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KA9LCF > NEWS 17.06.12 06:03l 64 Lines 2480 Bytes #999 (0) @ ALLIN
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Subj: ARN: That Final Item
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From: KA9LCF@KA9LCF.#NEIN.IN.USA.NOAM
To : NEWS@ALLIN
THAT FINAL ITEM: SHORTWAVE NEWS: WASHINGTON DC GATHERING
FINDS NEW INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING INITIATIVES
And finally this week, a large number of the presentations
at the recent National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters
meeting centered on the idea how shortwave radio can find a
place in the 21st century. Amateur Radio Newsline's Heather
Butera-Howell, KB3TZD, has the details:
--
Dismissed by some as a relic of the Cold War era
disappearing under the shadow of emerging digital
communications, many of the conference's speakers argued
that the answer to shortwave's future may reside in
providing service to areas of the world with little electric
power. Also, that it remains an effective means of relaying
information to citizens of countries with repressive
regimes. It was noted that because shortwave radio is harder
to interrupt than the Internet, Radio Free Asia, the
conference host, broadcasts to the highly censored areas
like North Korea.
Presenting the results of a study on which audiences were
tuning into shortwave across the globe was Dr. Kim Andrew
Elliott. Elliott is an audience research specialist. He
pointed out that in countries like Nigeria and Zimbabwe,
people tended to own more radios than televisions.
According to Elliott. 32% of those surveyed face to face in
the impoverished, politically tumultuous nation of Zimbabwe
said that they own shortwave radios,
Another presenter was Thomas Witherspoon, who founded Ears
to Our World. This is a U-S based non-profit organization
that supplies shortwave radios to developing, conflict-
riddled nations like South Sudan. Witherspoon said he is
skeptical when people dismiss shortwave radio's future on
premises like the Internet is everywhere.
Witherspoon says that we can look at the reasons why radio
is on the decline, or instead the ways we can invest in
shortwave radio and why we should do that. He says that it's
affordable, and broadcasters are doing it pretty
efficiently.
One of the conference's attendees was Shahnaz Ghavami of the
United States FCC. She said that after that after spending
the day with the international broadcasters it makes you
think about shortwave as something new.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Heater Butera-Howell,
KB3TZD, in Berwick, Pennsylvania.
--
The National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters meeting
was held May 10th and 11th in Washington, D.C. (RW, B&C,
others)
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