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

["Richard Cuff" <rdcuff@xxxxxxxxx>]

Actually from Kevin Anderson...who had meant to hit 'reply all'.

Richard


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kevin Anderson <k9iua@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 12:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Swprograms] RNW to end shortwave usage to North America
as of the B-08 schedule change
To: Richard Cuff <rdcuff@xxxxxxxxx>


One huge advantage of internet-based delivery schemes over all other
methods is the instant and complete nature of statistical information
available.  A radio station can know on a daily, hourly, or even by
the minute, how many users are "listening" (streaming or downloading a
podcast) and, with just a bit of analysis, approximately from where
each accessed from.  OTA shortwave can't compete in this regard.
Short of having all listeners e-mail once a week a "listening log" to
a clearing house similar to an Arbitron diary, they would have no idea
when someone is listening at a statistical level anywhere close to
internet.

More of the "just-in-time" "me" world applied to international broadcasting.

Kevin

--- On Tue, 10/7/08, Richard Cuff <rdcuff@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: Richard Cuff <rdcuff@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [Swprograms] RNW to end shortwave usage to North America as of the B-08 schedule change
> To: k9iua@xxxxxxxxx, "Shortwave programming discussion" <swprograms@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Tuesday, October 7, 2008, 9:49 AM
> 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.
> >






-- 
Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA  USA

International broadcasting / shortwave blog:
http://www.intlradio.blogspot.com
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