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From Shortwave to New Wave Radio: BBC pulls the plug on 1930s technology by moving its World Service to the Internet in N

http://www.latimes.com/business/20010522/t000042855.html

>From Shortwave to New Wave Radio: BBC pulls the plug on 1930s

technology by moving its World Service to the Internet in North America.

By DAVID COLKER, Times Staff Writer

>From 1932 until long after the sun set on the British empire, the BBC

World Service--with its sonorous and reassuring "This is London" at the top of each hour--was heard around the globe via shortwave radio. June 30 will bring the end of that era in North America when the grand dame of international broadcasting shuts down its shortwave transmitters serving the United States and Canada as well as vast areas of the Pacific. Instead, the venerable broadcaster will distribute its 24-hour service online. "What we are not doing is saying shortwave is dead," said Jerry Timmins, head of the Americas region for the BBC World Service. "The vast majority of our listeners still access us on shortwave. But a shift is happening, no question about it." Shortwave radio--the once ubiquitous voice of colonial empire, international intrigue and Cold War propaganda--is falling victim to the rise of the Internet, a medium that's cheaper to run and often more convenient for listeners.

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