Re: BBC WS stops shortwave broadcasts to US

[hmglaz@webtv.net (Howard Glazer)]

David Moisan wrote:

>The BBC decided to do this and invent a
> BS answer afterwards, IMNSHO. 

>You'll probably still be able to pick up the
> Beeb on 5975 and 12095 on your little
> SW receiver.

I'd think that 5975 would be one of the frequencies eliminated. That and
6175 are the main BBC guns aimed at North American during our evening
hours. 12095, if I'm not mistaken, is never aimed our way and is most
reliable during the daytime. Daytime listeners can probably kiss 9515
goodbye, though.

The Beeb isn't the first to abandon SW to the US. Switzerland blew off
the West Coast in March, will do the same to the East Coast in October,
and will leave SW completely, in favor of the Internet, by 2004. 

As I see it, in these bottom-line-conscious times, SW has no hope.
Enormous power consumption; a widely scattered, unmeasurable audience,
many with no common denominator but possession of a shortwave radio; and
governments today have no overriding ideological message to convey
(China Radio International is a pale ghost of strident old Radio Peking;
and Moscow is selling air time to preachers, for goodness' sakes!).
What's the justification for any government to keep funding SW?

Howard