Hi there,

You might want to pick up a copy of the Passport to World Band Radio. The
2006 edition is out now, I think (someone correct me if I'm wrong here). You
can find it at Barnes & Noble or Amazon. It lists all kinds of shortwave
radio shows, many of which contain programs of special interest and music
from all over the world. There are a lot of news programs on shortwave, but
there is a lot of other interesting stuff too.

As far as cheapo shortwave radios that perform decently, check out the Degen
DE-1103 or Degen DE-1102 (a/k/a Kaito KA-1103 and Kaito KA-1102). You can
find these on eBay, and the seller with the best service and prices is
Liypn. Do an advanced search and check out his store, V-COM Collections.
These radios go for less than $50 each and Liypn is an excellent seller.

Of course, you could pay a lot more and get a lot better radio that would
allow you to hook up an outdoor antenna and pull in really exotic, faint
signals, but since you indicate you were looking for something cheap, I
recommend both of these radios for their price/performance ratio.

Good luck,

Jackie