There were special multiband radios because of this, and you had to go through the dials positively slowly, or you'd miss the station you're looking for. Even if you did get the station, you can easily lose it, depending on factors like the quality of the shortwave radio, great and bad the broadcasting station's signal, and also the weather.
I don't know exactly how many people listened to shortwave. My hunch is that it was popular as a form of political subversion. Throughout the Cold War, people behind the Iron Curtain (East European countries under a communist regime) and the Bamboo Curtain (China)-would pay attention to BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) or the VOA (Voice of America). Both BBC and VOA were operated by governments, and had broadcasts in many languages, specially those used in communist countries.
The propaganda war went either way. Radio Peking (it was still Peking then, rather than Beijing) also had its shortwave broadcasts sent to the world in all kinds of languages, including Filipino, boasting the achievements of socialist China as well as the superiority of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong thought.
Playing Radio Peking was difficult, not just because of the unreliable shortwave broadcasts but additionally because it was technically illegal to be handled by communist propaganda. In a rural area, listening to Radio Peking was proof you were part of the underground opposed to Marcos.
Martial law came and went and, I guess, Radio Peking as well. Today you can get Chinese TV stations through cable, with occasional propaganda films but mostly a fare of sports and entertainment, with ads for all kinds of capitalist goods: computers, cellular phones, even traditional Chinese medicines.
Today we've got hundreds of cable TV channels besides the Chinese ones. With CNN, BBC, HBO, National Geographic and Cartoon Network, it seems that the world is now at everyone's fingertips, in living color at this. So, why need shortwave?
Mind you, shortwave radios are still found in the market, on this occasion with digital dials to make it easier to track down a channel. They was previously very expensive but you'll find units under P1,000 now. Made in China obviously.
But the days of these shortwave radios are numbered now that there's Internet radio. Thousands of the air have been streaming through the Internet for quite a while now, so you could get the stations by way of a computer. The quality now is determined by the speed of Internet connections, which includes improved tremendously through the years.
Smartphones
But paying attention to Internet radio with a computer, a good laptop, still isn't very convenient. Therefore it took the emergence of tablets (as an example Apple's iPad) and smartphones (cell phones that allow you to surf on the Internet) to obtain more people on to, and, in my case, hooked on Internet radio.
The tablets as well as the smartphones are so portable using a reliable 3G connection, or possibly a stable Wi-Fi connection, you can just about listen to the world wherever you are in the house, in the office, or by the pool. You can listen even while driving, but when there's no one with you it's difficult changing the stations, so be sure to have everything fixed before you start to operate a vehicle.
It's interesting how radio has survived despite many predictions that TV, then computers, would displace them. Radio can be a friend and companion. They stay around even if you're not listening, bringing life to empty nests, as well as other places that need enlivening. The other day Specialists my secretary if there were a concert out in the parking lot, and she sheepishly smiled that she had about the radio full blast given it kept her from hearing "other sounds." Our building is probably the oldest in UP Diliman, a lot more than 60 years old with grand high ceilings.
If you undertake want to listen though, radio provides a lot more than white noise. It's informative, it's entertaining, it's even intellectually stimulating if you know where to look-and this is why the Internet is unquestionably a boon because, let's face the facts, we don't have too many local the air offering substantive programs.
An essential tip here: get an app (software) or tune in to Internet radio rather than look for all kinds of stations. I use Listen in Radio. Go to tunein.com, with apps for computers, tablets and smartphones. You'll be able to browse stations by genre or location, keep your favorite ones as presets so you can just click on them when you want them. It's also possible to search for stations, typing in BBC (that will give you many options) or dzMM! It's a no cost app, but if you get the Pro version, it even enables you to record programs, which I find very useful for science talk shows, and for music.
My favorite stations are BBC (World Service, and BBC3, that is classical music) and NPR (American National Public Radio) and CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) using a wide assortment of programs, from news for the hour, to discussions around science, the arts, even religion and ethics. Note down the times when a good program pops up so you can go back to that station once the next day or the next week. (Or, head to their websites to get the schedule of the programs.)
At home
NPR is actually a network of public radio stations, funded by communities and mainly educational, which has a liberal slant. The main NPR station broadcasts out of Washington, D.C., however, you can also look for local stations that have local shows interspersed using the national ones. I use KQED beyond San Francisco because I lived around that city, the Bay Area, for many years, and it's always nice to know what freeway traffic snarls you've been spared. . . and the weather report and San Francisco's fog.
CBC is operated by the Canadian government but is at many ways similar to NPR with district inputs. I listen to CBC Ottawa because my sister lives in this city, and it's good so that you can e-mail her, "Hey, I heard that. . ."
For classical music I tune in to BBC3, WFMT and a Dutch station, Radio 4, that last station because Radio 4 was my constant companion once i was studying in the Netherlands. I'm tuned in right this moment, with the announcer talking rapidly in Dutch, which reminds me that listening to Internet radio can be a good way of practicing a foreign language. Try Radio Catalunya on holiday for an unique language that seems like Spanish, Portuguese and English.
You now know why radio will go on with the Internet. It will be particularly important for Filipinos, because were now spread out all over the world. Overseas Filipinos use the Internet to listen to our local stations, even bringing in sometimes to participate in talk shows. Then when Filipinos come home after having lived overseas, to analyze or to work, the Internet offers nostalgic comfort, and companionship.
However the turning point has been the emergence of tablets and smartphones. Surfing for news and e-mail through a smartphone is still difficult.
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