BBC Ends Shortwave Service to Europe

[W1UJR]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/18/business/bbc.php

BBC ends shortwave service in Europe

PARIS: The BBC World Service, which started its scratchy shortwave transmissions to listeners cut off by "desert, snow and sea" 75 years ago, ended its last English-language shortwave services in Europe on Monday.

The British public broadcaster has been reducing its shortwave transmissions over the past seven years, eliminating services to North America and Australia in 2001 and South America in 2005. Last March, the BBC started reducing European transmissions, finally cutting off a transmitter that reached parts of southern Europe on Monday.

"There comes a point where the shortwave audience in a given region becomes so small that spending money on it can no longer be justified," the broadcaster said in a statement.

The quiet ending for the service was a contrast with its celebrated arrival. Seventy-five years ago, King George V helped promote the new technology from his small study in the British royal family's Norfolk retreat, Sandringham. In a speech written by the poet Rudyard Kipling, the king extolled radio as a way to reach out to men and women isolated by snow and sea.

"Through one of the marvels of modern science, I am enabled this Christmas Day to speak to all my people throughout the empire," the king said.

The abdication speech of Edward VIII was broadcast on shortwave, as was news of the Hindenburg airship's explosion and Hungarian Free Radio's last anguished call for aid as Russian tanks rumbled into Budapest.

But modern modes of communication have been squeezing out shortwave services in Western countries, where programming is available on FM radio, on the Internet and on iPods with wireless connections.

"Europe is very developed and so is America," said Michael Gardner, a spokesman for BBC World Services. "Shortwave is not the best way of reaching those audiences there. They all have FM, AM stations close by. Some of them have satellites or they can pull it down on their TV screens and there are alternatives on line. There are lots of ways of interacting with the BBC."

Simon Spanswick, chief executive of the Association of International Broadcasters in London, said that the move by the BBC "probably sounds the death knell for traditional analogue shortwave broadcasting in the developed world."

Shortwave transmissions remain an important media outlet in Africa and Asia, he noted. Since 2006, the BBC World Service shortwave audience has grown by 7 million people, or 7 percent, to 107 million - about 58 percent of the BBC's total radio audience.

But in developed countries, Spanswick added, "nobody really uses shortwave radio any more to listen to content produced on a big scale."

All of the world's largest international broadcasters, based in the United States, France, Germany, England and the Netherlands, are cutting back on shortwave or reviewing the deployment of their resources.

Andy Sennit, a media specialist with the Dutch public broadcaster, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, said that he got his start 30 years ago working on BBC shortwave broadcasts and had mixed feelings about the end of the transmissions.

"For die-hard shortwave listeners, this is negative," he said. "What they don't understand is the huge cost of powering transmitters. The cost of diesel fuel has doubled."

Radio Netherlands has also cut back its shortwave services in English and has considered shutting down some transmitter stations, he said.

Jonathan Marks, a former radio executive and consultant for international broadcasting, said the decision by the BBC was simply another sign of shortwave radio's "long, slow fade."

"A major broadcaster has pulled the plug on a major continent," he said. "It indicates that the BBC no longer sees it as a viable medium."

[flintstone mop]

I wish Radio Marti would cease operations too. The splatter from too much high end in their audio wrecks the muddy signal from 'BCQ. Two completely different sounds from the two stations, Marti 7405 and 'BCQ 7415. I know that the 'Tron has made 'BCQ legal with the restricted high end, but Marti is such a bright sound even with my R390A in the 8 khz position.
Plus they are a little closer with a 250KW signal. Engineer there says, that with their "curtain antenna" The USA should not hear them(Marti)

Fred

[KB2WIG]

                                                                .

[k4kyv]

I don't do much SWL'ing any more.  SWBC used to be my main source of worldwide news, until the mid-70's when NPR, university, and independent listener-supported stations began to appear on FM.  Before that, the FM band was mostly filled with rather bland classical music stations (classical versions of elevator music).  I started  listening more to FM while living in the Boston area, and depended less on BBC, Radio Canada, Radio France Internationale and VOA, although I still listened to certain programs through the 80's.  I thought commercial radio and television broadcasting sucked back then, just as it does now, and still rarely listen or watch.

With most of the above broadcasters now gone dark on shortwave, about all I hear in English is Bible Beaters, except for WBCQ.  I used to sometimes enjoy listening to CFRX, Toronto, 6070, but they have been silent since reportedly having difficulties both with their transmitter and antenna.  I still occasionally listen to WBCQ on Saturday afternoon/evenings.  Sometimes the doomsday political and religious windbags on BCQ and a couple of other privately-owned SWBC stations make interesting listening, to be taken with a grain of salt.

I can now get BBC, RFI and Radio Canada via webcasting now, with better quality than shortwave, despite the limitations of streaming audio, but I still by far the most of my broadcast  listening on the bottom end of the FM band.  Even the classical music programs we get now are much better in quality of content than what I recall prior to the mid-70's.  I am a classical music listener, but I thought what they played on FM before other programming began to appear was boring.

With shortwave broadcasting relegated mostly to third-world countries, that should be good news to amateurs, since for decades the greatest pressure on our bands during the WARC's has been from international broadcasters.  The demise of the cold war and its associated propaganda wars has hastened the decline of SWBC.  From what little I hear on the subject, the radio wars associated with the multitude of conflicts in the middle east are taking place primarily over FM, rather than shortwave.

If nobody is listening, maybe they actually will vacate 7100-7200 as promised, and eventually the entire 40m will return to amateurs worldwide, something not seen since broadcasters first began to invade the band during the the Spanish Civil War. I notice a lot less broadcast activity in the top end of 75 these days as well, although the German DRM signal still wipes out 3990-4000 in the evening.

But the other question is, will there still be such thing as an amateur radio service, let alone amateurs left to populate the band, by the time broadcasters finally leave once and for all?

[K9ACT]

This is very sad and impacts our life here directly.

20 years ago, my wife and I decided we were above all the silly News Years eve stuff the world considers normal and inaugurated our own program.

Shortly before 6pm local time (2400 GMT), she would lay out a table full of hors d'oeuvre and a bottle of champagne.  We would turn on the Beeb and pop the cork listening to Big Ben ring in the new year on short wave.

That was it and now it's gone.

This year was a real joke.  We watch the BBC news at 6 but this year they decided to tape the whole thing and at 6 showed all the happy people in an earlier time zone and no Big Ben all.

I am glad I am old enough to remember when the world was a nice place.

js

[N3DRB The Derb]

the world is nicer today than at any point in human history that we know of.

I have to keep remembering this factoid all the time, lest I get downhearted.

Just the number of diseases we have overcome that killed millions and someimes billions, make this true. Teh days you are alive and around to observe and see this world are the best days you have. The choice is always yours.

Likewise, I sometimes have to remember that there are untold amounts of people who never heard the 50 cycle hum of Radio Moscow. And there will be many who will never hear Irb on 75 ring his chimes.

We all getting old.  I for one am glad I got the chance to make it this far.

[The Slab Bacon]

I never will forget, one night some years back I was spinnin the dial on the first
390-A I had, and stumbled onto this station playing some kick-ass blues. Muddy Waters, followed by another half hour of some of the original greats. I was extreemly curious who this station was. After a long listen they finally ID'ed. I like to have dropped one!! Low and behold, it was Radio Moscow!! Go figger!!

Its kind of a shame that Much of this is going to dissapear forever. And like Derb said, many will never get to experience it!!

                                                               The Slab Bacon

[K9ACT]

the world is nicer today than at any point in human history that we know of.

As someone we all know and love once said, "it depends on your definition of" nice.

>I have to keep remembering this factoid all the time, lest I get downhearted.

If it's so nice, why is it so hard to remember?

Aside from a few technology related issues, I am hard pressed to think of many (any) things that have gotten nicer as I got older.   Traffic? Yosemite Park? Politicians? Walk in the park? Talking to real people on the phone? Junk from China?
The friendly hardware man? The "dime store"? Metal detectors and locked down schools? The list is endless.  And of course, there are no more wars, just slaughter by remote control and we always win.

Again, I am glad I am old enough to know when things were nicer.

js