by and had to comment on Mr. Figliozzi's article entitled, 'Ruminations of
a Blocked Writer' appearing in his 'Programming Spotlight' column on
page 69.
It's hardly a case of writers block Mr. Figliozzi, I think you address a
very important issue long overdue! Maybe your column can periodically,
once or twice yearly, present commentary or constructive critism from
the SWL community regarding poor operating practices
(engineering/production), programming, scheduling, SEASONAL
TIME/FREQUENCY CHANGES and anything else that listeners find
objectional. Of course, special mention and praise for those
broadcasters who do an exemplary job with a proper broadcast.
It's about time that the resources of the SWL community be rallied
together in support of changing annoying practices and maybe even
addressing those comments to their respective government departments or
sources of funding and bypass the broadcaster entirely! Maybe RN
wouldn't have dropped Media Network and just think of it, maybe Radio
Japan would finally air programs befitting the history and culture of
Japan, and maybe Radio Cairo could finally resolve their engineering
problems! Then again, judging by the topics posted to this newsgroup,
it seems that only 10% use shortwave radio as a source of vital news and
cultural programming from overseas. The majority seem to more
interested playing NSA/NRO/CIA/GCHQ after school with their R8B by
tuning for military and ute coms instead of learning about their
world---no wonder Americans are consider naive about world affairs and
treated with contempt by foreigners!
BTW, I am in full agreement with your comments regarding the poor
operating practices of the BBC. I have complained on the very same
examples you described. Typically, the response I get is a stuffy,
"Rather..." or some very lame excuse and off they go busily making the
same mistakes---and proud of it. Now... if it wasn't for Lend-Lease, or
how do they prefer to say it, Lease-Lend...