From Shortwave to New Wave

From 1932 until long after the sun set on the British empire, the BBC World Service--with its sonorous and reassuring “This is London” at the top of each hour--was heard around the globe via shortwave radio.

June 30 will bring the end of that era in North America when the grand dame of international broadcasting shuts down its shortwave transmitters serving the United States and Canada as well as vast areas of the Pacific. Instead, the venerable broadcaster will distribute its 24-hour service online.

“What we are not doing is saying shortwave is dead,” said Jerry Timmins, head of the Americas region for the BBC World Service. “The vast majority of our listeners still access us on shortwave. But a shift is happening, no question about it.”

Shortwave radio--the once ubiquitous voice of colonial empire, international intrigue and Cold War propaganda--is falling victim to the rise of the Internet, a medium that’s cheaper to run and often more convenient for listeners.

The BBC follows the Voice of America, which already has ended its shortwave broadcasts to the once-pivotal ideological battleground of Central Europe. Smaller operations have made even more drastic cuts. Swiss Radio International has dropped 80% of shortwave programming in favor of the Internet.

In an age of instant satellite broadcasts and international jet travel, the fading of shortwave marks the passing of a romantic time when a faint and tinny voice might serve as the only link to a home half a world away.

When the BBC began broadcasting what was originally called the Empire Service, it was the first live voice many listeners heard from a distant land. During World War II, Allied broadcasts offered hope to occupied Europe. Today, it remains a vital link to the outside world for countries isolated geographically, economically or ideologically.

But shortwave is expensive to operate. Swiss Radio International, for instance, spent more than a third of its $20-million annual budget leasing transmitters in South America. And in many developed and developing countries, more people have computers than shortwave radios. For shortwave broadcasters making the leap to the Internet, it’s common sense--and survival.

In the last year, the number of people accessing the World Service online doubled, according to a BBC study, helping the service reach an all-time high of 153 million weekly listeners. The Voice of America Web site includes not only continuous streaming of its broadcasts, but also video of its announcers.

But online radio comes with its own set of problems. Although newer computers running the latest software can handle streaming signals fairly easily, machines just a couple of years old can be difficult to configure. Also, unlike portable shortwave radios, home computers are generally tied to telephone or cable lines--making it tough to listen to a broadcast in the kitchen.

And the model is practical only in places such as the U.S. where Internet access is cheap and reliable. In many countries--even developed nations--unlimited service for a flat monthly fee is unavailable.

Shortwave broadcasters are increasingly partnering with foreign FM and AM stations to pick up their feeds, but this rebroadcast distribution is spotty. For example, the BBC is heard via satellite on numerous public radio stations in the United States including, locally, KCSN-FM (88.5) in Northridge and KPCC-FM (89.3) in Pasadena. But neither of these stations gives the proud BBC anything like prime time--both program it in the after-midnight hours.

On the Internet, however, the World Service is always there, live and ready to be accessed by anyone with a fairly new home computer and the free software needed to run streaming audio. Most shortwave sites also feature an extensive audio-on-demand archive of programs. The BBC even makes its most recent top-of-the-hour news broadcast accessible any time that hour.

On-air announcements of the BBC shortwave cutbacks are scheduled to begin this month, Timmins said, and they are not likely to be received kindly by stalwart listeners. “The World Service generates enormous loyalty,” Timmins said. In 1996, when cost-cutting British officials proposed internal changes in the service, protests were voiced by such luminaries as Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama.

Shortwave radio grew in popularity in the 1930s because it could cover a much wider area than AM or FM signals. By bouncing signals off Earth’s ionosphere, shortwave broadcasters were able to beam their messages farther.

If a day can be pinpointed when the mystique of shortwave began to die, it was July 10, 1962, when Telstar, the first communications satellite, relayed a broadcast to France. In the following years, high-quality radio and television broadcasts from far reaches of the globe became common. Satellites also made telephone communications more efficient and cheaper.

These relayed broadcasts were not only of far better quality, they were much more dependable and did not have to rely on dizzying schedules of frequency shifts tailored to changes in ionospheric conditions.

Internet broadcasting is cheaper and simpler still, and offers users considerably more flexibility in when they want to hear certain programs.

Nonetheless, some shortwave broadcasters--especially those that don’t specifically target the United States, where shortwave has not been a popular medium for decades--have assured listeners they will maintain their broadcast schedule, even while bolstering their online services.

“We have no plans to cut back on shortwave,” said Peter Verschoor, head of Radio Netherlands’ online service. “Radio Netherlands serves certain areas, like Indonesia, where there are many people who do not have Internet connections. For them, we provide basic communication about the world.”

Radio Australia, which primarily aims its shortwave broadcasts toward the Asian Pacific, is in a similar situation. “In the United States you are used to getting onto the Internet for as long as you want,” said Jean-Gabriel Manguy, head of RA. “But in many other countries you pay by the minutes and seconds. It makes it very expensive.

“In a place like Fiji, you pay for an international phone call just to log on. No one is going to listen to streaming audio there for long.” Nonetheless, RA streams online continuously, not only in English, but also in Chinese, Indonesian and Tok Pisin, which is spoken in Papua New Guinea.

Deutsche Welle Radio of Germany streams in all 31 of its broadcast languages, including Sanskrit, an ancient language of India now largely unused. But DW is not contemplating a shortwave cutback. “Shortwave would probably not be the best way to reach an audience in the U.S., but for much of the rest of the world it makes sense,” said Holger Hank of DW.

The savings of online distribution are formidable. Before its cutbacks, Swiss Radio International spent $7 million just to lease and use transmitters to target South America.

“We have cut out all our Spanish and Portuguese programs,” said Peter Hufschmid, director of multimedia at SRI. Within two or three years, the service will also phase out German, French and Italian, even though they are the official languages of Switzerland.

“The only language we are keeping is English,” said Hufschmid. “The political interest of Switzerland is strongly geared to North America. That might be why English is so important to the politicians in this country who give us the money to fund the service.”

In Central Europe, the Voice of America is primarily distributing to partner stations via satellite. But the VOA has also begun posting its programming in Polish, Hungarian, Czech and other languages to its site in MP3 format, which provides better audio quality.

“I’m convinced we have more listeners in those languages now,” said VOA director Sanford Ungar. And so shortwave will hold on at least for the foreseeable future. But its days as a major medium for state-owned international broadcasters probably are numbered. Ungar feels no nostalgia in the face of its probable passing.

“I think that if the signal is clearer and easier to tune in, that’s progress, whether it’s on a radio station or a Web site,” he said. “Maybe there are some people who think it’s romantic to have trouble hearing the radio, but not me.”