On 7 Feb 2006 07:53:54 -0800, "John S." wrote:


adam214 wrote:
Do you think that SW will become irrelevant and just a platform for
political extremists and fundies?

Shortwave is but one of many media used by governments, commercial
broadcasters, religious groups, political groups, private individuals
and others to get information out to their respective audiences.
Shortwave is gradually being abandoned by government and commercial
broadcasters because there are more effective, reliable and less costly
ways of getting the message out to the intended audience.

I don't know whether the question of whether broadcasting on shortwave
is relevant or not because you have to define who it is relevant to. I
think it is safe to say that listening to news and music on shortwave
is less popular than it once was for many listeners given the limited
number of shortwave radios that are produced today.

This topic has come up several times before. I remember one fellow
from south america who was directly involved in commercial
broadcasting. He indicated rebroadcast signals on MW, FM and
increasingly internet were far more reliable and reached a larger
audience more consistently than sending signals by shortwave. He got
into a long winded argument with some dxers about what those decisions
meant for the hobby. His comments were essentially that broadcasts
(all media) are targeted at listeners and not collectors of QSL cards.

Fewer radios are built because there are fewer listeners. The only
people in North America who buy SWBC receivers are hobbyists and
religious fanatics. News junkies have moved on to the internets,
satellite radio and the overnight BBC on Public Radio.