Re: [Swprograms] FW: World Service Feedback

[Richard Cuff <rdcuff@xxxxxxxxx>]

I assume you mean Graham Mytton's piece.

I frankly found one problem with it -- his paragraph entitled "Nobody
Listens to Shortwave:  They Listen to Radio".

IMO some of his logic is flawed.  Finding something on shortwave -- as
we all know -- is far different from finding something on MW or FM.  I
wager that most people who listen to shortwave know full well that
it's different from AM & FM, at least in Europe / North America /
Pacific Rim countries.

That logic leads the BBC to avoid making frequency announcements when
services change frequency...because it's "no different" (says Mytton)
than AM or FM.

The fact that shortwave IS different is one reason I believe it's
important that radio manufacturers, radio stations and listeners work
together to inform and educate each other on the value and benefit of
SW.  I think it's appalling that no radio manufacturers reach out to
listeners directly.  For the past six years I have attempted to engage
all the manufacturers targeting North America (Drake, AOR, Palstar,
ICOM, Yaesu, Ten-Tec, Sony, Grundig/Eton, Sangean, Kaito) to dialogue
with us listeners via the platform of the SWL Fest.  No interest.  The
last time a radio manufacturer showed up was Lowe's John Wilson.  That
was 10 years ago.

Mytton also tries to draw a distinction between a "shortwave listener"
and an "Internet user":  "...There is in fact no such thing as a
shortwave listener in the way that there is, for example an Internet
user, aside from the very small number of dedicated DXer enthusiasts."

That may be, but the Pew American Life project reported in late 2004
the following statistics on US adult Internet usage:

--more than 2/3 of adults use the Internet 

--more than 70 million adults use the Internet daily

--more than 80% of teenagers regularly use the Internet.

The shortwave community in North America can only dream of this level
of penetration.

Broadcasters who serve the USA --beyond the capabilities of AM & FM to
reach these audiences -- would be foolish to ignore those statistics.

Shortwave needs to be specially treated and protected by those --
including us -- who have a stake in its future.

We listeners will fail if we try to do this ourselves without a
coordinated effort involving all who are stakeholders in shortwave
utilization.

Meanwhile, looking at the "halcyon days" of public broadcasting, a sad
fact of life is that, courtesy of satellite programming availability,
public radio station program directors face the same quandary we users
do.  They have tons of programming available for their use.  It's
cheap or free.  Much of it is also of higher quality than what they
could produce themselves.  These PDs are forced to make choices --
what to air?  When?

How should they choose what to put on air?  

Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA  USA


On Apr 12, 2005 9:39 AM, Mike Wolfson <mwolfson@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> There's an EXCELLENT article in this month's edition of Listening In from
> ODXA about the current situation and mindset among the larger SW
> broadcasters.  If Harold Sellers is reading this, I would encourage him to
> post it.
>
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