I think the reason why many international broadcasters are phasing out
their shortwave services is because they are catching on to the fact
that very few members of the public, aside from radio hobbyists, are
listening. It simply doesn't make financial sense for the governments
of these countries to continue pumping mega-money into these facilities
just so a radio hobbyist overseas can add another entry into their
logbooks. Most DX'ers could care less about the actual program content.
For them the fun is in capturing an elusive signal.
I realize there are still many places in the world that rely on SW due
to remote locations, local regulations, etc. Those places are the ones
the government SW broadcasters should focus on. In most urban areas in
most countries, local FM dominates the listening habits of the general
public. Here in the USA, in my neck of the woods, hardly anyone
listens to MW/AM any more. I remember a friend of mine being absolutely
astounded that my car radio could pick up WCBS-AM 880 in NYC. She
thought I had some kind of special supercharged radio. I would have
shown her how to get the BBC and really impressed her if I'd had my
shortwave reciever with me. But the BBC World Service is available on
local FM here, in stereo with no atmospheric interference, so why bother?
Like it or not, international shortwave broadcasting is slowly going
the way of the LP vinyl record. It is much more cost-effective to beam
programming overseas via satellite then rebroadcast it on local FM.
As broadband internet becomes more widely deployed, look for it to
become another similar medium.
Before you get out your flamethrowers, I want to state for the record
that I am an SW listener and I much prefer to use radios that glow in
the dark and get warm. But unfortunately we are in the minority there.
Watch for more international megawatt broadcasters to shut down as
this trend continues.

GTTyson