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« on: October 18, 2011, 1648 UTC »
Perhaps some of you know whether there has ever been a statistical survey of the kind of people that listen to shortwave radio in general and to pirates in particular. As an avid listener since my teens, I am painfully aware of how unaware the major part of the population (at least in any country I have lived in) is about shortwave radio altogether. Americans seem to be more savvy than most in this regard, while, at the opposite end of the scale, in some countries, such as my own, the radio culture is generally very poor and people are in the dark.
What I have noticed, however, is that among those who are into shortwave, they tend to be more individualistic and freedom-oriented types as compared to the rest of the population. Since I also count myself among that group, it would be easy for me to romanticise that we shortwave types are generally to my own way of thinking. Perhaps, I am only flattering myself...or maybe not.
Listening to WBCQ and other US shortwave stations, much of the content is either religious or else it is of a rather patriotic and/or libertarian slant and I am wondering if that is indicative of the SW listening public generally.
It would also be interesting to see if the personal interests, habits, hobbies etc of shortwave listeners differ from those of the public at large. On SW there are some programmes dealing with science, music history and sometimes some rather arcane topics which I do not hear often on mainstream media. Conversely, except for on the major international broadcasters, it is rare for me to hear programmes dealing with professional spectator sports, for instance.
Already, I can sense subjective a divide between myself and non-SW listeners. There are few places where I could make an allusion to Brother Stair or Harald Camping, or for that matter Timtron, and be understood. I am the only one I know who is a regular listener to Marion's Attic, and even in normal conversation, my base of life experience makes for completely different set of metaphors. For instance, I was speaking with a friend last week about how China is developing economically and I said "It is easy to listen to China Drive and be enamoured with that country, but in reality they still have a long way to go." He had no idea what I meant by "China Drive".
I guess there is something romantic in the idea of the SW radio culture being somewhat separate from the mainstream. I wonder if this phenomenon has been studied to any great extent. Furthermore, if the sort of moral, philosophical and political messages heard on SW are a case of breaking the mold or preaching to the choir.
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