Adios, Radio Exterior de Espaņa. :(

[RadioDiscountCabbage]

So today, around 00.23 Z, the English hosts at Radio Exterior de Espaņa's broadcast on 6.055 MHz delivered some sad news. They said nothing is official as of yet, but that in all likelihood, all Shortwave broadcasts are likely to get 86ed by the end of the year. This is of course a global trend, at least among western broadcasters. I was expecting that the English language broadcasts were on the way out, but this news is suprising even though it is in keeping with the current pattern.

In the meantime, stations like CRI, which had been planning to cut shortwave considerably, have noticed the trend and reversed course. Speaking as one of a dozen new hires from western countries whom they offered great salaries, benefits, housing, and advancement opportunities, I can say that China is quite serious about filling the void created by the western broadcasters with as many American and English accents as they can.

I am not saying that this means China is great and the West is bad. But western broadcasters need to realize that if they go silent, other voices will take their place on the airwaves. The more variety, the better. So I hope that CRI's coming expansion causes some people to wake up and smell the roses.

[glimmer twin]

They've been saying this for about three weeks now.

http://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,18061.0.html

[BoomboxDX]

Considering that one out of 5 humans is Chinese and that China will soon have the largest economy in the world, I suppose the fact that they may soon rule the Shortwaves is appropriate.

It's too bad that REE is going off the air. Maybe they will continue to stream their programming.

But that leads to an important question: who really listens to international SW broadcast stations on the internet once they go off the air?

Does anyone listen to the internet version of Radio Canada, for example?