The 2011 edition of the World Radio TV Handbook (WRTH) was published in early December 2010. As usual, this edition of WRTH, the 65th, was produced with the help of dozens of contributors, many of whom have been collaborating with the publication for decades.
But we’re pleased to see a scattering of new names amongst those that have become familiar over the years. We note that the price has increased to £24.95 compared to £23.00 for the 2010 edition, though the book is available for a reduced price through some online booksellers.
Receivers
Apart from its thorough reference sections, for the past 30 years or so the WRTH has also included a section reviewing and testing the latest shortwave receivers. Needless to say, there are far fewer shortwave receivers being produced by the major manufacturers these days, but section editor John Nelson says that “this has been something of a vintage year for new receivers.”
In fact, there is only one new high-end receiver, the AOR AR5001D, which is a combined shortwave receiver and VHF/UHF scanner. There’s also the latest offering from Winradio, the G31DDC Excalibur. The rest of the new offerings are Chinese-made portables, though it’s pointed out that there are no official distributors for these brands in Europe or North America. The balance of the receiver section is made up of classic receivers from the 80s and 90s.
It’s good to see that George Jacobs is still contributing his annual article about high frequency reception conditions expected in the coming year. He is also celebrating his 70th year in the broadcasting business in 2011, and is no doubt looking forward to writing his 50th contribution to WRTH next year.
Schedules in bargraph format
It’s well-known that in the 80s and 90s, WRTH faced serious competition in the shortwave listening market from Passport to World Band Radio (PWBR). Unfortunately, PWBR has ceased to exist, and there have been many requests for WRTH to take over publication of the shortwave schedules in bargraph format that made PWBR so popular. The editors have decided to take up the challenge, but in the form of a CD, which is due to be published in January 2011. It will be available exclusively via the WRTH website. We hope to publish a review of this CD in due course.
Unfortunately, the WRTH also seems to be copying one of the less desirable traits of PWBR, namely to eliminate all mention of international broadcasters that have chosen to discontinue shortwave broadcasts. So in the international broadcasting section, you will find no mention of Radio Sweden or Swissinfo, despite these organisations – both key partners of RNW – remaining active. Another station missing is Radio Moldova International, which continues to produce daily 30-minute programmes in five languages including English.
Radio Prague and Radio Slovakia International have survived the cull this year, but since both will have left shortwave by the end of January, presumably the intention is to delete them next year, though there have been no cuts to programme production and Radio Slovakia International has announced that it will continue to air its programmes on WRN.
Some things that aren't mentioned
RNW is among the broadcasters whose activities are not fully represented in WRTH. We produce material in ten languages, but only the four that we currently broadcast on shortwave are mentioned. The other six, carried on the internet and by partner stations, are not mentioned. The casual reader would have no idea that RNW produces material in French, Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, Papiamento and Sranan Tongo.
This policy of listing (or not listing) stations according to transmission platform rather than content is fine for a book aimed at hobbyists – as PWBR was- but a significant proportion of WRTH readers are broadcast professionals who need to be informed about the activities of potential partners and competitors. Some of the partnerships with national broadcasters reach much larger audiences than some of the shortwave transmissions that are listed. We hope the editors will review their policy about what should be listed in the international broadcasting section of the book.
Impressive listings
Despite this criticism, the overall accuracy of the WRTH, with its exhaustive listings of domestic broadcasters around the world, remains very high, and we are impressed by how many late changes are now incorporated in the listings. This is supplemented by the availability of updates during the year on the WRTH website, covering both domestic station changes and international broadcast schedules. The publisher has found a good balance between the need for up-to-date information and the continuing need, in some parts of the world, for a printed reference source. As always, we highly recommend the book as excellent value for money, even with the price increase, and a must-have for both the hobby listener and the broadcast professional.
Publisher: Nicholas Hardyman
No of pages: 672
Publisher: WRTH Publications Limited, PO Box 290, Oxford, OX2 7FT, United Kingdom.
Order Fax: +44 (0)1865 514405.
Web (secure online ordering): www.wrth.com
E-mail:
Cover price: £24.95 including airmail postage worldwide.
ISBN: 978-0-9555481-2-3
Distributed in the USA by Innovative Logistics, 575 Prospect St, Lakewood, NJ 08701. Web: www.innlog.net.
Distributed in Germany by Gert Wohlfarth GmbH, Stresemannstrasse 20-22, D-47051 Duisburg . E-mail: .
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I sure hope that this handbook will sell very well. It is not expensive and you must have it. But I believe that the publisher should advertise it more, maybe make and send it to libraries and big stores. People need this guide to keep in touch with the world’s events.
Dissapointed for the low rating given to the Degen DE1103. It's been a battle horse for L. Am DXers during the last years... despite its not user-friendly volume control and some quirks with design or quality control.
amazon.ca has chosen, for no explained reason, to boost its price by over 50% on this book from last year. In contrast, amazon.com is currently charging almost 70% less for the same book right now. And this at a time when the Canadian $ is valued higher than the U.S. $. When I questioned amazon.ca on this, they stated simply they do not match amazon.com pricing. That's obvious! This is an embarrassment to the Canadian publishing industry. And this can only hurt sales of the excellent WRTH.
Interesting letter by Bruno Marado. I would say, quite simply, that radio is radio, and transmitted by other means is no longer radio, and doesn't work any longer.
I love some comics strips, but would anyone read Shakespeare, Hemingway or Ken Follett in comics strips?
I try to listen to broadcast stations and use WRTH to help me. But we are all faced sooner or later with Power Line Transmissions and the regulatory authorities are seemingly turning a blind eye to this menace to us all.
WWW.UKQRM is leading the fight to try to save the s/w and VHF frequencies for us , but maybe loosing the battle. We will not go down without a fight!
Yes it is a pity that s/w broadcast stations seem to be deserting the bands,probably due to cost of running the transmitters.
While I'm sure that the review here is an accurate and comprehensive rendering, I regret that--even with the tools of the 21st century on offer--the WRTH still can't manage to simultaneously publish its annual editions in North America, e.g., and the UK and Europe. It's been weeks since publication, and sales centers in the U.S. and Canada still don't have their copies for distribution. It's not a new problem, but it's also not one without solution if the publisher were interested in finding one.
John, as you point out it's a longstanding problem. The WRTH website does say that "The severe weather over northern Europe is still causing delays to both mail and courier deliveries." Perhaps you are not aware of the level of disruption that has been going on in Europe, and now blizzards in the part of the US where the distribution centre is. I had my share of these problems over the years, and we looked at simultaneous printing in North America and Europe. But it would have been too costly. The problem with books is that they're expensive to produce, however you do it. Perhaps the answer is to make it available as an e-book. But if that became too popular, sales of the printed edition would decline.
Andy, I don't mean the criticism to be taken as nasty or gratuitous--and having done a bit of publishing myself, I can attest to the fact that things that should be rather simple are often not the case in that realm. Much of the problem may have to do with the numbers--the cost of simultaneous printing vs. the actual number of purchasers which may be less than it once was and is not a business matter that editors or publishers usually freely discuss. (I tend to look at it with same attitude I have toward banks in the digital age that still feel the need to have five business days in order to clear your cheque.) Nonetheless, it is a problem and one that is frustrating to experience from the consumer side. Having said that, the efforts of the current publisher/editor to offer regular online updates (as you once did through the printed supplements) and--now--a bargraph version to be made available in January are to be warmly commended and the distribution issue should not detract from those valuable and much appreciated efforts. Happy New Year!
Hi Andy. I just would like to give you some reliable data, instead of make statements nor supported by surveys. In 1990 the BBC shortwave audience was 120 MILLION (source: James Wood, History of international broadcasting vol II, pag236). In 2008 (according WRTH2010, page 31, interview to Mike Cronk,BBC Director of Global news Division) the BBC short wave audience was of 104 MILLION. In 2009, according to the bbc_world_service_annual_review, page 29, the BBC online offer had a total of 7.3 MILLION users.
Above Reliable Official data show that BBC have 10x more shortwave listeners than Internet users TODAY.
Can you please comment this, showing reliable data (absolute values, not increase/decrease rates)of RNW shortwave audiences before cuts, today shortwave audiences, and RNW Internet users?
Thank you and best regards.
In the world of DXing this guide is unique.
It always amazes me how comprehensive it is, especially as there are so many changes to cope with.
I hope all DXers buy it each year, I do - use it or lose it.
73s everyone
Kai, you make a valid point that it becomes quite difficult to determine boundaries for international broadcasting as we enter 2011, and that becomes a problem for someone preparing an "old school" directory in the days of unstructured information. For example, newspapers and magazines such as The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Economist all produce English language podcasts that provide global analysis and perspective. Should they count too?
I fear it is a bit more complicated than this. In my opinion you can no longer define "international broadcasting" as a "community" of state-funded organizations that run or used to run shortwave transmissions.
First, because this still leaves out all the more recent TV ventures. Russia Today or Press TV are far more important than Voice of Russia or the foreign radio service of IRIB. The same goes for TV services from the players known from the old shortwave field. BBC WS TV in Arabic and Persian, Alhurra and VOA PNN etc. Even the field of so-called "target broadcasting" to Iran has widely shifted away from radio to TV.
And second, it becomes bottomless if one tries to include even organizations that run mere websites. Is there a rationale for preferring Swissinfo over, just as an example, EurActive, only because it emerged from shortwave radio?
Trying to keep the old, beloved shortwave world by transferring it to other delivery platforms and ignoring anything else around? I do not think that this would work.
Thanks for the thorough review, Andy. I agree that omitting information on a broadcaster because its content isn't transmitted "over-the-air" is myopic in 2011. It's just my opinion, but I wouldn't be surprised to see WRTH suffer a similar fate to PWBR -- obsoleting itself -- if WRTH continues not to embrace alternative delivery platforms. After all, audiences have already voted, embracing tools like web streaming and podcast.
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