW station shutdowns have been the result of either a)
services for expats going to the internet, such as the Swiss, or b)
terminally stupid management, such as the BBC, which has made other
extremely dumb decisions (in the BBC's case, slashing popular programs
on UK TV). The VOA is another case of terminal idiocy and overreliance
on FM and satellite. Just wait until a Radio Sawa FM transmitter in Iraq
is captured by insurgents and starts pumping out jihad instead, and
you'll have a lot of suits in DC scratching their heads and wondering
how THAT could happen. And then there's Nepal, where the BBC found that
its precious FM relay was broadcasting government propaganda all of a
sudden. Li, this newsgroup's Commie baiter, posted an article about how
people in Beijing were coughing up mucho yuan (the equivalent of $20) in
order to hear criticism of the CCP on SW. Just wait until they get their
hands on the antijamming antenna.
----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
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CW
lot to do with it.
"Michael" <md1...@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:UXUbe.18287$RP1....@fe10.lga...
cuh...@webtv.net
means of Communication(s)/News if the Big One/Mushroom goes up!,Period!
cuhulin
cuh...@webtv.net
room when I did my five days R&R in Hong Kong,China in 1964.Over four
years ago,I mentioned something about than in an email of mine to that
married Irish woman wayyyyy over yonder across the big pond in Bognor
Regis,England and the next day she emailed me a good explanation of
Teledifusion.I forget most of what she said about it though.Perhaps
someone in this news group will provide an explaination of/about
Teledifusion?
cuhulin
cuh...@webtv.net
there old Hansom Larry (that's me,y'all wimmins) Loves them.
cuhulin
Frank Dresser
"CW" <cma...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:B_Zbe.578$BE3...@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> FCC regulations prohibit SW broadcasting to domestic audiences. That has a
> lot to do with it.
>
As I understand, the regulations prohibit exclusively broadcasting to
domestic audiences. Incidental broacasting to domestic audiences is
allowed. It doesn't matter much, as the FCC isn't enforcing these
regulations, anyway.
There's a RWonline article which includes this topic:
"All in all, U.S. SW broadcasters operate in a strange, Twilight Zone kind
of world, but one that they relish. Passport's Magne believes that U.S.
shortwave broadcasters enjoy it so much that they don't want the FCC to
loosen its archaic restrictions on domestic shortwave. "
""The truth is that they like it the way it is," he said. "If the rules were
changed, it could open the floodgates to more competition." "
"An unfair accusation? Not according to WRMI's White. "
""We discussed changing the rules at the National Association of Shortwave
Broadcasters' convention a few years ago," he said. "In fact, the FCC asked
for our help in doing so. However, after some discussion, a lot of people
came to Magne's conclusion: that we're all better off just leaving things as
they are. After all, under the current regime, the FCC pretty much leaves us
alone. If the rules were changed, then they might get serious about
enforcing them.""
http://www.rwonline.com/reference-room/special-report/05_rwf_shortwave_2.shtml
Frank Dresser
John S.
listened to international
shortwave."
As much as I would like to believe a statement like that, it does not
represent what I see as a frequent international business traveller.
I see travellers getting their information about the world from
cable/satellite television, newspapers and via the internet. If the
business of shortwave broadcasting is to enticing then why are so many
broadcasters dropping out and why are so few companies producing the
receivers.
Cleverly worded surveys that ask a question like "Have you heard a
shortwave broadcast in the last 12 months" can be perverted to support
whatever conclusion the survey taker want's to make.
cuh...@webtv.net
betsy myers at nbc.(or whichever Commie outfit that WHOAR! works for) I
picked up my phone,I says,Who is this? BITCH,says,Mr.Ryan,I am betsy
myers,I told that Filthy Bitch Slut CUNT! to Don't Ever Phone Me Again!
(Hit it,Willie Nelson,on www.us963.com The City Of New Orleans)
cuhulin
cuh...@webtv.net
have ALWAYS LIKED PIRATE SHORTWAVE RADIO.I ALWAYS WILL TOO.
cuhulin
Greg
> Organization: WebTV Subscriber
> Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave
> Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 00:55:19 -0500
> Subject: Re: "Shortwave is actually experiencing a resurgence"
>
> Teledifusion,that is what that lady said on that radio in that hotel
> room when I did my five days R&R in Hong Kong,China in 1964.Over four
> years ago,I mentioned something about than in an email of mine to that
> married Irish woman wayyyyy over yonder across the big pond in Bognor
> Regis,England and the next day she emailed me a good explanation of
(snip)
Thanks for weighing in.
Greg
cuh...@webtv.net
shit and then get on over to the Goodwill thrift store.
cuhulin
John S.
William Mutch
cma...@earthlink.net says...
> FCC regulations prohibit SW broadcasting to domestic audiences. That has a
> lot to do with it.
>
missions? Right ?? yeh, righr
cuh...@webtv.net
cuhulin
CW
"William Mutch" <wc...@NOSPAM.cornell.edu> wrote in message
news:MPG.1cdaebffd...@newsstand.cit.cornell.edu...
Michael
"CW" <cma...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:B_Zbe.578$BE3...@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> lot to do with it.
>
There are legal and technical ways around that for sure.
Michael
sdan...@nyc.rr.com
shortwave. However, I do think that shortwave is primed to experience a
resurgence. Let me explain...
When we're all moaning about the discontinuation of various receivers,
we tend to focus on the high-end receivers, which are indeed being
'thinned out'. However, thanks to the Chinese, the world is being
flooded with inexpensive shortwave radios. I believe that this latter
fact will eventually work to the advantage of the high-end market.
People will get cheap shortwave radios, enjoy them and then come down
with a nagging and persistent curiosity about how much more they could
hear with a *better* receiver. So, I expect the large number of sales
of low-end receivers will eventually translate into demand for better
receivers.
I could be wrong, but isn't this the way it usually works? I ended up
with an R8B only after going through a string of less expensive radios
and always developing a yearning for more. I think this is fairly
common.
Steve
Honus
"John S." <hjs...@cs.com> wrote in message
news:1114710517.6...@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
> I don't understand....
That's a Good Thing, John.
running dogg
Degen 1108. Degen is already thinking about the high end market, since
with all the bells and whistles they want to put on the 1108 I doubt it
will be affordable to the average Chinese. I think that the Chinese will
eventually build high end receivers, either Degen and Tecsun will build
them or new companies will spring up that will specialize in high end
stuff. I'm sure that this will make Li apoplectic, but for the rest of
humanity it will be a positive development since the Western (US,
Europe, Japan) high end stuff has suffered from quality control problems
and lack of design originality for quite some time. But Tecsun managed
to work out all the QC problems with the Sat 800 (Ham 2000) and have
gradually improved it. I'm sure that Degen will eventually work out
whatever bugs are in its radios and produce quality radios. The Chinese
seem to have the Chrysler and Microsoft approach to product
development-put something, anything out in the market and fix bugs as
they come up. Sure beats having to quality check your own stuff with in
house staff. The downside is that you don't want to buy something that
has been out for less than a couple years.
Conan Ford
> sdan...@nyc.rr.com wrote:
> Degen 1108. Degen is already thinking about the high end market, since
> with all the bells and whistles they want to put on the 1108 I doubt
> it will be affordable to the average Chinese. I think that the Chinese
> will eventually build high end receivers, either Degen and Tecsun will
> build them or new companies will spring up that will specialize in
> high end stuff. I'm sure that this will make Li apoplectic, but for
> the rest of humanity it will be a positive development since the
> Western (US, Europe, Japan) high end stuff has suffered from quality
> control problems and lack of design originality for quite some time.
> But Tecsun managed to work out all the QC problems with the Sat 800
> (Ham 2000) and have gradually improved it. I'm sure that Degen will
> eventually work out whatever bugs are in its radios and produce
> quality radios. The Chinese seem to have the Chrysler and Microsoft
> approach to product development-put something, anything out in the
> market and fix bugs as they come up. Sure beats having to quality
> check your own stuff with in house staff. The downside is that you
> don't want to buy something that has been out for less than a couple
> years.
I think that there are a lot of people in China who can afford a good,
decent desk shortwave radio, and that one of the drivers is getting
uncensored news from elsewhere (if you can get past the jamming). A more
selective radio with better filters will have better luck in general. I
believe the primary market of Tecsun and Degen is the chinese domestic
market, it's a big country, and shortwave is actually still pretty popular
there.
The secondary consideration for them is proving a decent product for export
by rebranding, such as Tecsun does with Eton. An option besides making a
deal with a company like Eton is to simply license a brand name, like GE,
such as many asian makers of consumer electronics do.
running dogg
Yes, China has a lot of domestic SW stations, and China is too big to
cover with AM and FM. A desktop radio coupled with the antijamming
antenna will make very good progress in unjamming RFA. Maybe this is why
the CCP doesn't want to make a desktop. But their tune will change in a
few years as people outside China will clamor to trade up from their
Degens and Tecsuns, and the CCP will simply forbid sale of the new
desktops in China. But people will still get them, and use them. The
CCP, once they start making desktops, may see its days numbered, which
will make Li happy.
>
> The secondary consideration for them is proving a decent product for export
> by rebranding, such as Tecsun does with Eton. An option besides making a
> deal with a company like Eton is to simply license a brand name, like GE,
> such as many asian makers of consumer electronics do.
Most of the "classic" American brand names, such as GE, are up for sale
to the highest bidder. Thomson currently owns GE and RCA and Philips
owns Magnavox, but other names such as Philco and Westinghouse are wide
open.