Most of the stations that have left shortwave, he said, are government-owned or -operated services like Radio Canada International, Channel Africa, Radio Portugal, the Voice of Russia and Radio Australia.

“There’s still a lot to listen to,” said Jeff White, WRMI’s general manager and chairman of the High Frequency Coordination Conference. Still, I get my share of BBC World Service, Radio France International, Voice of America and Vatican Radio mostly targeting Africa, Middle East and Asia but still listenable here at certain times of day.” “The big broadcasters are there as well but they don’t target North America anymore. “You have stations like Radio Romania, Voice of Turkey, Radio Prague, Radio Slovakia and Radio Tirana, Albania, while WRMI in Miami has popular listener-created programs like Voice of the Report of the Week,” he said. Nevertheless, “Even with many stations that are long gone, there is still quite a lot to listen to on the SW radio bands,” said Gilles Letourneau, host of the OfficialSWLchannel on YouTube (25,600 subscribers) and editor of the CIDX Messenger magazine column “World of Utilities.” There is no doubt that the variety of stations on the SW bands has declined, due to the end of the Cold War - the propaganda war of which drove the medium in the 1950s and 1960s - and the emergence of the internet. Meanwhile, the ways in which people listen to SW radio transmissions are evolving, because SW receiver manufacturers are keeping up with the technological times. Surprise! Shortwave radio as a broadcast medium is holding its own, despite the intrusion of the internet, transmission cutbacks by major broadcasters such as the BBC World Service and Voice of America and abandonment of the SW bands by other state-owned broadcasters.

Screenshot of an SDR receiver on shortwave with the signals of broadcasts and amateur radio signals.

Sony world receiver radio digital