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05/30/2002 Entry: "New York Times makes the point"

The New York Times agrees with us that web radio is not a panacea and makes an imperfect substitute for shortwave radio. Reporter Ian Austen mentions that when he travelled to France, the phones shut down when the hotel switchboards closed in the evening. He didn't make the mistake of not bringing a shortwave radio the next time he travelled. (Login and password required; Thanks John Figliozzi for pointing this article out.)

Replies: 4 Comments

The article below shows that the BBC received increased funding for shortwave. This means expansion of services to other continents except of course North America. http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/html/medianews.html

Posted by Mike @ 17 July 2002 1614 UTC

My wife and I found ourselves in Europe on Sept. 11, with no computer on a romantic vacation of course! Our hotel in Paris had CNN but thanks to my little Sony we had the more factual, less hysterical, calmly reassuring reporting of BBC WS in English. Shortwave is universal, cheap and reliable. BBC WS has given me a lifetime of gratitude and respect for the UK.

Posted by Mike Butts, Portland, Oregon USA @ 08 July 2002 2319 UTC

BBC News just discussed that the Compony EBONE who owns fiber optical cables may shut down today at 5:00 PM (in Europe) as they are broke leaving thousands of web customers without service! Another example of just how unstable web-casting can be. Shortwave still rules folks! Best regards, Randall Shreve Hooper, Utah

Posted by Randall Shreve @ 14 June 2002 1333 UTC

Here in Utah it is not all that uncommom to have large area power-outages, which means if traveling that Hotel phone systems go deader than nails. As I travel for my job, I always take along a portable short-wave receiver so to stay informed in world events. Besides, local news tends to be just that, local. While I am still able to receive the BBC via shortwave (5,975), I am no longer able to listen while driving, which was a wonderful way to stay informed. Sure hope that management at the BBC comes to realize that there is a heck of a lot of people out there with SW radios and the BBC shouldn't box themselves into the very limited platforms of Internet or satellite radio.

Posted by Randall Shreve @ 10 June 2002 2122 UTC