Doc Searls points to commentary on the demolition of an important shortwave broadcast facility on the coast of Catalonia.
As Doc points out, Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe are now available on the Web.
If you think that’s an adequate substitute, read my interview with Allen Pitts again. The Web, podcasting, mp3s, blah blah blah is all very well and good where there’s an infrastructure to support it. Like here in the developed world.
The rest of the world doesn’t have high speed bandwidth running right into their homes. And that’s where shortwave radio has always been the main source for the real news, not the news that governments like China or Sudan want their citizens to hear. With radio, all you need is a cheap receiver. It doesn’t need to cover the entire spectrum, only the ones that matter. And in most of the world, cheap radios are in far greater supply than cable modems.
Unfortunatly, by moving to the Web, RFE/RL is limiting it’s audience to people who will listen to it as a curiousity rather than those who really need it. Shortsighted, don’t you think?
