Read more and listen to the last broadcas here.
Close to complete 60 years, Deutsche Welle is, step by step, closing the operation in radio, which it began in 1953. One of the most important movement in this sad strategy will be given at the end of this Month, with the closure of most of shortwave broadcasts, except targeting Africa, and the closing of the relay station in Sines (Portugal) and Trincomalee (Sri Lanka), as announced in May. I commented about it in this post and think that, although precipitated, it is a understandable step, if you consider the technical evolution and the pragmatism that characterizes the Germans and the recent decisions from DW’s board.
What I can’t understand is that DW is giving up not just the shortwaves, but the medium radio. The image at the top of this post is in the goodbye e-mail sent to listeners of the German Service, on September, 27. There, one of most traditional international radios explains that even the linear live streaming will disappear from its web site, keeping only podcasts and some programs in audio on demand. The same text is on the site (click to read – in German).
Who follows DW’s programs in TV perceive that the German international broadcaster has a relevant investment to produce high quality programs from Berlin. Of course, investing in TV and internet is completely reasonable nowadays. But, considering the very low costs of the streaming in internet, and the big volume of content generated at DW’s quartier in Bonn, closing the offer through this medium is really a strange decision. For pessimists, this movement could give reasons to ask if it is logic to keep DW’s big structure in Bonn. The complete absence of emotion (to say the least) in the last decisions, gives fear from the answer for this question.
Above are two recordings that I’ve rescued from old reel tapes, from the times in that DW had budget to send programs worldwide to radio stations in magnetic media. “Schlagercocktail”, in German, featured the so called “Schlager”, popular songs in Germany. The edition above is from 1993. “Música de interlúdio”, was the Brazilian version of the German "Promenadenkonzert”. The recording is from 1996 and hosted by Arno Rochol, who worked long time in the Brazilian Service and then went to DW Akademie.
Schlagercocktail
Close to complete 60 years, Deutsche Welle is, step by step, closing the operation in radio, which it began in 1953. One of the most important movement in this sad strategy will be given at the end of this Month, with the closure of most of shortwave broadcasts, except targeting Africa, and the closing of the relay station in Sines (Portugal) and Trincomalee (Sri Lanka), as announced in May. I commented about it in this post and think that, although precipitated, it is a understandable step, if you consider the technical evolution and the pragmatism that characterizes the Germans and the recent decisions from DW’s board.
What I can’t understand is that DW is giving up not just the shortwaves, but the medium radio. The image at the top of this post is in the goodbye e-mail sent to listeners of the German Service, on September, 27. There, one of most traditional international radios explains that even the linear live streaming will disappear from its web site, keeping only podcasts and some programs in audio on demand. The same text is on the site (click to read – in German).
Who follows DW’s programs in TV perceive that the German international broadcaster has a relevant investment to produce high quality programs from Berlin. Of course, investing in TV and internet is completely reasonable nowadays. But, considering the very low costs of the streaming in internet, and the big volume of content generated at DW’s quartier in Bonn, closing the offer through this medium is really a strange decision. For pessimists, this movement could give reasons to ask if it is logic to keep DW’s big structure in Bonn. The complete absence of emotion (to say the least) in the last decisions, gives fear from the answer for this question.
Above are two recordings that I’ve rescued from old reel tapes, from the times in that DW had budget to send programs worldwide to radio stations in magnetic media. “Schlagercocktail”, in German, featured the so called “Schlager”, popular songs in Germany. The edition above is from 1993. “Música de interlúdio”, was the Brazilian version of the German "Promenadenkonzert”. The recording is from 1996 and hosted by Arno Rochol, who worked long time in the Brazilian Service and then went to DW Akademie.
Schlagercocktail
Música de Interlúdio
This probably means that Germany has nothing interesting to tell to the world. The same happened to Switzerland, Italy, Belgium (probably the most irrelevant country of EU), and many others, and it is going to happen to UK as well.
ReplyDeleteIt is probably the beginning of an era that will bring us another period of very bad relationships between nations, with all the related consequences. I guess that if this happens, internet as well will be heavily reshaped.
If DarioGi's sentiments were true, DW-TV would not be so well-produced and successful.
ReplyDeleteI find it very sad to lose the audio stream, but I watch several hours of DW-TV every day and listen to many of its podcasts. Their content proves that Germany is still very relevant.
And DW is now announcing to shut down its relay station in Sines, Portugal, completely. They look for a contractor who dismantles and recycles the site. Announcement on dw.de
ReplyDelete