Short wave radio - vital ministry goes on

Friday 27th March, 2009
As the new short wave summer schedule begins over the weekend, Feba short wave programming is still going strong. This includes a new language service, a programme series called Light for Life, airing 30-minutes daily for a specific people group in north east Africa. Even with increasing use of FM radio and internet in urban areas, surveys show that short wave is still one of the most important means of broadcasting into remote areas of the Feba listeners' world. Low-cost (under £5) short wave radios are widely available worldwide, inportable sizes, powered by battery or hand-crank, making this a very cost-effective means of reaching people with the Gospel. Short wave does have some advantages over newer technologies. Short wave radio travels much farther than FM. Short wave can be broadcast from a very distant transmitter, many times not in the same country as the radios receiving the programmes. That means our programmes can be heard by short wave listeners in places where Christian programmes are not allowed on local FM radio or access to Christian audio on the internet is blocked. We broadcast in many tribal languages, not just the national languages in the area, reaching across country boundaries to speak to the people in their heart languages. Although short wave reception is affected by changes in the seasons, our short wave listeners are very accustomed to the routine of changing their radio dial for the new season: one setting on the dial for the summer period (starting on time change Sunday at the end of March) and another setting for the winter period (starting on time change Sunday at the end of October). As with most things these days, the cost of short wave programming is climbing, with the recession and rising fuel costs, impacting our transmitting costs. Val Rollins, Feba's Broadcast Manager, works diligently with different broadcasters to buy transmitter time that is both well-placed to air our programmes to the designated countries but also at the most economical rate. Find out more about the costs of short wave on the Short Wave Airtime project web page.
http://www.feba.org.uk/projects/unsponsored-short-wave-airtime

(FEBA Radio)