Opinions

In the exciting age of podcasts, video-on-demand, internet radio and a multitude of hand held devices that integrate numerous functions including cameras, music players and even car keys, is there really a future for the traditional, fairly low sound quality shortwave radio?

Most major international public broadcasters have announced reductions in shortwave broadcast hours over recent years. Industry experts are quick to make bold predictions about its usefulness for today’s technologically sophisticated broadcasters, leaving it in the hands of a few enthusiastic hobbyists. If you believe the headlines then it would be easy to assume that it has already been given the last rites and is all set to become a fond memory in the museum of international broadcasting.

To arrive at this conclusion is, I believe, an oversimplified and naive mistake.

Since 11 March 1927 when PCJ broadcast from the Netherlands to Indonesia, the ability to broadcast into a country thousands of miles away became a reality. This lead to many organisations producing programmes to go on air in multiple languages, all around the world.

For whatever reason; political, educational, religious or ideological, there was a way of reaching an audience many thousands of miles away, sometimes in an area where such content would be censored.  And from the audience perspective, shortwave sets became readily available, relatively affordable and easy to use. Today there are literally billions of shortwave receivers all round the world.

The main problem with shortwave is the audio quality. Even under ideal conditions most would agree that shortwave doesn’t sound as clear as domestic stations, and cannot compare to an FM signal in terms of quality. Additionally, ‘ideal broadcast conditions’ are also a rarity. Interference can come from various sources (atmospheric disturbances, electrical interference from domestic appliances such as TV sets) and the need to change frequency at certain times of the day and, or season means that audiences need a certain level of technical understanding in order to receive a signal.

So, in some parts of the world such as North America or Western Europe, shortwave gradually lost out to higher quality, easily accessible ways of listening (and indeed, viewing). FM networks, internet, direct-to-home, satellite, mobile phones to name but a few have all become available platforms, meaning international broadcasters have had to make choices about the most effective ways to reach their audiences. Not surprisingly in a world of limited budgets, shortwave broadcast services were reduced and largely stopped to these parts of the world.

However, the rest of the world faces different challenges to these developed countries. Some of the newer technologies have grown at different rates in other parts of the world. For instance, some parts of Africa have sophisticated mobile phone networks and handsets easily available, and others don’t. It is all so easy to generalise, but the reality is that within many Indian and Asian countries there is an enormous range of ways that audiences can receive their programmes from abroad.

And here’s my point. Short wave broadcasting still accounts for a huge proportion of international audiences globally. I am forever reading articles about the imminent end of shortwave, but the facts just don’t support these claims.   Recently published figures by the BBC World Service reveal that of its 182 million audience, 105 million are short wave listeners.

Short wave has an important role to play complementing all the newer technologies. Different platforms should not be seen as competing with one another for audience. It’s about making sure your programming is available on the most appropriate platform that is accessible by your audience at the right time.  Broadcasters can simply offer audiences the same content on a range of complimentary platforms.

So today the job of the broadcaster has gone beyond making compelling content for its audience. The audience has more choice and is more sophisticated in how it accesses content. It is no longer realistic to think of one country as a ‘target audience’, as that audience is segmented into multiple groups, all with different interests and different ways of accessing or receiving the programmes. 18-24 year olds may have different interests to 50-60 year olds. People in a city may have access to computers, whereas people in a rural village won’t. Some people listen whilst on the move, some don’t. The permutations are endless and continually changing.  Changes to political regimes in a country can mean that access to key communications and broadcast infrastructure, such as FM or mobile networks can be blocked quickly. Sometimes the infrastructure is destroyed, either deliberately or through natural disasters such as flooding or earthquakes.

This is why it is important to consider the range of technologies that are available at any one point in time, in order for the broadcaster to reach their target audience. At the Deutsche Welle’s Global Media Forum in Bonn, Germany earlier this year,  Babcock launched a new combination of capabilities to enable broadcasters to re-establish communications inside areas struck by a disaster. From the ability to get short wave messages into the area within 24 hours, to providing temporary on the ground production, communication and local broadcasting facilities as soon as access is possible, right through to providing mobile platforms or permanent infrastructure as re-building begins. These solutions ensure that the link between the broadcaster and their audience is available whatever the conditions or circumstances.

With a 75 year heritage in international broadcasting, Babcock understand the importance of shortwave and we remain committed to its future, continually investing in equipment and resources to ensure the longevity of the platform. We were delighted to have sponsored the recent joint HFCC/ABU/ASBU co-ordination conference earlier this year in Kuala Lumpur.  The group co-ordinates transmission schedules of about 60 organisations from more than 30 countries. They represent about 75 to 80 percent of the global output of shortwave broadcasting. It is important to keep the industry traditions and policies that have worked so well over the years going, as well as investing in new resources so that shortwave continues to be available to play a major role in years to come, both in the analogue and the exciting world that DRM will open up to broadcasters around the world.

However, at Babcock we also recognise and welcome the exciting opportunities that newer technologies offer for broadcasters in their challenge to build closer and better relationships with their audience. That is why we have invested nearly £2.5M pounds in a state-of-the-art Global Media Network and Media Management Centre, so the broadcaster can take advantage of these multiple delivery platforms, without having to invest heavily in the new technology and resources to operate.

We believe that these newer technologies and services all have their part to play in the challenge to reach ever changing audiences across the globe, which is why we are able to offer a ‘one stop shop’ for the broadcaster from traditional to new and emerging technologies. And in answer to the original question – although its role may have changed over the years, at Babcock we absolutely believe shortwave belongs in the 21st Century!