BBC Shortwave A06
 

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 11:08:57 -0800, running dogg wrote:


How much do you pay for XM and Sirius? Isn't it something like
$15-20/mo, in addition to a receiver that costs a few hundred bucks? Why
should I pay $200 or so a year just to get the BBCWS, when I can buy a
$50 Degen and listen to it without subscription costs? Even if I have to
listen to it from the Asian stream, I still save money. Not all of us
have gobs of cash. Even Ace, who has gobs of cash, prefers to spend his
money in more productive ways than giving it to XM and Sirius. XM and
Sirius are mostly music, 12 channels each of every variant of every type
of music you can imagine. I don't listen to much music, and 12 channels
of right wing talk doesn't appeal to me, so I'd be paying money to
listen to something I can get for free with a $50 radio. I suppose David
Rickets likes throwing money away. I can't afford to.

The radios start at $50 (or less, even). The initial subscription is
$13 a month (about the cost of one compact disc, which you will tire
of in a few hours).

I used to listen to the Singapore relay from around 3:30 AM until
around 7:30 AM (Pacific Time). Other than that, there's no BBC left
out here. On the satellite it's alway there, noise free, and I can
concentrate on the content.

BBC Shortwave A06
 

running dogg wrote:

dxAce wrote:



running dogg wrote:

David wrote:

On Sat, 25 Mar 2006 17:50:59 -0500, dxAce
wrote:


XM 131 24/7

Sirius 141 24/7


How much do you pay for XM and Sirius? Isn't it something like
$15-20/mo, in addition to a receiver that costs a few hundred bucks? Why
should I pay $200 or so a year just to get the BBCWS, when I can buy a
$50 Degen and listen to it without subscription costs? Even if I have to
listen to it from the Asian stream, I still save money. Not all of us
have gobs of cash. Even Ace, who has gobs of cash, prefers to spend his
money in more productive ways than giving it to XM and Sirius. XM and
Sirius are mostly music, 12 channels each of every variant of every type
of music you can imagine. I don't listen to much music, and 12 channels
of right wing talk doesn't appeal to me, so I'd be paying money to
listen to something I can get for free with a $50 radio. I suppose David
Rickets likes throwing money away. I can't afford to.

Gobs of cash?

How else can you afford to sit and listen to your radio all day, every
day?

I'm retired, at least for the time being!

dxAce
Michigan
USA

BBC Shortwave A06
 

David Eduardo wrote:


"running dogg" wrote in message
...

Ah. You see, the VOA was (was, since it in effect doesn't exist anymore)
run by an agency of the US govt, USAID I think.

USAID is the US Agency for International Development. t helps farmers get
better crops, etc. The USIS, US Information Service, is what you are
thinking of.

VOA very much exists. It just is reducing its usage of SW and increasing in
other bands and media.

In most countries, the
national broadcaster is a govt agency. Since the BBC is not controlled
by the UK govt, the BBC can make all sorts of screwy decisions and
nobody can tell them no.

The BBC is a government chartered orgainzation, and financed by government
taxes.

(In contrast, the screwy decisions made at the
VOA were done by presidential appointees. The President and Congress
could have decided to hire new people to run the place.) So the BBC
slashes the WS, they slash domestic programming, they make a lot of
people upset, and nobody can rein them in. At least the big corporate
broadcasters in the US (NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, Time Warner (who runs the WB
network), Paramount Pictures (UPN)) have majority stockholders and
boards of directors who can fire the CEO if he ****s up.

What has been screwed up at the VOA? They are simply moving into the new
centrury.

Basically, they're focusing WAY too much on music services and not
enough on news, information, and the American way of life. The Russians
liked VOA because it gave them information about the outside world. VOA
today plays rap music. Most *Americans* don't like Eminem. I can only
imagine what the Muslims think of it.

BBC Shortwave A06
 

David wrote:

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 11:08:57 -0800, running dogg wrote:


How much do you pay for XM and Sirius? Isn't it something like
$15-20/mo, in addition to a receiver that costs a few hundred bucks? Why
should I pay $200 or so a year just to get the BBCWS, when I can buy a
$50 Degen and listen to it without subscription costs? Even if I have to
listen to it from the Asian stream, I still save money. Not all of us
have gobs of cash. Even Ace, who has gobs of cash, prefers to spend his
money in more productive ways than giving it to XM and Sirius. XM and
Sirius are mostly music, 12 channels each of every variant of every type
of music you can imagine. I don't listen to much music, and 12 channels
of right wing talk doesn't appeal to me, so I'd be paying money to
listen to something I can get for free with a $50 radio. I suppose David
Rickets likes throwing money away. I can't afford to.

The radios start at $50 (or less, even). The initial subscription is
$13 a month (about the cost of one compact disc, which you will tire
of in a few hours).

Let's see, that's $156 a year to get one radio station.

I used to listen to the Singapore relay from around 3:30 AM until
around 7:30 AM (Pacific Time). Other than that, there's no BBC left
out here. On the satellite it's alway there, noise free, and I can
concentrate on the content.


I understand that you live in the Santa Clarita Valley. IIRC, that place
is horrible for radio reception. LA FM stations have to put up repeaters
to be heard there, and it's just a hop skip and jump away from downtown
LA. (OK, that's 2 hours in LA traffic, but I'm talking air distance.)
The mountains block virtually all radio signals. Try using your car
radio when going through Tejon Canyon sometime. It's DEAD. In your case,
satellite radio WOULD be a necessity. I can usually hear the Beeb's
Asian service for a few hours in the afternoon on the 15 Mhz band,
although I haven't tried it recently. I will have to see if the signal
lasts until The World Today comes on at 0300.

BBC Shortwave A06
 

"running dogg" wrote in message
. ..
David Eduardo wrote:

What has been screwed up at the VOA? They are simply moving into the new
centrury.

Basically, they're focusing WAY too much on music services and not
enough on news, information, and the American way of life.

If you want to reach youth before their minds are made up, usinga
music-based setting is the only way. The VOA music formats, such as Sawa,
have plenty of news and commentary and US information, but are based on the
appeal of US music around the world. Talk programming will only reach people
who already favor the US point of view and will not reach younger people and
will not sway those over 35 or so who listen to talk programming.

The Russians
liked VOA because it gave them information about the outside world. VOA
today plays rap music. Most *Americans* don't like Eminem. I can only
imagine what the Muslims think of it.

Most Americans under 25 or 30 do like hip hop and US pop music. And the rest
of the world adores it.

BBC Shortwave A06
 

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 15:17:08 -0800, running dogg wrote:



Basically, they're focusing WAY too much on music services and not
enough on news, information, and the American way of life. The Russians
liked VOA because it gave them information about the outside world. VOA
today plays rap music. Most *Americans* don't like Eminem. I can only
imagine what the Muslims think of it.

What do ''most Americans'' like, if not Eminem?

BBC Shortwave A06
 

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 15:25:35 -0800, running dogg wrote:



Let's see, that's $156 a year to get one radio station.

I understand that you live in the Santa Clarita Valley. IIRC, that place
is horrible for radio reception. LA FM stations have to put up repeaters
to be heard there, and it's just a hop skip and jump away from downtown
LA. (OK, that's 2 hours in LA traffic, but I'm talking air distance.)
The mountains block virtually all radio signals. Try using your car
radio when going through Tejon Canyon sometime. It's DEAD. In your case,
satellite radio WOULD be a necessity. I can usually hear the Beeb's
Asian service for a few hours in the afternoon on the 15 Mhz band,
although I haven't tried it recently. I will have to see if the signal
lasts until The World Today comes on at 0300.

Nobody puts translators here. I can get a few stations in HD.

The BBC in the car?

BBC Shortwave A06
 

David wrote:

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 15:25:35 -0800, running dogg wrote:



Let's see, that's $156 a year to get one radio station.

I understand that you live in the Santa Clarita Valley. IIRC, that place
is horrible for radio reception. LA FM stations have to put up repeaters
to be heard there, and it's just a hop skip and jump away from downtown
LA. (OK, that's 2 hours in LA traffic, but I'm talking air distance.)
The mountains block virtually all radio signals. Try using your car
radio when going through Tejon Canyon sometime. It's DEAD. In your case,
satellite radio WOULD be a necessity. I can usually hear the Beeb's
Asian service for a few hours in the afternoon on the 15 Mhz band,
although I haven't tried it recently. I will have to see if the signal
lasts until The World Today comes on at 0300.

Nobody puts translators here. I can get a few stations in HD.

The BBC in the car?


I was not clear. My apologies. I was noting that AM/FM signals are
blocked in the canyons of the Tehachapis, and that it's likely (although
I haven't tried it) that SW signals are as well.

BBC Shortwave A06
 

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 18:07:26 -0800, running dogg wrote:

David wrote:

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 15:25:35 -0800, running dogg wrote:



Let's see, that's $156 a year to get one radio station.

I understand that you live in the Santa Clarita Valley. IIRC, that place
is horrible for radio reception. LA FM stations have to put up repeaters
to be heard there, and it's just a hop skip and jump away from downtown
LA. (OK, that's 2 hours in LA traffic, but I'm talking air distance.)
The mountains block virtually all radio signals. Try using your car
radio when going through Tejon Canyon sometime. It's DEAD. In your case,
satellite radio WOULD be a necessity. I can usually hear the Beeb's
Asian service for a few hours in the afternoon on the 15 Mhz band,
although I haven't tried it recently. I will have to see if the signal
lasts until The World Today comes on at 0300.

Nobody puts translators here. I can get a few stations in HD.

The BBC in the car?


I was not clear. My apologies. I was noting that AM/FM signals are
blocked in the canyons of the Tehachapis, and that it's likely (although
I haven't tried it) that SW signals are as well.

No. Not at all. I can get all kinds of Asian stations. But I don't
speak Asian.

BBC Shortwave A06
 

"David Eduardo" wrote in message
. com...



The BBC is a government chartered orgainzation, and financed by government
taxes.

It is financed by the TV licence fee, not Govt taxes.


--
Simon Mason
http://www.simonmason.karoo.net