Shortwave

From RationalWiki

Shortwave is part of the radio spectrum, and lies (roughly) above the AM band and below the lower reaches of the television frequencies.

There's good and there's bad.

[edit] The good

Shortwave radio was traditionally the best means by which you could hear news and interesting radio programming from around the world. Many countries' governments ran their own shortwave stations and some, like the BBC, Radio Canada, and Radio Netherlands were highly respected. In some times and places, shortwave was the only place you could get unbiased news from across the border. For example, international shortwave broadcasting really took off during World War II, when people living in Axis countries who wanted news not censored by their governments tuned in to shortwave broadcasts from neutral or Allied countries, in some cases risking criminal prosecution for doing so (but it should be noted the shortwave broadcasts from Allied countries also smacked of propaganda). Axis countries responded by jamming shortwave radio broadcasts from Allied countries. During the Cold War, shortwave became a hotbed of international intrigue, with broadcasts from Warsaw Pact countries competing with the likes of the Voice of America and BBC for international audiences, ideological rants from countries with radical governments not aligned with either side in the cold war like Libya and Albania, and spy transmissions and maritime activity taking up some of the shortwave spectrum as well, which always made for interesting listening.

Sadly, since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of teh Internets, these aspects of shortwave have fallen into disuse and much of the shortwave bands have become a quaint bore.

[edit] The bad

What happened after the Berlin Wall fell? It went something like this: Cold War competition in propaganda pretty much ceased, as did most of the spy transmissions although a few can still be heard (most of them apparently related to Cuba, a country still living in the Cold War with no Internet access to speak of). Satellites and later teh Internets replaced most of the maritime and utility transmissions. After the rise of streaming audio over the Internet, broadcasters like the BBC, Radio Canada, the Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, and many other respected international broadcasters severely curtailed their shortwave broadcasts, and all but eliminated their broadcasts directed at Europe and North America.

At the same time, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in their infinite wisdom decided to open the floodgates to privately owned U.S. religious broadcasters, starting sometime in the middle 1980s. By 1992 a few of these broadcasters figured out they could make money by selling airtime to assorted kooks and freaks, and the shortwave bands became cluttered with the likes of "God's end-times prophet" "Brother" R.G. Stair, "Pastor" Peter J. Peters, an openly neo-Nazi program produced by the National Alliance, infomercials trying to get you to put your life savings in gold bullion or canned food, Hal Turner, and more recently an assortment of 9/11 truthers like Joyce Riley and Alex Jones. The main culprit in selling airtime to these fringe kooks and nutburgers in the early 1990s was originally WWCR in Nashville, Tennessee, but after other stations (like for example WINB in Red Lion, Pennsylvania and WRNO in New Orleans, Louisiana) noted WWCR's success in becoming an open forum for the lunatic fringe, they started selling airtime to them as well. Eventually stations were started (e.g. WWRB, "World Wide Religious Broadcasters") with the sole intent of selling airtime to the radical right.

One of those broadcasters buying shortwave airtime, Chuck Harder out of Florida, actually had an interesting program and was usually politically dead-on (at least if you agree with economic protectionism, buying U.S. made products, and opposition to globalization, enjoy hearing Ralph Nader as a frequent guest, like railroads, and mourn the passing of Elgin pocket watches). Unfortunately given the shortwave milieu he was operating in he got lumped in with the nutters by certain people. He didn't help matters much by having the occasional wingnut as guest on his show. Equally unfortunately, his show is all but defunct and no longer heard on shortwave.

To cut a long story short, tuning through the shortwave bands no longer yields interesting and intelligent broadcasts from the BBC or Radio Canada, or international intrigue. Instead it is a frustrating experience tuning across the dial and finding little more than extremist religious and political nutters from the United States.

[edit] The good, or what's left of it today

The good is there are still some interesting international broadcasts to be heard. Radio Netherlands is about the only western country which hasn't discontinued its English language shortwave broadcasts to Europe and North America, and as it is one of the most highly respected is well worth the listen. Otherwise, Eastern European countries like the Czech Republic and Asian countries like Japan are still broadcasting to Europe and North America, and if you want a flashback to the glory days of the Cold War, Cuba and North Korea are still broadcasting and still sound much as they did 25 years ago. All worth a listen.

And WWV in Colorado rawks and will give you teh bends if you listen to it for more than 10 minutes. Better than Metal Machine Music!

Just beware the nutters broadcasting from the U.S.