Today is Thanksgiving Day in the US, my favorite holiday of the year. This day gives us a chance to pause, give thanks, and feel gratitude–for our friends, family, and life. Despite congested roads and airports as folks make the homeward journey, Thanksgiving is a peaceful day, unencumbered by all the commercial baggage that comes along with so many other holidays.
When I mention to non-radio-geek friends and family that I run a website devoted to shortwave radio, they often respond by asking somewhat skeptically, “So, do you have many readers?” Indeed, last night, as I talked with my family, a family member kindly inquired again how many visitors now come to my website. And again I hesitated to answer, as it’s been many months since I’ve opened the full spectrum of web analytics.
For the first time in several months, I took a look at our web statistics…and was amazed.
I remember, a few years ago, when I was surprised and honored when I had over 200 daily pageviews on my site. It was amazing to think that, in a 24 hour period of time, 200 pages of content had been read; thus, how many SWLers must be aspiring to, or enjoying, the hobby–! Over the past few years, that number has grown by leaps and bounds: last night, I found that this site now averages about 172,000 pageviews per month, or 5,700 per day…Wow.
Along with these increased numbers has come increased interactivity–your comments, messages, and guest posts give this site remarkable depth and broaden the scope far beyond my blog posts and reviews. In other words, it’s your participation that makes this site what it is. Our 39,441 users give the SWLing Post a real sense of community. I’ve met so many friends through this site, and this adds a dimension to what could otherwise be a rather solitary hobby. Radio listeners, you’re quite a club.
Thanks!
So I’d like to thank each and every one of you, personally, for being a part of this shortwave radio community. I’d like to wish my best to those of you celebrating Thanksgiving today. And if you’re not celebrating Thanksgiving, let’s still raise a glass together anyway, okay? Cheers!
To set the mood, here is a little nostalgia: a Thanksgiving recording from 70 years ago: an old time radio recording of Command Performance broadcast on Thanksgiving Day, 1944. This is the sort of thing I turn to on Thanksgiving. Enjoy:
That,s some great traffic figures and you certainly deserve it for the amount of work you’ve put into the blog over the years.
Long may it continue.
I hope you had a good Thanksgiving
Thomas:
Happy belated Thanksgiving to you too! I have been an SWL’er for little over a year now. I had been interested in it for a long time, but stumbling across your site last year, I decided to take the plunge. The cost of receivers, antennas, peripherals etc. had always put me off in the past. I don’t think (correct me if I’m wrong) that it’s ever been any cheaper to get into SWL’ing than it is now. The Tecsun radios are perfect examples. I am thankful that you have taken the time and energy to put such a wonderful online presence together. This is THE best site on shortwave listening out there…I know most of my fellow readers would agree with me. Thanks again for everything you do and keep up the good work!
Thomas, yours is an excellent, informative site that keeps getting better. The participation by so many proves there are people who still care about international broadcasting, DXing and radio in general. Thanks! -Curt
Among many other things, I’m thankful for this blog. Learning a lot here Thomas, and keeping up with the world of shortwave. Thanks!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!! Thank you for providing such a great website and open forum for all lovers of shortwave radio to come and meet. This site was instrumental in my coming back to the hobby of swl’ing. Keep up the great work Thomas.
Happy Thanksgiving to you too!
Thank you Thomas for taking the time to provide us with an informative and indeed timely forum for our hobby. Some of the articles and for sure the equipment reviews are not available anywhere else in the detail presented here. The numbers speak for themselves.
So a tip of the hat to you for the fine work you do with this and your charity, and once again a happy holiday to you and your family.
Happy thanksgiving Thomas!
Indeed, not only we SWL’ers became a huge community, you made us one big family!
Have a great weekend, and warm greetings.
Best Whishes,
moshe.
Hun, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States)
I’m from Europe, so I don’t know well the American customs, and it’s not clear for me, to whom are people saying thanks on this day in the USA? Maybe to parents, or anybody else who made something good for a person. Maybe not. The show from 1944 is nice.