{"id":5253,"date":"2013-01-02T15:30:19","date_gmt":"2013-01-02T19:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=5253"},"modified":"2013-01-02T15:34:46","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T19:34:46","slug":"the-era-of-short-wave-radio-is-behind-us-and-other-inaccuracies-from-the-new-rnw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/the-era-of-short-wave-radio-is-behind-us-and-other-inaccuracies-from-the-new-rnw\/","title":{"rendered":"“The era of short-wave radio is behind us” and other inaccuracies from the new RNW"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RNW\"RNW announced “A new Radio Netherlands Worldwide<\/a>” just yesterday on their website; here is their announcement in its entirety (my comments follow).<\/p>\n

<><><><><><><\/p>\n

“This coming year is an important one for RNW. A year in which, at the age of 65, we will be reinventing ourselves. Our new Editor-in-Chief William Valkenburg officially begins today; he looks to what lies ahead of us in 2013.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The era of short-wave radio is behind us; satellite and Internet are the communication channels of the future. The worldwide dissemination of information is no longer the exclusive domain of specialised broadcasters. Via internet, anyone anywhere can reach out to the world with a good story.<\/p>\n

“That doesn\u2019t mean journalists and broadcasters are redundant; quite the contrary in fact. Huge amounts of information are available more and more quickly and via all sorts of different channels. The need to filter, analyse and investigate all this information remains the same while the goalposts of journalism have moved completely.<\/p>\n

Active link<\/strong>
\n“Our public is no longer a passive audience that very occasionally might write us a letter, but an active link in the process of newsgathering and distribution. Our public engages actively in discussion and has stories that are worth telling. They help us filter by letting us know what is or isn\u2019t relevant to them. And via social media, our public spreads our best stories further abroad.<\/p>\n

“RNW will have to forge a strong and unique identity if we are to win a place as a visible force in the new media landscape. Focus and specialisation are key. Free access to information, freedom of expression, good governance, and civil and sexual rights are the pillars of the new RNW: universal themes we\u2019ll be tackling with an individualistic Dutch approach. We\u2019ll be focusing our work in areas where freedoms are limited and aiming to appeal to a younger generation that is increasingly tuned in to new media.<\/p>\n

New stories<\/strong>
\n“2013 is Year Zero for the new-look RNW. A year in which we\u2019ll be looking more than ever to strengthen cooperation with our partners and audiences in China, Latin America, Africa and the Arab world. A year in which we\u2019ll be actively looking for new ways to find and tell the stories that are important to our audience, and in which our audiences will be encouraged to play an ever more active part. A year in which we\u2019ll be pushing ourselves to cement the ties with our audience and our themes. A year, in short, of dialogue and renewal.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<><><><><><><\/p>\n

And, unfortunately, of short-sighted misstatements and errors. No doubt, SWLing Post readers know how we feel about this–it’s a recurrent theme in many of our posts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shortwave is not behind us, but RNW’s ability to listen may be.<\/p>\n

As a shortwave radio broadcaster, RNW arguably had a dedicated listener pool in the millions. Of course, it’s hard to know, because those living in poverty and those living under repressive regimes–millions of listeners–who lack<\/em> free internet access and whose free speech is regularly quelled, don’t have the ability to cry out, “We’re listening–!”<\/em><\/p>\n

Millions of ears are still tuned to the static you recently vacated.\u00a0<\/em><\/em>Outreach in\u00a0all\u00a0forms–even via shortwave–is vital, and communication with those still without Internet or freedom (or the voices to tell you so) is a form of diplomacy more valuable than any money spent to achieve it.<\/p>\n

\"RNWin2013\"Perhaps host of the previous RNW’s acclaimed program The State We’re In<\/em>, Jonathan Grubert, had a point when Jonathan Marks interviewed<\/a> him on the night of RNW’s final shortwave broadcast<\/a>. Marks asked if RNW had stayed on shortwave too long, to which Grubert responded by saying, “Yeah, I think Radio Netherlands stayed on shortwave too long.” I think Grubert believed that RNW had remained faithful to shortwave at the expense of resources required for other contemporary and future media. And at the expense of their future.<\/p>\n

As much as we hate to admit it, he was probably correct…in part.<\/em> The fact is, the previous incarnation of RNW should have focused on making their shortwave broadcasting arm more lean and efficient, in order to continue to target parts of the world that need it most, while diversifying their media delivery systems to include the Internet, satellite and wireless in all forms. Instead, the organization failed to adapt, and funds were cut completely, leaving RNW gutted. But the lesson is apparently not learned:\u00a0 the new but-not-proved RNW seems to be putting all its eggs in one (Internet) basket, as well.<\/p>\n

Indeed, this is the problem with shortwave broadcasting in general. \u00a0Many broadcasters developed their transmission infrastructure either during WWII or in the Cold War, when countries were willing to invest vast sums of money in order to have their national voice heard. Broadcasting sites were never intended to be efficient: resources were either cheaper when the services were initiated or efficiency simply was not a concern in the days before fiscal cliffs.<\/p>\n

Today, it’s true that shortwave radio is on the decline in many parts of the world, particularly first-world countries.<\/em> In the great pie chart that represents all of the content delivery systems an international broadcaster has at their disposal, the shortwave slice should<\/em> be thinner, while Internet and wireless-based systems must also be included. Diversification<\/em> is key.\u00a0 Indeed, I would also argue that a small, separate slice of the budget should be reserved for future HF content\u00a0delivery\u00a0systems–such as innovations that are based upon the shortwave radio medium and existing infrastructures. We’d like to think that many are\u00a0doing this now.<\/a> After all, shortwave is still the only international communications medium<\/em> that is resilient to jamming and thus to censorship.<\/p>\n

What’s obvious is that shortwave is still highly relevant to those who rely on it, just as the Internet is crucial to the future of\u00a0international\u00a0broadcasting. There’s a false dichotomy in the “shortwave vs Internet” argument, and broadcasters and the governments that support them are fooling themselves if they think cutting shortwave will lead to their fiscal salvation and a promised future in new media technologies.\u00a0One might as well argue the relative merits of wealthy versus poor, or of first world nations versus third because that’s where the divide takes place<\/strong><\/em>…Does the former have more<\/em> “right” to information than the latter? \u00a0“Free access to information<\/em>, freedom of expression, good governance, and civil and sexual rights are the pillars<\/em> of the new RNW.”\u00a0<\/strong>Already, the first “pillar” of RNW is crumbling under its complete dismissal of shortwave–a tested and effective international content delivery system that requires no subscription and streams at the speed of light.<\/p>\n

We found at least this<\/em> statement from their announcement to be accurate:<\/p>\n

“RNW will have to forge a strong and unique identity if we are to win a place as a visible force in the new media landscape…”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In order to achieve this goal–namely, to actively engage a global audience on the “new” world wide web–RNW will need spectacular content created by exceptional talent–much like they had only last year, that is, before they incomprehensibly severed it. As much as we want to believe that Radio Netherlands will continue to have something to contribute to the media landscape after shutting down their shortwave service and gutting their resource pool of talented and dedicated journalists, we’re deeply, profoundly skeptical.\u00a0 To say the least.<\/p>\n

Why? They’re nearly two decades late to this game. Obviously, the Internet is no longer a “new” media landscape; it’s\u00a0absolutely saturated with content and communications innovations. RNW has dispensed with the one thing<\/em> they might have brought to the Internet–their programming.\u00a0Once we learned that RNW was going to\u00a0cut\u00a0The State We’re In<\/em><\/a>–an award-winning program, arguably RNW’s most popular–we knew RNW wasn’t making logical goal-based decisions to mark their place in future media.\u00a0 RNW’s claim that it will “forge a strong and unique identity” in the face of cutting all that made it respectable, listener-worthy and unique, shows a decided lack of judgement…a lack of direction.<\/em><\/p>\n

RNW, no one is going to listen if you’ve nothing worth hearing. We hope you can find what you’ve lost–your talent, on the one hand, and millions of listeners, on the other. \u00a0Connected via radio.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RNW announced “A new Radio Netherlands Worldwide” just yesterday on their website; here is their announcement in its entirety (my comments follow). <><><><><><> “This coming year is an important one for RNW. A year in which, at the age of 65, we will be reinventing ourselves. Our new Editor-in-Chief William Valkenburg officially begins today; he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,56,3],"tags":[1216,246,417,64,1582,84],"class_list":["post-5253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-broadcasters","category-news","tag-jonathan-groubert","tag-jonathan-marks","tag-radio-netherlands-worldwide-cuts","tag-rnw","tag-the-new-radio-netherlands","tag-why-shortwave-radio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-1mJ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1195,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/jonathan-marks-comments-on-rnw-cuts\/","url_meta":{"origin":5253,"position":0},"title":"Jonathan Marks comments on RNW cuts","author":"Thomas","date":"June 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Jonathan Marks has posted his opinion on the RNW cuts announced yesterday in his Critical Distance Weblog--well worth reading.","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/RNW.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35880,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/radio-netherlands-jonathan-shares-photos-from-bvn-television-and-rnw-newsrooms\/","url_meta":{"origin":5253,"position":1},"title":"Radio Netherlands: Jonathan shares photos from BVN Television and RNW newsrooms","author":"Thomas","date":"February 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to Jonathan Marks--former host of RNW's Media Network and curator of the Media Network Vintage Vault--who kindly shares a collection of photos he took in 2001 and 2002 at RNW's headquarters in Hilversum. Click on the images below to enlarge: The RNW Newsroom in August 2002 The BVN\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/04-DSC_0056-1024x681.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/04-DSC_0056-1024x681.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/04-DSC_0056-1024x681.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1182,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/radio-netherlands-worldwide-needs-your-help\/","url_meta":{"origin":5253,"position":2},"title":"Radio Netherlands Worldwide needs your help","author":"Thomas","date":"June 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"RNW, like many international broadcasters, is under threat due to budget cuts. Show your support for RNW by signing this petition online. Also consider commenting on the Radio Netherlands 4U website. \u00a0 56DF629HY6HC","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/RNW.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6844,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/jonathan-remembers-radio-netherlands-worldwide-one-year-on\/","url_meta":{"origin":5253,"position":3},"title":"Jonathan remembers Radio Netherlands Worldwide one year on","author":"Thomas","date":"July 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A few days ago, former RNW employee, Jonathan Marks, was sorting out some papers in his office when something \"spooky\" happened: \"one sheet [of paper] fell out of a pile and onto the floor. It was the page of the last day of transmission from Radio Netherlands, English department.\" \"What\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"RNW's final broadcast schedule (Source: Jonathan Marks)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/CriticalDistance-FinalBroadcastScheduleRNW-211x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3857,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/radio-netherlands-says-farewell-in-style\/","url_meta":{"origin":5253,"position":4},"title":"Radio Netherlands says farewell in style","author":"Thomas","date":"July 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Thursday night, by the light of an oil lamp, I tuned my trusty Sony portable shortwave to 6,165 kHz. At 2:00 UTC, I was rewarded with a rich, full signal from Radio Netherlands Worldwide\u2019s transmission site in Bonaire. Here in this off-grid cabin, on sixty rural acres, I bask in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/wpid-sony.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10708,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/editor-in-chief-leaves-radio-netherlands\/","url_meta":{"origin":5253,"position":5},"title":"Editor in Chief leaves Radio Netherlands","author":"Thomas","date":"September 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to Jonathan Marks, who\u00a0shares this article from the populist Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf on Saturday. If you can't read Dutch, here's a link to the article via Google Translate. I believe RNW has struggled with identity and purpose since abandoning \u00a0all radio broadcasting and most\u00a0programming in 2012.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"RNW","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/RNW.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}