By Nick Farrell
Monday 01 November 2004

One of the world's oldest radio stations is shutting its doors in favour of
a brand new multi-lingual website.

Swiss Radio International was founded in 1934. The short wave public radio
station was seen as a neutral voice in the middle of Europe during World War
II.
However, government funding for short wave broadcasts has plummeted since
the fall of the Iron Curtain and stations are being forced to compete first
with satellite television and now with the Internet.

The website, http://www.swissinfo.org/, is aimed primarily at providing news
and features about Switzerland in nine languages. It registers about eight
million hits a month, which is no small number.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=19391

I listened SRI frequently on shortwave. Will I bother to look them up
amidst the billions of websites on the internet? I doubt it.

Steve


"Mike Terry" wrote in message ...
By Nick Farrell
Monday 01 November 2004

One of the world's oldest radio stations is shutting its doors in favour of
a brand new multi-lingual website.

Swiss Radio International was founded in 1934. The short wave public radio
station was seen as a neutral voice in the middle of Europe during World War
II.
However, government funding for short wave broadcasts has plummeted since
the fall of the Iron Curtain and stations are being forced to compete first
with satellite television and now with the Internet.

The website, http://www.swissinfo.org/, is aimed primarily at providing news
and features about Switzerland in nine languages. It registers about eight
million hits a month, which is no small number.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=19391

It registers about eight million hits a month, which is no small number.

Hits are one thing. Listeners are another. I understand it takes lots of costly
bandwidth to provide for an economically viable Internet radio operation,
unless it's uplinked for satellite simulcasting, too, to encourage advertising.
Of course, if it's a government operation...

Bill in SE Texas