Re: [Swprograms] RN gives in on Spanish; why not English?

[Richard Cuff <rdcuff@xxxxxxxxx>]

When RNW gave up on shortwave in English to North America, I was told
by RNW that RNW would look much more favorably on using SW to reach
Spanish speaking listeners in the Americas.

This was because there was a clear preference for shortwave as the
preferred method of hearing RNW broadcasts and these listeners did not
have alternative methods of receiving or interacting with RNW at their
disposal.

RNW actively solicited listener input from North American listeners
over a two-year period prior to leaving SW for English, and they found
that those NA-based listeners who took the time to respond were more
flexible -- they had a greater number of methods to obtain info from
RNW at their disposal.  English language listeners would read content
at the RNW website as well as stream audio and seek out WRN.

Further, RNW considered Africa a more important English language
target than North America, because North American English-language
media is much more diverse than African English-language media in most
countries.

This process followed the earlier RNW process where they solicited
input from North Americans regarding the morning broadcasts that were
sent our way starting in July 2001 (when the BBCWS stopped using SW
for English to NA).  While these broadcasts were originally received
with great enthusiasm, in later years very few people indicated they
found those morning broadcasts useful.

So...am I saying that North American listeners shouldn't contact RNW
encouraging a reinstatement of SW?  No, but the decisions taken by RNW
over the past couple of years suggests RNW is not likely to shift
funding back towards SW for NA in English.

Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA  USA

On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 8:39 PM, Scott Royall <royall@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> You assume there is a massive number of HF RN listeners in NA. That has
> never been known. Also, broadband is a much rarer bird below the Rio Grande,
> making HF more viable there.
_______________________________________________
Swprograms mailing list
Swprograms@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swprograms

To unsubscribe:  Send an E-mail to  swprograms-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above.