International broadcasting, in a limited extent, began during World War I, when German and British stations broadcast press communiqués using

Morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...

. With the severing of Germany's undersea cables, the wireless telegraph station in Nauen was the country's sole means of long-distance communication. The US Navy Radio Service radio station in New Brunswick, Canada, transmitted the ' Fourteen Points' by wireless to Nauen in 1917. In turn, Nauen station broadcast the news of the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II on November 10, 1918.

History

Origins

Guglielmo Marconi Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquis of Marconi (; 25 April 187420 July 1937) was an Italians, Italian inventor and electrical engineering, electrical engineer, known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based Wireless telegrap ...

pioneered the use of

short wave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the High frequency, high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (10 ...

radio for long-distance transmissions in the early 1920s. Using a system of parabolic reflector antennae, Marconi's assistant,

Charles Samuel Franklin Charles Samuel Franklin (1879 – 10 December 1964), who published as C. S. Franklin, was a noted British radio pioneer. Biography Franklin was born in London, the youngest of a family of 13, and educated at Finsbury Technical College in Finsbury, ...

, rigged up a large antenna at Poldhu Wireless Station, Cornwall, running on 25 kW of power. In June and July 1923, wireless transmissions were completed during nights on 97 meters from Poldhu to Marconi's yacht ''Elettra'' in the Cape Verde Islands. High speed shortwave telegraphy circuits were then installed from London to Australia, India, South Africa and Canada as the main element of the Imperial Wireless Chain from 1926. The Dutch began conducting experiments in the shortwave frequencies in 1925 from

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,PCJJ began the first international broadcasting on March 11, 1927 with programmes in Dutch for colonies in the Dutch West Indies and

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

and in German, Spanish and English for the rest of the world. The popular Happy Station show was inaugurated in 1928. In 1927, Marconi also turned his attention toward long distance broadcasting on shortwave. His first such broadcasts took place to commemorate Armistice Day in the same year. He continued running a regular international broadcast that was picked up around the world, with programming from the

2LO 2LO was the second radio station to regularly broadcast in the United Kingdom (the first was 2MT). It began broadcasting on 11 May 1922, for one hour a day from the seventh floor of Marconi House in London's Strand, opposite Somerset House. H ...

station, then run by the BBC. The success of this operation caught the BBC's attention who rented out a shortwave transmitting station in Chelmsford, with the callsign G5SW, to Marconi. The

BBC Empire Service #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

was finally inaugurated on December 19, 1932, with transmissions aimed towards Australia and New Zealand.

Expansion

Other notable early international broadcasters included Vatican Radio (February 12, 1931), Radio Moscow, the official service of the Soviet Union (renamed the Voice of Russia, following the collapse of the Soviet Union). Clarence W. Jones started transmitting on Christmas Day, 1931 from Christian missionary radio station HCJB in

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...

, Ecuador. Broadcasting in South Asia was launched in 1925 in

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Radio Ceylon Radio Ceylon ( si, ලංකා ගුවන් විදුලි සේවය ''Lanka Guwan Viduli Sevaya'', ta, இலங்கை வானொலி, ''ilankai vanoli'') is a radio station based in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) and the first ...

, now the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation is the oldest in the region. Bundesarchiv Bild 102-17049, Joseph Goebbels spricht

Shortwave broadcasting from Nauen in Germany to the US, Central and South America, and the Far East began in 1926. A second station,

Zeesen Zeesen is a village south of Königs Wusterhausen in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous ...

, was added in 1931. In January 1932, the German Reichspost assumed control of the Nauen station and added to its shortwave and longwave capacity. Once Adolf Hitler assumed power in 1933, shortwave, under the ''Auslandsrundfunk'' (Foreign Radio Section), was regarded as a vital element of Nazi propaganda. German shortwave hours were increased from two hours a day to 18 per day, and eventually twelve languages were broadcast on a 24-hour basis, including English. A 100

kilowatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

transmitter and antenna complex was built at

, near Berlin. Specialty target programming to the United States began in 1933, to South Africa, South America, and East Asia in 1934, and South Asia and Central America in 1938. German propaganda was organized under

Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...

, and played a key role in the

German annexation of Austria The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "Greater Germany" ...

and the Munich Crisis of 1938. In 1936, the International Radio Union recognized Vatican Radio as a "special case" and authorized its broadcasting without any geographical limits. On December 25, 1937, a Telefunken 25-kW transmitter and two directional antennas were added. Vatican Radio broadcast over 10 frequencies.Levillain 2002: 1600 During the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalist forces received a powerful Telefunken transmitter as a gift of Nazi Germany to aid their propaganda efforts, and until 1943 Radio Nacional de España collaborated with the Axis powers to retransmit in Spanish news from the official radio stations of Germany and Italy.

World War II

During the Second World War, Russian, German, British, and Italian international broadcasting services expanded. In 1942, the United States initiated its international broadcasting service, the Voice of America. In the Pacific theater, General

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...

used shortwave radio to keep in touch with the citizens of the Japanese-occupied Philippine Islands. Several announcers who became well known in their countries included

British Union of Fascists The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a British fascist political party formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley. Mosley changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936 and, in 1937, to the British Union. In 1939, fo ...

member William Joyce, who was one of the two " Lord Haw-Haw"s; Frenchmen

Paul Ferdonnet Paul Ferdonnet (28 April 1901 – 4 August 1945), dubbed "the Stuttgart traitor" (french: le traître de Stuttgart) by the French press, was a French journalist and Nazi sympathizer, who was executed for treason in 1945. Biography A Nazi sym ...

and

André Olbrecht André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation o ...

, called "the traitors of

adio Adio may refer to: Business *Adio (company), the former skateboard footwear and apparel company Music Songs * "Adio" (song), a song by Montenegrin recording artist Knez that represented Montenegro at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 *"Adio", a 19 ...

Stuttgart"; and Americans

Frederick William Kaltenbach Frederick Wilhelm Kaltenbach (March 29, 1895 – October 1945) was an American of German ancestry who broadcast Nazi propaganda from Germany during World War II. Early life Kaltenbach was born in Dubuque, Iowa, and was raised in Waterloo, Io ...

, "Lord Hee-Haw", and Mildred Gillars, one of the two announcers called " Axis Sally". Listeners to German programs often tuned in for curiosity's sake—at one time, German radio had half a million listeners in the U.S.--but most of them soon lost interest. Japan had "Tokyo Rose", who broadcast Japanese propaganda in English, along with American music to help ensure listeners. During World War II, Vatican Radio's news broadcasts were banned in Germany. During the war, the radio service operated in four languages. The British launched

Radio SEAC Radio SEAC was the war time radio station operated by the Allied South East Asia Command (SEAC) that took over the operations of Colombo Radio, a Ceylon radio station launched in 1925. Radio programmes were broadcast across Asia to the allied force ...

from Colombo,

(Sri Lanka) during World War II. The station broadcast radio programs to the allied armed forces across the region from their headquarters in Ceylon. Following the war and German partition, each Germany developed its own international broadcasting station:

Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...

, using studios in Cologne, West Germany, and Radio Berlin International (RBI) in East Germany. RBI's broadcasts ceased shortly before the reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990, and Deutsche Welle took over its transmitters and frequencies.

Cold War era

The Cold War led to increased international broadcasting (and jamming), as Communist and non-Communist states attempted to influence each other's domestic population. Some of the most prominent Western broadcasters were the Voice of America, the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

, and the

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

. The Soviet Union's most prominent service was Radio Moscow and China used

Radio Peking China Radio International (CRI) is the state-owned international radio broadcaster of China. It is currently headquartered in the Babaoshan area of Beijing's Shijingshan District. It was founded on December 3, 1941, as Radio Peking. It late ...

(then Radio Beijing, now China Radio International). In addition to the U.S.-Soviet cold war, the Chinese-Russian border dispute led to an increase of the numbers of transmitters aimed at the two nations, and the development of new techniques such as playing tapes backwards for reel-to-reel recorders. West Germany resumed regular shortwave broadcasts using

on May 3, 1953. Its Julich transmitter site began operation in 1956, with eleven 100-kW Telefunken transmitters. The Wertachtal site was authorized in 1972 and began with four 500-kW transmitters. By 1989, there were 15 transmitters, four of which relayed the Voice of America. Meanwhile, in East Germany, the Nauen site began transmitting Radio DDR, later Radio Berlin International, on October 15, 1959. In addition to these states, international broadcast services grew in Europe and the Middle East. Under the presidency of Gamal Nasser, Egyptian transmitters covered the Arab world; Israel's service, Kol Yisrael, served both to present the Israeli point of view to the world and to serve the Jewish diaspora, particularly behind the

Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its s ...

Radio RSA Radio RSA: The Voice of South Africa was the international broadcasting service of the Republic of South Africa. It was run by the South African Broadcasting Corporation from its inception on 1 May 1966 until its demise in 1992 following the end of ...

, as part of the South African Broadcasting Corporation, was established in 1966 to promote the image of South Africa internationally and reduce criticism of apartheid. It continued in 1992, when the post-apartheid government renamed it

Channel Africa Channel Africa is the international broadcasting service of the South African Broadcasting Corporation. Overview Airing on shortwave, satellite radio and Internet radio platforms, the service airs news, cultural, sports and public affairs p ...

. Ironically, the isolationist Albania under

Enver Hoxha Enver Halil Hoxha ( , ; 16 October 190811 April 1985) was an Albanian communist politician who was the authoritarian ruler of Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985. He was First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania from 1941 unt ...

, virtually a hermit kingdom, became one of the most prolific international broadcasters during the latter decades of the Cold War, with

Radio Tirana Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (; en, "Albanian Radio and Television"; mostly called RTSH ) is an Albanian public broadcasting radio and television company. Founded in 1938, it operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmi ...

one of the top five broadcasters in terms of hours of programming produced. Estimated total programme hours per week of some external broadcasters

Today

At the end of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, many international broadcasters cut back on hours and foreign languages broadcast, or reemphasized other language services. For example, in 1984, Radio Canada International broadcast in English, French, German, Spanish, Czech/Slovak, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian. In 2005, RCI broadcast in English, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and Spanish. There is a bigger trend towards TV (e.g. BBC World News, NHK World, CCTV-9) and news websites. Some services, such as Swiss Radio International, left shortwave altogether and exist in Internet form, Swissinfo. In addition, new standards, such as

Digital Radio Mondiale Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM; ''mondiale'' being Italian and French for "worldwide") is a set of digital audio broadcasting technologies designed to work over the bands currently used for analogue radio broadcasting including AM broadcasting—pa ...

, are being introduced, as well as sending programs over the Web to be played back later, as " podcasts". International broadcasting using the traditional audio-only method will not cease any time soon due to its cost efficiencies. However, international broadcasting via television is considered more strategically important at least since the early 2000s. The

was the first broadcaster to consider setting up a satellite television news and information channel as far back as 1976, but ceded being the first to CNN (that had primary access to Canada soon after launch). The defunct BBC World Service

Antigua Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...

Relay Station was built in 1976, but its setup costs were not known to have been part of the BBCWS decision processes at the time. In the early 1990s, many international (as well as domestic) 24-hour news and information channels launched as part of the post-

prosperity bubble. There was another burst of global news channels launching in the late 2000s as part the developing world trying to catch up with the developed world in this area.

Reasons for international broadcasting

Broadcasters in one country have several reasons to reach out to an audience in other countries. Commercial broadcasters may simply see a business opportunity to sell advertising or subscriptions to a broader audience. This is more efficient than broadcasting to a single country, because domestic entertainment programs and information gathered by domestic news staff can be cheaply repackaged for non-domestic audiences. Governments typically have different motivations for funding international broadcasting. One clear reason is for ideological, or

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

reasons. Many government-owned stations portray their nation in a positive, non-threatening way. This could be to encourage business investment in or tourism to the nation. Another reason is to combat a negative image produced by other nations or internal dissidents, or insurgents.

, the broadcasting arm of the apartheid South African government, is an example of this. A third reason is to promote the ideology of the broadcaster. For example, a program on Radio Moscow from the 1960s to the 1980s was ''What is Communism?'' A second reason is to advance a nation's foreign policy interests and agenda by disseminating its views on international affairs or on the events in particular parts of the world. During the

the American Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty and Indian Radio AIR were founded to broadcast news from "behind the

" that was otherwise being censored and promote dissent and occasionally, to disseminate disinformation. Currently, the US operates similar services aimed at Cuba (

Radio y Televisión Martí Radio Televisión Martí is an American state-run radio and television international broadcaster based in Miami, Florida, financed by the federal government of the United States through the U.S. Agency for Global Media (formerly Broadcasting Boar ...

) and the People's Republic of China, Vietnam,

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

and North Korea (

Radio Free Asia Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a United States government-funded private non-profit news service that broadcasts radio programs and publishes online news, information, and commentary for its audiences in Asia. The service, which provides editoriall ...

). The

, the Voice of America, All India Radio and other western broadcasters have emphasized news broadcasts, particularly to countries that are experiencing repression or civil unrest and whose populations are unable to obtain news from non-government sources. In the case of emergencies, a nation may broadcast special programs overseas to inform listeners what is occurring. During Iraqi missile strikes on Israel during the 1991 Gulf War, Kol Israel relayed its domestic service on its shortwave service. Besides ideological reasons, many stations are run by religious broadcasters and are used to provide religious education, religious music, or worship service programs. For example, Vatican Radio, established in 1931, broadcasts such programs. Another station, such as HCJB or

Trans World Radio Trans World Radio (TWR) is a multinational evangelical Christian media distributor. The largest Christian media organization in the world, it uses mediumwave or high-powered AM and shortwave transmitters, local FM radio stations, cable, satellite ...

will carry brokered programming from evangelists. In the case of the

Broadcasting Services of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia The Saudi Broadcasting Authority (SBA), formerly Saudi Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) and the Broadcasting Services of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (BSKSA), is a governmental entity of Saudi Arabia, organized under the Ministry of Media. BSKSA o ...

, both governmental and religious programming is provided. Stations also broadcast to international audiences for cultural reasons. Often a station has an official mandate to keep expatriates in touch with their home country. Many broadcasters often relay their national domestic service on shortwave for that reason. Other reasons include teaching a foreign language, such as Radio Exterior de España's Spanish class, ''Un idioma sin fronteras'', or the Voice of America's broadcasts in Special English. In the case of major broadcasters such as the

Radio Australia ABC Radio Australia, also known as Radio Australia, is the international broadcasting and online service operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Australia's public broadcaster. Most programming is in English, with some in Tok ...

, there is also an educational outreach. An additional reason for international broadcasting is to maintain contact with a country's citizens travelling abroad or expatriates who have emigrated and share news from home as well as cultural programming. This role of external shortwave broadcasting has declined as advances in communications have allowed expatriates to read news from home and listen and watch to domestic broadcasts in their own language via the internet and satellite. A number of international services such as the original

, Radio Netherlands, France's Poste Colonial (now

Radio France International Radio France Internationale, usually referred to as RFI, is the state-owned international radio broadcaster of France. With 37.2 million listeners in 2014, it is one of the most-listened-to international radio stations in the world, along with D ...

) and others were founded in part with the goal of helping draw overseas empires closer to the mother country and provide closer cultural and communication connections between the home country and its colonies, a role that became largely obsolete due to decolonization.

Notable networks

* CNN International (English) * BBC World News ( Arabic, English, Persian) *

(Arabic, Azeri, Bengali, Burmese, Cantonese, English, French for Africa, Hausa, Hindi, Indonesian, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kyrgyz, Nepali, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese for Brazil, Russian, Sinhala, Somali, Spanish for Latin America, Swahili, Tamil, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese) * DD News (Hindi, English, Sanskrit, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malawi, Urdu, Bangla, Marathi, Malayalam, Thai, Baloch, Arabic, Fiji Hindi, Bhojpuri, Assami, Nagapure) *

Asian News International Asian News International (ANI) is an Indian news agency that offers syndicated multimedia news feed to news-bureaus in India and elsewhere. Established by Prem Prakash in 1971, it was the first agency in India to syndicate video news and , is t ...

(Hindi, English, Tamil, Telghu, Bangla) *

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...

(English, Arabic) * France 24 (French, English, Arabic, Spanish) *

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

( English, Arabic) * Telesur (Spanish, Portuguese, English) *

(German, English, French, Arabic, Hindi, Spanish, and 27 other languages) * EBC (Portuguese, English, Spanish) * TRT World (English, Arabic,

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

) * Voice of Turkey (English, Arabic, French, Turkish and 22 other languages) *

Press Trust of India The Press Trust of India Ltd., commonly known as PTI, is the largest news agency in India. It is headquartered in New Delhi and is a nonprofit cooperative among more than 500 Indian newspapers. It has over 500 full-time employees , including abo ...

(Hindi and 98 other languages) * Press TV (English, French) * TV5Monde (French) * Zee News (Hindi) * RT (Russian, English, French, Arabic, Spanish) *

Zee Entertainment Zee Entertainment Enterprises (formerly Zee Telefilms) is an Indian media conglomerate owned by Essel Group. Headquartered in Mumbai, it has interests in television, print, internet, film, businesses related to mobile contents, and operates 45 ...

(Hindi, Thai, English, Tamil, Telghu, and 126 other local languages) * Voice of Indonesia (English, French, Spanish, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, Hindi) *

ABC Australia The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owned ...

(English) *

RNZ International RNZ Pacific or Radio New Zealand Pacific, sometimes abbreviated to RNZP, is a division of Radio New Zealand and the official international broadcasting station of New Zealand. It broadcasts a variety of news, current affairs and sports programme ...

(English, French, Samoan, Tongan, Niuean, Cook Islands Maori, Solomon Islands Pidgin) * i24NEWS (English, French, Arabic) * Sun TV (Tamil) * NHK World-Japan (English, Japanese and 16 other languages) *

CGTN China Global Television Network (CGTN) is the international division of state media outlet China Central Television (CCTV), headquartered in Beijing, China. CGTN broadcasts six news and general interest channels in five languages. CGTN is reg ...

( English,

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

, Spanish, Russian, Arabic) * China Radio International (Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Belarusian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Croatian, Cambodian, Czech, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Filipino, French, Gernan, Greek, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Laotian, Malaysian, Nepali, Persian, Polish, Portugaese, Pashto, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Hakka, Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka, Wenzhouese, Uyghur, Kazakh, Mongolian, Korean) * Arirang (English, Korean) * WION (English) * The Filipino Channel (English, Filipino) * GMA Pinoy TV (English, Filipino) * Kapatid Channel (English, Filipino) *

RAE Rae may refer to: People *Rae (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Rae (surname), including a list of people with the surname Nicknames for *Rachel (given name) * Rachelle *Raquel *Raven (given name) *Reema * Reena (di ...

(Spanish, German, French, English, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, and formerly Arabic)

Means to reach an audience

Because of this many broadcasters are discovering they can reach a wider audience through other methods (particularly the internet and satellite television) and are cutting back on (or even entirely dropping) shortwave. An international broadcaster has several options for reaching a foreign audience: * If the foreign audience is near the broadcaster, high-power longwave and mediumwave stations can provide reliable coverage. * If the foreign audience is more than 1,000 kilometers away from the broadcaster, shortwave radio is reliable, but subject to interruption by adverse solar/geomagnetic conditions. * An international broadcaster may use a local mediumwave or FM radio or television relay station in the target country or countries. * An international broadcaster may use a local shortwave broadcaster as a relay station. * Neighboring states, such as Israel and Jordan, may broadcast television programs to each other's viewing public. An international broadcaster such as the BBC, Radio France International or Germany's Deutsche Welle, may use all the above methods. Several international broadcasters, such as

Swiss Radio International Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland *Swiss people Places *Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia *Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss International A ...

, have abandoned shortwave broadcasting altogether, relying on Internet transmissions only. Others, such as the BBC World Service, have abandoned shortwave transmissions to North America, relying on local relays, the Internet, and satellite transmissions

Mediumwave and longwave broadcasts

Most radio receivers in the world receive the mediumwave band (530 kHz to 1710 kHz), which at night is capable of reliable reception from 150 to 2,500 km distance from a transmitter. Mediumwave is used heavily all over the world for international broadcasting on a formal and informal basis. In addition, many receivers used in Europe and Russia can receive the longwave broadcast band (150 to 280 kHz), which provides reliable long-distance communications over continental distances.

Shortwave broadcast

Shortwave receivers are capable of receiving

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...

transmissions (2,000 to 30,000 kHz or 2 to 30 MHz). Depending on time of day, season of year, solar weather and Earth's geomagnetic field, a signal might reach around the world. In previous decades shortwave (and sometimes high-powered mediumwave) transmission was regarded as the main (and often the ''only'') way in which broadcasters could reach an international audience. In recent years the proliferation of technologies such as satellite broadcasting, the Internet, and rebroadcasts of programming on AM and FM within target nations has meant that this is no longer necessarily the case. Transmitter output power has increased since 1920. Higher transmitter powers do guarantee better reception in the target area. Higher transmitter power in most cases counteracts the lesser effects of jamming. * 1950s : 100 kW * 1960s : 200 kW, early 1960s (2 x 100 kW 'twinned') * 1970s : 300 kW, but many 250 kW transmitters sold * 1980s : 500 kW sometimes transmitters were "doubled up" to produce 1000 kW output * 1980s-present: 600 kW single, 1200 kW from twinned transmitters. International stations generally use special directional antennas to aim the signal toward the intended audience and increase the effective power in that direction. Use of such antennas for international broadcasting began in the mid-1930s and became prominent by the 1950s. By using antennas which focus most of their energy in one direction, a modern station may achieve the equivalent, in that direction, of tens of millions of watts of radio power.

Digital audio broadcasting

Some international broadcasters have become available via digital audio broadcasting (DAB) in Europe in the 1990s, and in a similar limited way in the Americas via in-band FM (

IBOC In-band on-channel (IBOC) is a hybrid method of transmitting digital radio and analog radio broadcast signals simultaneously on the same frequency. The name refers to the new digital signals being broadcast in the same AM or FM band (in-band), a ...

) DAB systems in the US in the 2000s. This is a popular method to reach listeners in cars that would otherwise not be accessible during that part of the day. However, in terms of the global international broadcasting audience the DAB listener base is very small—one can assume that it is less than 2% of the listener base globally.

Television

International broadcasting via 24 hour TV news channels has its origins in North America in the early 1980s. CNN technically was the first 24-hour international news channel as it was made available in Canada soon after launch. The BBC World Service considered setting up a global TV news channel as far back as 1975, but abandoned the idea for internal reasons. Notwithstanding a large number of international 24-hour television news and information broadcasters, the television percentage of viewers is still fairly small when compared to global radio listener numbers. The rural populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (as well as East Asia) have radio listener bases that are far larger than the largest international TV broadcaster could hope for, yet they could be considered underserved since the end of the Cold War (when these regions had more radio broadcasts targeted at them).

Streaming video sites

Many international television broadcasters (as well as domestic television broadcasters) have set up accounts on streaming video sites like YouTube to allow their news and information broadcasts to be globally distributed. The viewer numbers for these sites may seem huge. Cable, TVRO and terrestrial television broadcasters probably have 100 to 1,000 times larger audiences for their international broadcasting content. International broadcasters known to maintain their own streaming video sites (not authoritative): *

* BBC World News * CNN International * DD News *

* France 24 * i24NEWS * RT *

* WION

RSS feeds and email

Many international broadcasters (television or radio) can reach "unreachable" audiences via email and RSS feeds. This is not at all unusual, as the first commonly agreed international broadcast was a Morse Code telegram transmitted from US President Wilson to the German Kaiser (mid-1918) via a high powered longwave transmitter on the US East Coast (this important event in international broadcasting history was described in depth in the IEEE "The History of International Broadcasting" first volume). As Morse Code is considered to be a data format, with email and RSS merely being refinements of the technology it can be said that international broadcasting has a deep relationship with modern-day datacasting. The reach of RSS and email for international broadcasters is not really known that well, especially considering that emails get forwarded. The numbers for active RSS and email audiences are probably 5 to 20 times larger than for streaming video. It may take into the 2010s to get meaningful numbers with respect to the size of these audiences for assorted technical reasons related to the RSS and email technologies. Email and RSS feeds can traverse telecommunications barriers that streaming video cannot, thus the larger expected audience numbers. The global economic downturn of 2008-2009 will probably increase the email and RSS audience sizes as fewer people will be able to afford high speed internet connections in North America, Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions.

Listeners

An international broadcaster may have the technical means of reaching a foreign audience, but unless the foreign audience has a reason to listen, the effectiveness of the broadcaster is in question. One of the most common foreign audiences consists of expatriates, who cannot listen to radio or watch television programs from home. Another common audience is radio hobbyists, who attempt to listen to as many countries as possible and obtain verification cards or letters (''QSLs''). These audiences send letters and in response few radio stations write them back. These kind of Listeners often take part in weekly and monthly quizzes and contests started by many radio stations. A third audience consists of journalists, government officials, and key businesspersons, who exert a disproportionate influence on a state's foreign or economic policy. A fourth, but less publicized audience, consists of intelligence officers and agents who monitor broadcasts for both open-source intelligence clues to the broadcasting state's policies and for hidden messages to foreign agents operating in the receiving country. The BBC started its monitoring service in Caversham, Reading in 1936 (now BBC Monitoring). In the United States, the DNI Open Source Center (formerly the Central Intelligence Agency's Foreign Broadcast Information Service) provides the same service. Copies of OSC/FBIS reports can be found in many U.S. libraries that serve as government depositories. In addition, a number of hobbyists listen and report "spook" transmissions. Without these four audiences, international broadcasters face difficulty in getting funding. In 2001, for example, the BBC World Service stopped transmitting shortwave broadcasts to North America, and other international broadcasters, such as YLE Radio Finland, stopped certain foreign-language programs. However, international broadcasting has been successful when a country does not provide programming wanted by a wide segment of the population. In the 1960s, when there was no BBC service playing rock and roll, Radio Television Luxembourg ( RTL) broadcast rock and roll, including bands such as the Beatles, into the United Kingdom. Similar programming came from an unlicensed, or "pirate" station,

Radio Caroline Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Alan Crawford initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly. ...

, which broadcast from a ship in the international waters of the North Sea.

Restricting reception

In many cases, governments do not want their citizens listening to international broadcasters. In Nazi Germany, a major propaganda campaign, backed by law and prison sentences, attempted to discourage Germans from listening to such stations. The practice was made illegal in 1939.Hughes and Mann 2002: 93 In addition, the German government sold a cheap, "People's Receiver", as well as an even cheaper receiver, that could not pick up distant signals well.Graef 2005: 36 The idea was copied by Stalin's Soviet Union, which had a nearly identical copy manufactured in the Tesla factory in Czechoslovakia. In North Korea, all receivers are sold with fixed frequencies, tuned to local stations. The most common method of preventing reception is jamming, or broadcasting a signal on the same frequencies as the international broadcaster. Germany jammed the BBC European service during the Second World War. Russian and Eastern European jammers were aimed against Radio Free Europe, other Western broadcasters, and against Chinese broadcasters during the nadir of Sino-Soviet relations. In 2002, the Cuban government jammed the Voice of America's Radio Martí program and the Chinese government jammed

, Voice of America,

Radio Taiwan International Radio Taiwan International (RTI; ) is the English name and call sign of the Central Broadcasting System (CBS), national broadcaster and international radio service of the Republic of China, commonly known as Taiwan. It is a government-owned sta ...

as well broadcasts made by adherents of Falun Gong. North Korea restricts most people to a single fixed frequency mediumwave receiver; those who met political requirements and whose work absolutely required familiarity with events abroad were allowed shortwave receivers. Another method of reaching people with government radio programming, but not foreign programming, is the use of radio broadcasting by direct broadcasting to loudspeakers. David Jackson, director of the Voice of America, noted "The North Korean government doesn't jam us, but they try to keep people from listening through intimidation or worse. But people figure out ways to listen despite the odds. They're very resourceful."Jackson, David. "The Future of Radio II". ''World Radio TV Handbook'', 2007 edition. 2007, Billboard Books. . p 38. Yet another method of preventing reception involves moving a domestic station to the frequency used by the international broadcaster. During the Batista government of Cuba, and during the Castro years, Cuban medium-wave stations broadcast on the frequencies of popular South Florida stations. In October 2002, Iraq changed frequencies of two stations to block the Voice of America's Radio Sawa program. Jamming can be defeated by using very efficient transmitting antennas, carefully choosing the transmitted frequency, changing transmitted frequency often, using single sideband, and properly aiming the receiving antenna. For a list of international broadcasters, see List of international broadcasters.

References

Citations

Sources

* Graef 2005
Graef, Robert. ''Bicycling to Amersfoort: A World War II Memoir''. 2005, iUniverse. * Horwitz 2001
Horwitz, Robert Britt. ''Communication and Democratic Reform in South Africa''. 2001, Cambridge University Press . * Hughes and Mann 2002
Hughes, Matthew, and Chris Mann. ''Inside Hitler's Germany: Life Under the Third Reich''. 2002, Brassey's. * Levillain 2002
Levillain, Philippe. ''The Papacy: An Encyclopedia''. Translated by John O'Malley. Routledge, 2002. * Martin 2006
Martin, Bradley K. ''Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty''. 2006, Macmillan. * Wood 2000
Wood, James. ''History of International Broadcasting''. 2000, IET.

External links

Hard-Core-DX – serious information about shortwave/AM radio stations

American Radio Relay League
(ARRL), Newington, Connecticut.
englishradio.co.uk
Cataloguing and reviewing every English-language radio station * Easy-to-construct "interference-reducing" antennas for shortwave portables: U.S

an

(the "Villard antenna")
''World Radio TV Handbook''
The bible of international broadcasting
''RCI Action Committee''
Union group created to protect Radio Canada International's international broadcasting mandate and funding.
''AIB , Association for International Broadcasting''
The non-governmental, not-for-profit industry association for international TV and radio {{DEFAULTSORT:International Broadcasting Propaganda techniques