Re: [HCDX] BBC ends shortwave service in Europe

["Kai Willner" <kai.willner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

thanks to Zacharias for forwarding this sad piece of information. I used to
be a great fan of the BBC WS, which I discovered at the end of the 1980s
when I was 13 or 14 years old. My initial motivation for listening was to
improve my English, but soon I became I addicted to the programmes such as
"From our own correspondent", Alistair Cooke's "Letter from America", "the
interview", and so on.

In recent months I basically stopped listening as the service was no longer
available at all times on, you name it, SHORTWAVE.

"There comes a point where the shortwave audience in a given region
> becomes so small that spending money on it can no longer be justified,"
> the
> broadcaster said in a statement.
>

How do they measure their audience? Personally, although I am open to all
sorts of new technology, I only have internet at home since summer 2007. I
lived abroad for many years and was so little settled that I had neither
internet nor a satellite dish, and thus I really appreciated having the BBC
on shortwave. Now I can still get it via the internet, but only at my PC and
only when I haven't just shut the thing down...


> The quiet ending for the service was a contrast with its celebrated
> arrival.
> Seventy-five years ago, King George V helped promote the new technology
> from his small study in the British royal family's Norfolk retreat,
> Sandringham. In a speech written by the poet Rudyard Kipling, the king
> extolled radio as a way to reach out to men and women isolated by snow
> and sea.
>
> "Through one of the marvels of modern science, I am enabled this
> Christmas Day to speak to all my people throughout the empire," the king
> said.
>
>
> The abdication speech of Edward VIII was broadcast on shortwave, as was
> news of the Hindenburg airship's explosion and Hungarian Free Radio's last
> anguished call for aid as Russian tanks rumbled into Budapest.
>
> But modern modes of communication have been squeezing out shortwave
> services in Western countries, where programming is available on FM radio,
> on the Internet and on iPods with wireless connections.
>

I wish it were like this. I live in Munich, which has more than 1 million
inhabitants, but BBC WS is not available on FM, neither on terrestrial FM
nor on cable. And so far haven't found the courage to set up an ugly
satellite dish at my flat (probably one is only allowed to set it up where
it does not spoil the facade).



> "Europe is very developed and so is America," said Michael Gardner, a
> spokesman for BBC World Services. "Shortwave is not the best way of
> reaching those audiences there. They all have FM, AM stations close by.
> Some of them have satellites or they can pull it down on their TV screens
> and there are alternatives on line. There are lots of ways of interacting
> with
> the BBC."
>

OK. Shortwave is a sign of under-development.


> Simon Spanswick, chief executive of the Association of International
> Broadcasters in London, said that the move by the BBC "probably sounds
> the death knell for traditional analogue shortwave broadcasting in the
> developed world."



I agree. The BBC switching off its shortwave transmitters is gloomy.


>
>
> Shortwave transmissions remain an important media outlet in Africa and
> Asia, he noted. Since 2006, the BBC World Service shortwave audience has
> grown by 7 million people, or 7 percent, to 107 million - about 58 percent
> of
> the BBC's total radio audience.
>
> But in developed countries, Spanswick added, "nobody really uses
> shortwave radio any more to listen to content produced on a big scale."


A counter example:

My wife, who is South American, listens to the Spanish service of Radio
Exterior de Espana (Madrid) every morning. REE still provides excellent
coverage via shortwave, and we really enjoy their broadcasts. Of course I
already checked how I might receive REE via satellite, just to be prepared.
Not surprisingly, REE and BBC WS use different satellites...So will need 2
dishes.


>
> All of the world's largest international broadcasters, based in the United
> States, France, Germany, England and the Netherlands, are cutting back on
> shortwave or reviewing the deployment of their resources.
>
> Andy Sennit, a media specialist with the Dutch public broadcaster, Radio
> Netherlands Worldwide, said that he got his start 30 years ago working on
> BBC shortwave broadcasts and had mixed feelings about the end of the
> transmissions.
>
> "For die-hard shortwave listeners, this is negative," he said. "What they
> don't
> understand is the huge cost of powering transmitters. The cost of diesel
> fuel
> has doubled."


To my understanding, the true aim is to transfer the cost to the listener
(energy for a computer, money for new equipment). Does anyone on this
mailing list has estimated energy consumption for internet broadcasting? My
estimate goes as follows:

Shortwave for Europe: 500 kW transmitting power plus neglible power consumed
by transistor receivers, makes a total of 500 kW

Internet: 0 W transmitting power plus 5000 listeners times 100 W for each PC
gives a total of: 500 kW. Probably there are even more than 5000 listeners
at a time.

Conclusion: total energy consumption could be of the same order for
shortwave and internet broadcasting.

Regards,
Kai

Munich, Germany
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