International broadcasting

Short description: Radio and television transmissions across borders

International broadcasting consists of radio and television transmissions that purposefully cross international boundaries, often with then intent of allowing expatriates to remain in touch with their countries of origin as well as educate, inform, and influence residents of foreign countries. Content can range from overt propaganda and counterpropaganda to cultural content to news reports that reflect the point of view and concerns of the originating country or that seek to provide alternative information to that otherwise available as well as promote tourism and trade. In the first half of the twentieth century, international broadcasting was used by colonial empires as a means of connecting colonies with the metropole (for example the BBC Empire Service as well as France's Poste Colonial and the Dutch overseas radio services, PCJJ and PHOHI). When operated by governments or entities close to a government, international broadcasting can be a form of soft power. Less frequently, international broadcasting has been undertaken for commercial purposes by private broadcasters.

International broadcasting, in a limited extent, began during World War I, when German and British stations broadcast press communiqués using Morse code. 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.[1] In turn, Nauen station broadcast the news of the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II on November 10, 1918.[2] In the early 2020's, many of the public international broadcasters that court audiences abroad have seen their budgets shrink, with the exception of Deutsche Welle, while state media outlets from authoritarian countries like Russia, China and Iran have been increasing their budgets since the early 2000's.[3][4]

## Contents

* 1 History
* 1.1 Origins
* 1.2 Expansion
* 1.3 World War II
* 1.4 Cold War era
* 1.5 Today
* 2 Reasons for international broadcasting
* 2.1 Notable networks
* 3 Means to reach an audience
* 3.1 Mediumwave and longwave broadcasts
* 3.2 Shortwave broadcast
* 3.3 Digital audio broadcasting
* 3.4 Television
* 3.4.1 Streaming video sites
* 3.5 RSS feeds and email
* 4 Listeners
* 5 Restricting reception
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 7.1 Citations
* 7.2 Sources
* 8 External links

## History

### Origins

Guglielmo Marconi carried out the first short wave transmissions over a long distance.

Guglielmo Marconi pioneered the use of short wave radio for long-distance transmissions in the early 1920s. Using a system of parabolic reflector antennae, Marconi's assistant, Charles Samuel Franklin, 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.[5] 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.[5]

The Dutch began conducting experiments in the shortwave frequencies in 1925 from Eindhoven. The radio station PCJJ began its first international broadcasting on March 11, 1927, with programmes in Dutch for colonies in the Dutch West Indies and Dutch East Indies and in German, Spanish and English for the rest of the world. The popular Happy Station show was inaugurated in 1928 and became the world's longest-running shortwave programme, continuing until 1995, transferring to Radio Netherlands after World War II.[6]

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 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.[7] The BBC Empire Service was finally inaugurated on December 19, 1932, with transmissions aimed towards Australia and New Zealand.[8]

### Expansion

Joseph Goebbels headed Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in Nazi Germany. International broadcasting was an important element in Nazi propaganda.

Shortwave broadcasting from Nauen in Germany to the US, Central and South America, and the Far East began in 1926. A second station, Zeesen, was added in 1931.[9] In January 1932, the German Reichspost assumed control of the Nauen station and added to its shortwave and longwave capacity.[10] 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 transmitter and antenna complex was built at Zeesen, 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, and played a key role in the German annexation of Austria 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.[11]

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 World War II, Vatican Radio's news broadcasts were banned in Germany. During the war, the radio service operated in four languages.[11]

### Cold War era

West Germany resumed regular shortwave broadcasts using Deutsche Welle 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.[12] Meanwhile, in East Germany, the Nauen site began transmitting Radio DDR, later Radio Berlin International, on October 15, 1959.[13]

Radio RSA, 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.[14] It continued in 1992, when the post-apartheid government renamed it Channel Africa.

Estimated total programme hours per week of some external broadcasters[15]

Country | Political
Alignment | Broadcaster(s) | 1950 | 1955 | 1960 | 1965 | 1970 | 1975 | 1980 | 1985 | 1990

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

Albania | NAM | Radio Tirana | 26 | 47 | 63 | 154 | 487 | 490 | 560 | 581 | 451
Australia | West | Radio Australia | 181 | 226 | 257 | 299 | 350 | 379 | 333 | 352 | 330
Bulgaria | East | Radio Sofia | 30 | 60 | 117 | 154 | 164 | 197 | 236 | 290 | 320
Canada | West | Radio Canada International (RCI) | 85 | 83 | 80 | 81 | 98 | 159 | 134 | 169 | 195
China | - | Radio Beijing | 66 | 159 | 687 | 1027 | 1267 | 1423 | 1350 | 1446 | 1515
Cuba | East | Radio Havana Cuba (RHC) | - | - | - | 325 | 320 | 311 | 424 | 379 | 352
Czechoslovakia | East | Radio Prague | 119 | 147 | 196 | 189 | 202 | 253 | 255 | 268 | 131
Egypt | NAM | Radio Cairo | - | 100 | 301 | 505 | 540 | 635 | 546 | 560 | 605
France | West | Radio France Internationale (RFI) | 198 | 191 | 326 | 183 | 200 | 108 | 125 | 272 | 379
West Germany | West | Deutsche Welle (DW), Deutschlandfunk (DLF) | - | 105 | 315 | 671 | 779 | 767 | 804 | 795 | 848
East Germany | East | Radio Berlin International (RBI) | - | 9 | 185 | 308 | 274 | 342 | 375 | 413 | \-
Hungary | East | Radio Budapest | 76 | 99 | 120 | 121 | 105 | 127 | 127 | 122 | 102
India | NAM | All India Radio (AIR) | 116 | 117 | 157 | 175 | 271 | 326 | 389 | 408 | 456
Iran | NAM | Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran | 12 | 10 | 24 | 118 | 155 | 154 | 175 | 310 | 400
Israel | - | Kol Yisrael | - | 28 | 91 | 92 | 158 | 198 | 210 | 223 | 253
Italy | West | Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) | 170 | 185 | 205 | 160 | 165 | 170 | 169 | 173 | 181
Japan | - | Radio Japan | - | 91 | 203 | 249 | 259 | 259 | 259 | 287 | 343
North Korea | NAM | Radio Pyongyang | - | 53 | 159 | 392 | 330 | 455 | 597 | 535 | 534
Netherlands | West | Radio Nederland Wereldomroep (RNW) | 127 | 120 | 178 | 235 | 335 | 400 | 289 | 336 | 323
Nigeria | NAM | Voice of Nigeria | - | - | - | 63 | 62 | 61 | 170 | 322 | 120
Poland | East | Radio Polonia | 131 | 359 | 232 | 280 | 334 | 340 | 337 | 320 | 292
Portugal | West | RDP Internacional | 46 | 102 | 133 | 273 | 295 | 190 | 214 | 140 | 203
Romania | East | Radio Bucharest | 30 | 109 | 159 | 163 | 185 | 190 | 198 | 212 | 199
South Africa | West | Radio RSA | - | 127 | 63 | 84 | 150 | 141 | 183 | 205 | 156
Soviet Union | East | Radio Moscow, Peace & Progress, Republics | 533 | 656 | 1015 | 1417 | 1908 | 2001 | 2094 | 2211 | 1876
Spain | West | Radio Exterior de España (REE) | 68 | 98 | 202 | 276 | 251 | 312 | 239 | 252 | 403
Sweden | - | Radio Sweden | 28 | 128 | 114 | 142 | 140 | 154 | 155 | 196 | 167
Turkey | West | Voice of Turkey | 40 | 100 | 77 | 91 | 88 | 172 | 199 | 307 | 322
United Kingdom | West | BBC | 643 | 558 | 589 | 667 | 723 | 719 | 719 | 729 | 796
United States | West | VoA, RFE/RL | 497 | 1690 | 1495 | 1832 | 1907 | 2029 | 1901 | 2339 | 2611
Yugoslavia | NAM | Radio Yugoslavia | 80 | 46 | 70 | 78 | 76 | 82 | 72 | 86 | 96

### Today

At the end of the Cold War, 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. Radio Canada International ceased shortwave broadcasting in 2012 becoming a purely online service producing podcasts and maintaining a website in several languages.[16] Radio Netherlands ceased broadcasting in 2012 and was transformed into RNW Media, an NGO that trains youth in developing countries to use digital media for social change.[17] Radio Moscow's successor, Voice of Russia, was disbanded in 2014 and replaced by Sputnik, a multimedia news platform, which does not broadcast on shortwave.[18] Other shortwave broadcasters have ceased operations entirely since the 1990s.[19][20]

In the early 2020's, many of the public international broadcasters that court audiences abroad have seen their budgets shrink, with the exception of Deutsche Welle, while state media outlets from authoritarian countries like Russia, China and Iran have been increasing their budgets since the early 2000's.[3][4] Authoritarian states have also sought to expand their reach by buying advertising on social media, like Facebook, and covertly co-opting influencers.[4]

## 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 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. Radio RSA, 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?[21]

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 Cold War the American Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty and Indian Radio AIR were founded to broadcast news from "behind the Iron Curtain" 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) and the People's Republic of China, Vietnam, Laos and North Korea (Radio Free Asia).

The BBC World Service, 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 will carry brokered programming from evangelists. In the case of the Broadcasting Services of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 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 BBC World Service or Radio Australia, 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 BBC Empire Service, Radio Netherlands, France's Poste Colonial (now Radio France International) 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 News (Arabic, English, Persian)
* BBC World Service (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 (Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Bangla)
* Sky News (English, Arabic)
* France 24 (French, English, Arabic, Spanish)
* Al Jazeera (English, Arabic)
* Telesur (Spanish, English)
* Deutsche Welle (German, English, Spanish, Hindi, Tamil, Russian, Arabic, Persian, Dari, Pashto, Urdu, Albanian, Amharic, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Mandarin Chinese, French, Greek, Hausa, Indonesian, Kiswahili, Turkish, Macedonian, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Ukrainian)
* EBC (Portuguese, English, Spanish)
* TRT World (English, Arabic, Turkish)
* Voice of Turkey (English, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bulgarian, Chinese, Dari, French, Georgian, German, Hausa, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Malay, Pashto, Kurdish, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Turkmen, Turkish, Urdu, Uyghur, Uzbek)
* Press Trust of India (Hindi and 98 other languages)
* Press TV (English, French)
* TV5Monde (French)
* CNA (English)
* ANC (English, Filipino)
* Zee News (Hindi)
* RT (Russian, English, French, German, Arabic, Spanish)
* Zee Entertainment (Hindi, Thai, English, Tamil, Telghu, and 126 other local languages)
* Voice of Indonesia (English, French, Spanish, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch)
* ABC Australia (English)
* RNZ International (English, French, Samoan, Tongan, Niuean, Cook Islands Maori, Solomon Islands Pidgin[22])
* i24NEWS (English, French, Spanish, Arabic)
* Sun TV (Tamil)
* NHK World-Japan (English, Japanese)
* CGTN (English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic)
* China Radio International (Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Belarusian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Croatian, Cambodian, Czech, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Filipino, French, German, Greek, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Laotian, Malaysian, Nepali, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, 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, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Vietnamese, Indonesian)
* WION (English)
* RAE (Spanish, German, French, English, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese)

## 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, 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 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.

This sort of map is used by radio engineers to determine the best frequencies to reach international audiences on shortwave bands. In this case, a transmitter is sited in the Southern Vancouver Island, using a frequency of 12095 kHz and transmitting at the 500 kW power level. The picture shows a good signal over the Southern Pacific. The signal fades out as it approaches the East Coast of Australia.

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 × 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

See also: Digital Radio Mondiale and Internet radio

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) 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.[according to whom?]

### 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):

* ABC Australia
* ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC)
* Al Jazeera
* BBC World News
* CNN International
* DD News
* Deutsche Welle
* France 24
* i24NEWS
* RT
* Sky News
* 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, 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.[23] In addition, the German government sold a cheap, 76 ℛℳ "People's Receiver", as well as an even cheaper 35 ℛℳ receiver,[23] that could not pick up distant signals well.[24]

The idea was copied by Stalin's Soviet Union, which had a nearly identical copy manufactured in the Tesla factory in Czechoslovakia.[24] In North Korea, all receivers are sold with fixed frequencies, tuned to local stations.

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.[25] Another method of reaching people with government radio programming, but not foreign programming, is the use of radio broadcasting by direct broadcasting to loudspeakers.[26] 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."[27]

## See also

* List of international broadcasters
* List of shortwave radio broadcasters
* Shortwave
* Shortwave bands
* Shortwave listening
* FTA receiver
* Medium wave – MW broadcasts generally don't travel as far as shortwave broadcasts, but MW is still used for international broadcasting, particularly to neighboring countries
* MW DX (mediumwave DXing)
* State media

## References

### Citations

1. ↑ Wood 2000: 56
2. ↑ U.S. Government Printing Office. International Law Documents: Neutrality, Conduct and Conclusion of Hostilities. 1919, p. 55
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Romy, Katy (2025-04-25). "International public media face uncertain future in democracies" (in en). https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/democracy/international-public-media-face-uncertain-future-in-democracies/89207323.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "China and Russia are deploying powerful new weapons: ideas". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. https://www.economist.com/international/2025/05/15/china-and-russia-are-deploying-powerful-new-weapons-ideas.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 John Bray (2002). Innovation and the Communications Revolution: From the Victorian Pioneers to Broadband Internet. IET. pp. 73–75. ISBN 9780852962183. https://books.google.com/books?id=3h7R36Y0yFUC.
6. ↑ "De Geschiedenis van Nederlandse Radio | Opklopper". January 23, 2024. Archived from the original on February 28, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090228214010/http://www.bureauafrique.nl/autresdepartements/africa/Radionetherlandsturns60/aboutrnw_history.
7. ↑ "Daventry Calling - 2: Station G5SW Chelmsford". http://www.ontheshortwaves.com/Wavescan/wavescan090920.html.
8. ↑ BBC World Service. World Service timeline.
9. ↑ Wood 2000: 49
10. ↑ Wood 2000:57
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Levillain 2002: 1600
12. ↑ Wood 2000: 51
13. ↑ Wood 2000: 58
14. ↑ Horwitz 2001: 287
15. ↑ BBC Handbook
16. ↑ "Radio Canada International goes off-air, moving online-only after 67 years of shortwave service". J-Source. June 25, 2012. http://j-source.ca/article/radio-canada-international-goes-air-moving-online-only-after-67-years-shortwave-service.
17. ↑ "Home | RNW Media". https://www.rnw.media/.
18. ↑ "Russia's global media operation under the spotlight". BBC News. November 16, 2014. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30040363.
19. ↑ "World Radio TV Handbook". WRTH Publications Ltd. Radio Data Center GmbH. https://www.wrth.com/.
20. ↑ "Short Wave Info". https://www.short-wave.info/.
21. ↑ Roth-Ey, Kristin (2020-01-01). "How Do You Listen to Radio Moscow? Moscow’s Broadcasters, ‘Third World’ Listeners, and the Space of the Airwaves in the Cold War". Slavonic and East European Review. https://www.academia.edu/44468094/How_Do_You_Listen_to_Radio_Moscow_Moscow_s_Broadcasters_Third_World_Listeners_and_the_Space_of_the_Airwaves_in_the_Cold_War.
22. ↑ "News in Pacific Languages". RNZ. https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/programmes/pacificlangaugesnews.
23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Hughes and Mann 2002: 93
24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Graef 2005: 36
25. ↑ Martin 2006: 495
26. ↑ Goetz, Philip W. The New Encyclopædia Britannica, 1991 edition, ISBN 0-85229-400-X, p 315
27. ↑ Jackson, David. "The Future of Radio II". World Radio TV Handbook, 2007 edition. 2007, Billboard Books. ISBN 0-8230-5997-9. p 38.

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Graef, Robert. Bicycling to Amersfoort: A World War II Memoir. 2005, iUniverse. ISBN 0-595-34621-9
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Horwitz, Robert Britt. Communication and Democratic Reform in South Africa. 2001, Cambridge University Press ISBN 0-521-79166-9.
* Hughes and Mann 2002
Hughes, Matthew, and Chris Mann. Inside Hitler's Germany: Life Under the Third Reich. 2002, Brassey's. ISBN 1-57488-503-0
* Levillain 2002
Levillain, Philippe. The Papacy: An Encyclopedia. Translated by John O'Malley. Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0-415-92228-3
* Martin 2006
Martin, Bradley K. Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty. 2006, Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-32221-6
* Wood 2000
Wood, James. History of International Broadcasting. 2000, IET. ISBN 0-85296-920-1

## 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. International Broadcasting Bureau and K3MT (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

* v
* t
* e

Telecommunications

History|

* Beacon
* Broadcasting
* Cable protection system
* Cable TV
* Communications satellite
* Computer network
* Data compression
* audio
* DCT
* image
* video
* Digital media
* Internet video
* online video platform
* social media
* streaming
* Drums
* Edholm's law
* Electrical telegraph
* Fax
* Heliographs
* Hydraulic telegraph
* Information Age
* Information revolution
* Internet
* Mass media
* Mobile phone
* Smartphone
* Optical telecommunication
* Optical telegraphy
* Pager
* Photophone
* Prepaid mobile phone
* Radio
* Radiotelephone
* Satellite communications
* Semaphore
* Semiconductor
* device
* MOSFET
* transistor
* Smoke signals
* Telecommunications history
* Telautograph
* Telegraphy
* Teleprinter (teletype)
* Telephone
* The Telephone Cases
* Television
* digital
* streaming
* Undersea telegraph line
* Videotelephony
* Whistled language
* Wireless revolution

Pioneers|

* Nasir Ahmed
* Edwin Howard Armstrong
* Mohamed M. Atalla
* John Logie Baird
* Paul Baran
* John Bardeen
* Alexander Graham Bell
* Tim Berners-Lee
* Jagadish Chandra Bose
* Walter Houser Brattain
* Vint Cerf
* Claude Chappe
* Yogen Dalal
* Donald Davies
* Lee de Forest
* Philo Farnsworth
* Reginald Fessenden
* Elisha Gray
* Oliver Heaviside
* Erna Schneider Hoover
* Harold Hopkins
* Internet pioneers
* Bob Kahn
* Dawon Kahng
* Charles K. Kao
* Narinder Singh Kapany
* Hedy Lamarr
* Innocenzo Manzetti
* Guglielmo Marconi
* Robert Metcalfe
* Antonio Meucci
* Jun-ichi Nishizawa
* Radia Perlman
* Alexander Stepanovich Popov
* Johann Philipp Reis
* Claude Shannon
* Henry Sutton
* Nikola Tesla
* Camille Tissot
* Alfred Vail
* Charles Wheatstone
* Vladimir K. Zworykin

Transmission
media|

* Coaxial cable
* Fiber-optic communication
* optical fiber
* Free-space optical communication
* Molecular communication
* Radio waves
* wireless
* Transmission line
* data transmission circuit
* telecommunication circuit

Network topology
and switching|

* Bandwidth
* Links
* Nodes
* terminal
* Network switching (circuit
* packet)
* Telephone exchange

Multiplexing|

* Space-division
* Frequency-division
* Time-division
* Polarization-division
* Orbital angular-momentum
* Code-division

Networks|

* ARPANET
* BITNET
* Cellular network
* Computer
* CYCLADES
* Ethernet
* FidoNet
* Internet
* Internet2
* ISDN
* LAN
* Mobile
* NGN
* NPL network
* Public Switched Telephone
* Radio
* Telecommunications equipment
* Television
* Telex
* WAN
* Wireless network
* World Wide Web

* Category
* Outline
* Portal
* Commons

* v
* t
* e

Analog and digital audio broadcasting

Terrestrial|

| Radio modulation|

* AM
* FM
* COFDM

|

Frequency allocations|

* LW (LF)
* MW (MF)
* SW (HF)
* VHF (low / mid / high)
* L band (Ultra high frequency

Digital systems|

* CAM-D
* DAB/DAB+
* DRM/DRM+
* FMeXtra
* HD Radio
* CDR
* DVB-T2 Lite

Satellite|

| Frequency allocations|

* C band
* Ku band
* L band
* S band

|

Digital systems|

* ADR
* DAB-S
* DVB-SH
* S-DMB
* SDR

Commercial radio providers|

* Sirius XM Holdings
* SiriusXM Canada

Codecs|

* AAC
* AMR-WB+
* HDC
* HE-AAC
* MPEG-1 Audio Layer II

Subcarrier signals|

* AMSS
* DirectBand
* PAD
* RDS/RBDS
* SCA/SCMO
* DARC

Related topics

Technical (audio)|

* Audio data compression
* Audio signal processing

Technical (AM stereo formats)|

* Belar
* C-QUAM
* Harris
* Kahn-Hazeltine
* Magnavox

Technical (emission)|

* AM broadcasting
* AM expanded band
* Cable radio
* Digital radio
* Error detection and correction
* FM broadcast band
* FM broadcasting
* Multipath propagation
* Shortwave relay station

Cultural|

* History of radio
* International broadcasting

* Comparison of radio systems

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