If ever there is a dying media that needs to be desperately recovered, it's radio. Many other popular forms of media have made our lives easier and faster. These include cellular phones with web access, the various internet apps that are pioneered along the way for use with web enabled cellular telephones, and the ability to text anything to anyone at anytime.
Our insatiable need for everything to be given to us right now has fed a deep disorder in our society in which face to face relationships are diminishing. What is instant media teaching us? There is no course in any school which focuses on this technology, and cellphones are strictly banned in most venues because of the disturbances they create, not to mention danger in some instances.
Let's focus on what would happen if there were to be a wide-spread outage that could not be repaired within a reasonable amount of time. Our world would go absolutely crazy looking for ways to get their news, gossip, socialization, and quench our need to communicate.
Where would anyone with half a brain turn? Has the light gone on yet? Picture the scenario if it hasn't. Mass disorder would likely ensue. Who around you would have the ability to tell you what is happening? Who would be expected to have the means to communicate? Got any idea yet?
If you said emergency personnel, amateur, and commercial broadcasters, you would be correct!
For what it would cost you to buy a pair of shoes at Payless, you could be in possession of a shortwave radio. If you had this resource for use anytime you wanted it, would you use it?
There is so much to hear on the shortwave bands! There is a world outside of your own life that wants you to know about it! Being in touch with the world's events is vital because you are a citizen of the world even if you've never left your homeland!
Radio Prague has rendered a valuable world radio service since August 31st, 1936. radio Prague currently broadcasts in six different languages twenty four hours a day, with thirty minutes of programs at specific intervals being dedicated to new programmes in each of the six languages.
The prime focus of these new programmes changes daily. More about the history of Radio Prague.
Radio is the last voice for human kind left in the world. Without it, we will surely be voiceless in a world where anything on the internet can be censored and sanitized because of concern for what those in powerful positions do not want you to know. We are living in times when the effort to control media communications has grown to such proportions that free speech is almost to the point of being impossible.
Everyday in the news, there are stories about people being arrested over their opinions, or being brought before the justice system in their locality due to something they texted on their cell phone. Radio is being suppressed in the name of budget cuts. Why, you ask do we want such an "outdated" technology?
Answer: Radio not only keeps people informed of events unfolding around them, but it also inspires learning about what real communications is! The dumber you are, the more controllable you are to those who have an agenda. If you use radio and have to learn UTC time conversions, learn about radio wave propagation, antennas, receivers, and receiver components....you open up a whole new world of possibilities for yourself.
Radio teaches Geography, Math, Sciences, and a whole list of useful knowledge!
Not all that long ago, the BBC World Service on Shortwave went away. Radio Prague cannot become a casualty! This station has served it's listening audience well for all these many decades, and there are citizens from all over the world who have no other way to keep in touch with what is happening back home, and some of them cannot afford the new technology that Shortwave is being replaced with.
Radio Prague has been one of the top broadcasters on the air since 1936. Radi oPrague has grown dear to countless listeners abroad who have written in to ask that Radio Prague be kept on the air. If Radio Prague becomes a casualty, not only will thi spart of the world be without a vital service, it will mark shortwave stations around the world as a continued easy target.
Keep Radio Prague on the air!!!
Friday, October 30, 2009
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1 comment:
There is a dumb and dumber attitude among the political and bureaucratic elites that shortwave is irrelevant in today's internet and satellite world. It is regarded as a "redundant cost, unpopular, poor sounding,...." What is denied is that shortwave is the best way to get around information blockages/strangleholds by repressive governments, aka "jamming". The web and satellite are more susceptible to transmission stoppages. Just look at what is happening today in China, Fiji Iran, and Afganistan and the case for shortwave is as relevant as ever: people need to be informed and maybe some of that knowledge will allow them to act in their own enlightened self-interest.
Related to this is the case of Radio Prague. It has become a jewel in the center of Europe, acting as a central source for stirring up interest in Czech culture and history. So, anyone who decides to unplug its transmitters should consider that within the web alone it will be one of so-many stations and other sites, whereas on the radio waves it will continue to stand out and attract curiosity. It turns out that station was one of the reasons I had decided to tour the Czech Republic several years ago. I wonder how many others became interested in a foreign culture just through world band radio listening?
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