Re: [Swprograms] RNW to end shortwave usage to North America as of the B-08 schedule change

["Richard Cuff" <rdcuff@xxxxxxxxx>]

A follow-up note:

One of the metrics that both the BBC World Service (in 2001) and Radio
Netherlands (in 2008) used in deciding to curtail shortwave usage to
North America was "cost per shortwave listener".

Back in 2001, the BBC published an assessment of its "audibility" in
each target region -- that is, how easily the station could be heard
in various geographies.  This was when the BBC made use of Antigua and
Sackville (as well as the UK) to reach North America -- before they
pulled the plug.  The BBC found that its audibility in North America
was not as good as it was in West Africa, South Asia, Europe, Southern
Africa, the Middle East, and the Pacific Islands.

Meanwhile the BBC also calculated a cost per listener -- looking at
the transmitter-hours that served the various targets and then
dividing by the number of listeners to reach a cost-per-listener.

They found that the North American audibility was lower than most
areas, and the cost per listener was higher than most areas.  That
wasn't a good combination.

Radio Netherlands pretty much went through a similar exercise over the
past year.  They didn't develop this audibility assessment, but they
did estimate their audience in various regions and also look at the
transmitter cost to reach that audience.  Once again, the
cost-per-listener for North America was higher than in other English
language regions.

Given the decline in North American listener feedback (vs. other
regions) and given the maturity of North American media vs. media in
English-speaking Africa, Asia, and much of the Pacific, North America
became a lower priority for RNW and they decided to shift SW resources
to services where SW was a more important delivery method -- Spanish
speakers in Latin / South America.

Much like Radio Australia has noted, RNW believes that it can reach
many of its its devoted North American listeners via Internet
delivery, and the costs for that are much less (by RNW's calculations)
than the shortwave costs.

The moral of the story:  "vote early, vote often:"  If you value a
broadcaster's presence on shortwave and listen to it regularly, tell
them so, and tell them why these alternate platforms don't work for
you.

That type of "letter writing" won't work for RNW at this point -- the
analysis is complete, and the decision has been made -- but it might
be helpful for other broadcasters on the fence.

Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA  USA

On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 12:03 PM, Kevin Anderson <k9iua@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Now I know shortwave is dead.  The one international broadcaster who argued most vehemently for keeping shortwave an option for all.  A very sad announcement indeed, because I am generally not a podcast or online listener, believing still in the medium of over-the-air radio (and not necessarily just in the broadcastable nature of spoken word programming, which I do believe in as well).  It puts on its head the nature of who is "privileged" in the world - I almost now want to consider the "privileged" to be the Indonesian, Pacific Islander, Andean highlander, or African resident who can still rely on "radio" as radio.
>
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