Re: [Swprograms] BBC Quote Discussion

["William Martin" <wgmartin@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just a quick note on my take on the comment about
"sizeable" in regards to North American BBC listeners on SW:

It's not that there *are*, currently, that many people actively
listening to the BBC on SW (like I do, and like I suppose most
of you do). It's that, no matter how much WiFi penetration
there will be at some time in the future, and how many people
eventually use satellite radio, right now a properly-powered SW
service from the right relay sites can blanket the entire continent
and provide decent signals to all the 300+ million North Americans
who are potential BBC listeners, and they can then have the capability
to hear it with a $50 (or less) radio. No computer-based system of
hardware and software can match this now, and it will be decades
before it will be available (if ever, given the extent of some of the
less-populated regions). And the pay-for-subscription service model
of satellite radio will cut off a huge portion of that potential
audience, limiting that option. It's *that* number that is "sizeable",
not the current listenership.

One other side comment -- in a recent BBC "Over to you" feedback
program, they mentioned that half the Worldservice's listeners are
now in Africa, and broke it down somewhat further by country.
Of course, they have forced this by the way they have arranged SW
and local-relay services, and that adds to the "self-fulfilling prophecy"
aspect of the discussion.

73, Will


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