Voice of America and Radio Marti shutdown.

[a727469]

Most major nations have a national presence on shortwave for a number of different reasons. VOA has always been a beacon of hope for many smaller nations with a message of freedom. I guess we no longer want to be that beacon of hope! So sad to see that VOA is silenced while China and Russia are still “banging away” out there!!! So much for the American message! RIP VOA you will be missed!

“Been” is the key word. It worked in the distant past but now, not so much.
VOA employs 2000+ people with a budget of almost 270 million according to their website. what for? To provide an almost obsolete form (shortwave) of information? To be “accurate, objective and comprehensive”? I doubt it.
Believe me, the American message can get out there without the VOA.. yes, RIP.
What measurable benefit have we directly received in the last 10 years or so? We should be putting our money into new technologies.

 

[T680]

Let's hope this works as well as when the Reaganites tried to silence public broadcasting.

 

[T680]

VOA and Radio Marti are not the free press and they are not broadcast to domestic US audiences.

Yet I can receive both of the here in the US. There's a large number of Cubans in Florida too, I would guess some of them listen to Radio Marti.

 

[a727469]

Let's hope this works as well as when the Reaganites tried to silence public broadcasting.

As far as PBS, I would question the need (same as VOA and MARTI). when there are so many choices available these days and we should not be forced to pay for something that is generally available elsewhere, and they are also funded in part by companies and listener donations which is fine, but then make that the source of revenue.
Just to be fair, except for the horrendous fundraising, there are many good programs on the TV side. Also, the radio classical music side is done very well.
Also, to be clear, this is not a political issue, but rather one of saving taxpayer money when something is duplicated and the taxpayer has little choice as to the programming or the funding. Not to mention the very high management salaries I have seen listed.
I know this is extreme but maybe they should take the example of WJIB and WJTO.💰🙂

Quirky and beloved, WJIB will live on in new hands after longtime owner’s death - The Boston Globe

Longtime Boston-area DJ John Garabedian has purchased the low-wattage Cambridge radio station, with plans to expand and go online.

www.bostonglobe.com

 

[Blackswan73]

VOA and Radio Marti are not the free press and they are not broadcast to domestic US audiences.

Actually, VOA was authorized for domestic broadcasts in 2013. But even 60 years ago their broadcasts were receivable in much of the US

 

[dlwtrunked]

WWV provides way more than time information. Frequency standards that are used to trace test equipment accuracy, time intervals, in the calibration world, NIST is a must.

There was an attempt to shut the NIST stations down years ago that failed. But today, every thing you list is better done with an under $200 GPSDO. But legacy equipment still needs WWVB on 60 kHz. If WWV/WWVH were converted to being used for propagation forecasting, they might have a more useful purpose.

 

[richardbritt]

I don't know if WWV and WWVH still put out hourly propagation reports, but they did for many years. I think WWV broadcast them at 14 minutes past the hour, and WWVH might have been at 46 minutes past the hour. I used to listen to the reports when I first became a ham in the mid 1970s. Hawaii was a bit harder to copy in Virginia Beach so I only heard it once or twice out of curiosity.

 

[sprman1955]

I don't know if WWV and WWVH still put out hourly propagation reports, but they did for many years. I think WWV broadcast them at 14 minutes past the hour, and WWVH might have been at 46 minutes past the hour. I used to listen to the reports when I first became a ham in the mid 1970s. Hawaii was a bit harder to copy in Virginia Beach so I only heard it once or twice out of curiosity.

They still do put out propagaion reports.

 

[EAFrizzle]

They have the DoD broadcasts as well.

 

[T680]

As far as PBS, I would question the need (same as VOA and MARTI). when there are so many choices available these days and we should not be forced to pay for something that is generally available elsewhere, and they are also funded in part by companies and listener donations which is fine, but then make that the source of revenue.
Just to be fair, except for the horrendous fundraising, there are many good programs on the TV side. Also, the radio classical music side is done very well.
Also, to be clear, this is not a political issue, but rather one of saving taxpayer money when something is duplicated and the taxpayer has little choice as to the programming or the funding. Not to mention the very high management salaries I have seen listed.
I know this is extreme but maybe they should take the example of WJIB and WJTO.💰🙂

Quirky and beloved, WJIB will live on in new hands after longtime owner’s death - The Boston Globe

Longtime Boston-area DJ John Garabedian has purchased the low-wattage Cambridge radio station, with plans to expand and go online.

www.bostonglobe.com

The idea for NPR and public television was the same as the BBC, it would provide objective news and educational programming nationwide to benefit the public. And this was before the Fairness Doctrine was repealed and stations were required to broadcast a balanced newscast as part of their regular programming. This was hard to do for some of the smaller stations before the overwhelming majority were owned by 6 companies that wanted the same material aired, and it ended to work pretty well. So well that a vocal minority sought to abolish these services after some of their activities were aired. But the public backlash was strong enough to prevent that and actually increased funding.
A well educated and informed public is harder to govern, and the funding for PBS has been declining for years to the point that most funding comes from individual and corporate contributions instead of of taxes and their programming has taken a noticable slant to favor the corporate donors. It's still better than most commercial stations though.

One of the reasons I bought a shortwave radio was to hear news incase the Internet went down. I'd seen a number of preppers recommend them online too, the common sense types who were wanting to prepare for storms and the radicals who were looking for more ammo for Grandpa's gun all recommended getting a radio to be ready for the next big storm/black helicopters/hordes of zombies. I was pretty disappointed to find that FM was still the place to go for news or AM for more local information information as the shortwave stations that I vaguely remembered broadcasting news to the world from my youth were either gone or broadcasting the religious and foreign language programs with a smattering of conspiracy shows that I can get on AM. After Hurricane Helene a few of the YouTube preppers mentioned how disappointed they were with shortwave too.

 

[mmckenna]

A well educated and informed public is harder to govern,

This.

One of the reasons why the USSR loved to jam broadcasts from the west. They liked (and they still do) that there was only one version of the news that was controlled by their dictator. Knowledge and competing points of view don't jive well with that flavor of leadership.

And it's why countries like North Korea block internet access.

Growing up and having a shortwave radio let me hear world news from other countries. That is educational. It opens your mind. It helps you see that there are many different points of view. It helps you see that there is, very often, more than one side to a story.

But we get that on the internet now, and some broadcast sources. Just as long as someone doesn't try to control it, or shut down news agencies that don't play the right version of the news. Or get journalists fired that don't toe the line provided by the dictator.

But that would never happen here….

 

[KE4ZNR]

This.

One of the reasons why the USSR loved to jam broadcasts from the west. They liked (and they still do) that there was only one version of the news that was controlled by their dictator. Knowledge and competing points of view don't jive well with that flavor of leadership.

And it's why countries like North Korea block internet access.

Growing up and having a shortwave radio let me hear world news from other countries. That is educational. It opens your mind. It helps you see that there are many different points of view. It helps you see that there is, very often, more than one side to a story.

But we get that on the internet now, and some broadcast sources. Just as long as someone doesn't try to control it, or shut down news agencies that don't play the right version of the news. Or get journalists fired that don't toe the line provided by the dictator.

But that would never happen here….

Krasnov doing his Russian masters bidding while his cult members cheer him on.....

 

[ditto1958]

I’m torn about this because although I want there to be a lot of SW broadcasting available, VOA has strayed from their original purpose of being a beacon for liberty. Like too many other institutions it has been taken over by leftists. Domestically, NPR is the same or worse. So left of center it’s embarrassing.

I don’t know if Americans’ tax dollars should be used for radio broadcasting at all today, but if the government does fund radio, it should be ideologically balanced.

 

[mmckenna]

I’m torn about this because although I want there to be a lot of SW broadcasting available, VOA has strayed from their original purpose of being a beacon for liberty. Like too many other institutions it has been taken over by leftists. Domestically, NPR is the same or worse. So left of center it’s embarrassing.

"Being a beacon for liberty" includes showing the value of a free country and a constitutional based structure. That includes freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Silencing a resource because it's not serving one political party does not jive with that. The information still exists, people will just find it another way. Internet access, print, or word of mouth, it's all still out there, and it can't be silenced by one country shutting down their transmitters. There's plenty of other free countries with shortwave transmitters that people will tune to. Unfortunately the USA just quit the race with a "DNF".

 

[WB5UOM]

World wide SW broadcasters...ie...state sponsored..Radio Cario, voice of Iraq, Hanoi Radio, Radio Teheran, and many others ,many who have gone
away ALWAYS had a different story/version/slant to any 6pm news here at home.
Most evident during that little skirmish referred to as the "Vietnam War"
So this is nothing new,been going on forever, but at 15 years old I loved staying up all night listening to all of it I could.
VOA and its cousins have been a propaganda tool forever
Yankkee doodle dandy.....

 

[T680]

I’m torn about this because although I want there to be a lot of SW broadcasting available, VOA has strayed from their original purpose of being a beacon for liberty. Like too many other institutions it has been taken over by leftists. Domestically, NPR is the same or worse. So left of center it’s embarrassing.

I don’t know if Americans’ tax dollars should be used for radio broadcasting at all today, but if the government does fund radio, it should be ideologically balanced.

I'm going to disagree with your last sentence. If tax dollars are going to pay for broadcasting anything it should be truthful. That could mean airing a variety of viewpoints as was required by law before the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, but the overall emphasis should be on presenting factual information. Pointing out the factual and ethical shortcomings of the variety of viewpoints presented would make things more interesting too and help increase both ratings and accountability. I think it would improve our government if leaders knew they'd be publicly ridiculed for presenting factually incorrect statements by the public instead of cheered by their base in whatever information silo they appeared on.

 

[T680]

World wide SW broadcasters...ie...state sponsored..Radio Cario, voice of Iraq, Hanoi Radio, Radio Teheran, and many others ,many who have gone
away ALWAYS had a different story/version/slant to any 6pm news here at home.
Most evident during that little skirmish referred to as the "Vietnam War"
So this is nothing new,been going on forever, but at 15 years old I loved staying up all night listening to all of it I could.
VOA and its cousins have been a propaganda tool forever
Yankkee doodle dandy.....

I haven't heard VOA for ages, but I don't doubt they pushed the ideology of Manifest Destiny and American Exceptionalism for at least part of their existence. And for the people living in areas where the state sanctioned media was all that was available it would give listeners another viewpoint much like reading a variety of newspapers back when newspapers were a dominant force without any physical evidence or browser history to worry about.

I used to listen to propaganda on AM radio for amusement too. I listened to one show for a while thinking it was satire before I realized it wasn't. I used to listen to this other guy that usually sounded like he was about to fly into a fit of rage too while I brushed my teeth at night. I figured I'd need to start worrying if he ever ran out of things to worry about, it made it easier to drift off to sleep knowing there were enough things left to keep him wound up.

 

[a727469]

I'm going to disagree with your last sentence. If tax dollars are going to pay for broadcasting anything it should be truthful. That could mean airing a variety of viewpoints as was required by law before the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, but the overall emphasis should be on presenting factual information. Pointing out the factual and ethical shortcomings of the variety of viewpoints presented would make things more interesting too and help increase both ratings and accountability. I think it would improve our government if leaders knew they'd be publicly ridiculed for presenting factually incorrect statements by the public instead of cheered by their base in whatever information silo they appeared on.

Who determines “truthful”? These days each group (left, right, center). defines what the truth is to them and tries to convince others. Yes, there should be a variety of viewpoints available but the government should not be the only source for the truth. It appears that each administration defines it differently.
As ditto1958 said, I prefer ideological balance and let the listener decide rather than a taxpayer funded resource telling me what they say is the “truth” . Unfortunately at this time, VOA and NPR have evolved from originally balanced to pretty much one sided and most of their listeners are of that persuasion. This would be fine if not tax payer funded since there are also many opposite sided commercial stations.
It’s funny but there would be no reason for this discussion if these were commercial non-tax supported stations😢🙂

 

[wbloss]

A short sighted move.

 

[mmckenna]

Yes, there should be a variety of viewpoints available but the government should not be the only source for the truth.

The idea behind the Free Press that we had, thanks to the constitution, was that the government had no role in deciding what the truth was. The press were the ones that were supposed to keep the government honest.

Where the government did well was funding resources like VOA that got the message about the freedoms we enjoyed to the rest of the world. Now the transmitters will be silenced and someone else will fill that role. Because no one could agree, others lost out. I really don't see it as a win for either side. It's more of a sad outcome due to disagreements.

It’s funny but there would be no reason for this discussion if these were commercial non-tax supported stations😢🙂

Well, there have been words said about silencing non-tax supported stations and journalists.
That's a real bad thing.

The role of shortwave has been mostly filled by other means. The areas that rely on shortwave transmissions are the ones with the least amount of infrastructure, and often the most in need of hearing the message that VOA broadcast. Our country lost one of the resources needed to reach those areas.