WRTH 2022...final edition?

[Mediafrog+]

It is being reported in SWDX forums that the publishers of the World Radio TV Handbook have announced that the upcoming 2022 edition will be its last. They are hoping that a new publisher might come forward. The WRTH has been in peril a few times in the past, so perhaps it will somehow pull through again. But increased publishing costs along with greatly reduced advertising has brought them to this point, not to mention the availability of information online.

The WRTH has been published annually since 1947, and its demise would be a great loss to the DX community. However I can't say I'm surprised by this...probably amazing they've lasted this long.

 

[billmich]

it's still around? It's a very quaint throwback to 1998

 

[tvnut]

Aren't we all?

 

[davideduardo]

The publication was used less and less by DXers as the short wave bands thinned out, so the market was more for equipment, program and service providers. There apparently are just not enough of those to sustain the publication.

And for that purpose, they were very slow in adding full FM listings at a time when AMs are being closed nearly everywhere in considerable numbers.

 

[crainbebo]

As the Internet has taken over our lives, it is a wonder WRTH has survived this long. Passport to World Band Radio stopped publication in 2009!
75% of the SW bands are dead as a doornail nowadays, half of Europe has no more AM or only low-power AM, heck, Norway doesn't even have *FM* anymore, and the U.S. AM license cancelations keep piling up, more and more every year.
It does suck for those who DX exotic locations and need an address for a QSL or confirmation.

 

[Mediafrog+]

The publication was used less and less by DXers as the short wave bands thinned out, so the market was more for equipment, program and service providers. There apparently are just not enough of those to sustain the publication.

The WRTH still had its uses for the DX community for medium and shortwave domestic services, where listings could be quite thorough. Info sometimes a little out of date, as services and stations quickly disappear, or at least operate sporadically. But info on the major international broadcasters is easily available from online sources, so much less value there.

Back in the 1960s and 70s the WRTH was absolutely packed with advertising from equipment manufacturers, program producers, broadcasting entities, and radio enthusiast organizations. In recent years there have only been a few advertisers, which has certainly clobbered the economic viability of the WRTH. Price has gone up to $50 as well, which has driven off sales.

For several decades I purchased the WRTH every year. But due to the increasing cost, as well as the overall demise of shortwave broadcasting, I had cut back to buying it every two or three years. I did have the 2021 edition, and put in my order for the 2022 version as soon as I saw the closure announcement.

And for that purpose, they were very slow in adding full FM listings at a time when AMs are being closed nearly everywhere in considerable numbers.

FM listings in the WRTH have varied greatly by country. I assume you are referring to Latin American FM listings, which tended to only be for the capital cities. However listings for some other countries could be quite extensive.

Adding as much FM info as possible would have probably bloated the WRTH into an unwieldy publication, and local FM info would be of more interest to international travelers, not DXers.

 

[boombox4]

Low sunspots, a thinning SW band -- and thinning out of manufacturers (Sangean, Grundig, and Tecsun seem to be the only ones that market radios anymore -- Sony only has a couple FM-AM portables, Panasonic is out of the radio market aside from one or two small FM-AMers, the big guns like Icom and Kenwood don't market to SWLs anymore, Drake I think is out of the receiver business) -- all of these factors, along with the internet, have taken their toll.

I prefer the books still, but I don't use them anymore. WRTH's domestic AM listings were generally 50KWers only, the overseas MW listings are cool but most of us don't hear overseas MW. SW, as we all know, is more or less dead thanks to the sun. The other night I heard neither WWVH or WWV, just hiss and static. Only Cuba. Somehow, Cuba generally gets through.

All that said, I'm sad about it. I got two older WRTHs (1982 and 2002) and one old Passport to World Band Radio (1990s some time), and now and then I page through them and remember what it was like back then.

 

[davideduardo]

Adding as much FM info as possible would have probably bloated the WRTH into an unwieldy publication, and local FM info would be of more interest to international travelers, not DXers.

But the lack of FM data made the book far less useful to equipment providers and to international program distributors.

Up until two years ago, I was involved with Radio Express, the company that Tom Rounds created after selling Watermark (American Top 40). There were always a couple of copies of WRTH in the offices, and they were used to look for contacts in many places, particularly when CocaCola asked Radio Express to do an African version of the World Chart Show.

As years went by, though, we had to depend more and more on Internet listings and help from the Commercial Attache at the US Embassy in each nation for contact info.

Part of the problem was that FMs were so numerous and some were so unstable that the data changed, it seemed, every month or two. The Internet is a better platform for rapidly changing info.

As to DXers, there are so few of them left that there is not much of a market for an expensive book. And then, there are so few shortwave stations left anywhere that there is not much to listen to.

 

[boombox4]

As the Internet has taken over our lives, it is a wonder WRTH has survived this long. Passport to World Band Radio stopped publication in 2009!
75% of the SW bands are dead as a doornail nowadays, half of Europe has no more AM or only low-power AM, heck, Norway doesn't even have *FM* anymore, and the U.S. AM license cancelations keep piling up, more and more every year.
It does suck for those who DX exotic locations and need an address for a QSL or confirmation.

Points taken. The bands just are dead most of the time, thanks to the sun's gradually decreasing its output.

Norway still has FM. The NRK (and all of its associated radio channels) is all on DAB, along with the biggest FM commercial stations and networks. But not all of the FM stations in the country could fit onto the limited number of DAB channels.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_in_Norway#:~:text=%20NRK%20radio%20channels%20are%20the%20most%20prominent,for%20the%20vast%20majority.%20News%20headlines%20every%20hour.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Norwegian-language_radio_stations#Local_radio_stations

 

[boombox4]

As to DXers, there are so few of them left that there is not much of a market for an expensive book. And then, there are so few shortwave stations left anywhere that there is not much to listen to.

It's similar to most domestic radio listeners -- in the 1930-1960s there were travel radio guides, and radio station guides in newspapers and on road maps. Now people just tune to whatever station they already know is there. I don't really need a SW station guide to tell me where Cuba is, where China is, or where Radio Nikkei is -- conditions permitting, they're always there. Same with WRMI, WWV, etc.

 

[TomásEstefan]

But the lack of FM data made the book far less useful to equipment providers and to international program distributors.

Up until two years ago, I was involved with Radio Express, the company that Tom Rounds created after selling Watermark (American Top 40). There were always a couple of copies of WRTH in the offices, and they were used to look for contacts in many places, particularly when CocaCola asked Radio Express to do an African version of the World Chart Show.

As years went by, though, we had to depend more and more on Internet listings and help from the Commercial Attache at the US Embassy in each nation for contact info.

Part of the problem was that FMs were so numerous and some were so unstable that the data changed, it seemed, every month or two. The Internet is a better platform for rapidly changing info.

As to DXers, there are so few of them left that there is not much of a market for an expensive book. And then, there are so few shortwave stations left anywhere that there is not much to listen to.

I have a friend who worked in Retail Electronics and he told me it's been at least 10 years that a customer asked if he carried Short Wave radios, when at one time it was a common quetion.

 

[Mediafrog+]

The 2022 WRTH showed up at my front door today. The editor’s introduction page states that it is the final edition under current ownership, so the decision was made before going to press.

There is a small chance that someone else might take up the torch to continue the WRTH, but I strongly doubt it. I suspect any revival would be a greatly stripped down version, and there are already ample online sources for information.

Now to digest the latest info. Already saw that it lists only 25 Brazilian domestic shortwave stations, down from 39 in the previous year’s edition.

Apparently the WRTH website will remain online for a while, including updates. Unclear how long it will stay active.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

im surprised the wrth lasted this long with other resources, which are online and more updated

if i can stand outside at 15 below when dxing in the middle of bupkus alaska, and use my phone, anyone can do it

 

[cyberdad]

I kind of hate to admit it, but the last time I bought an edittion of WRTH was probably about fifteen years ago. I used to buy it every year as soon as I could get my hands on it. I also used to listen to shortwave several times a week. Now its down to several times a year. Maybe,

 

[radioman148]

I kind of hate to admit it, but the last time I bought an edittion of WRTH was probably about fifteen years ago. I used to buy it every year as soon as I could get my hands on it. I also used to listen to shortwave several times a week. Now its down to several times a year. Maybe,

I'm right there with you--same thing here.

 

[KeithE4]

I kind of hate to admit it, but the last time I bought an edittion of WRTH was probably about fifteen years ago. I used to buy it every year as soon as I could get my hands on it. I also used to listen to shortwave several times a week. Now its down to several times a year. Maybe,

About the same for me. Passport to World Band Radio (I still hate that marketroid term, but the book had good info) was another one I bought regularly in the '80s and '90s.

By the time I got high-speed internet (in 2000), there were plenty of online resources that replaced those books. I still listen to shortwave, both by being a ham operator and some broadcasters, but there aren't enough stations anymore to justify publishing a book.

 

[boombox4]

Between 2011 and 2016, I tuned the SW bands every night, and sometimes early mornings as well.

Back then (I hate using that term, but it applies), I thoroughly enjoyed hearing 11 Meter CB operators from Latin America in the 'outband' frequencies during the afternoons; Saturday afternoons hearing Voz Cristiana from Chile; Radio Exterior De España on 19 meters with classical and flamenco music and European, Castilian Spanish; the BBC from Singapore in English broadcasting to Asia; ham pirates ("village radio") from Kalimantan in Indonesia during the early mornings; hams on 20 and 40 meters most nights, including the slow CW you'd hear in the former novice bands.

I'd hear legit hams from Indonesia calling Japan and the US on early mornings in the lower parts of the 40 meter band, along with the Russian single letter beacons further up -- and most of these catches on just my DX-390, 398 or 440 using a 25 foot indoor wire. Between 2015 and 2016 I was hearring Vividh Bharati and China broadcasting to Europe from Kashgar -- on just my Grundig G2, just off the whip.

Then the sun went down the drain, and stations also cut hours and/or went off the air.

I stopped tuning nightly about the 50th time I heard nothing but static, WRMI, and Cuba. That was some time in 2017 or very early 2018. I don't tune the SW band anymore. Nothing to hear, really, until the sun increases its output. I might fire up the G2 and tune a couple SW bands at night, maybe every three weeks? I always know what I'm going to hear.

By the way, the sun has been gradually decreasing its output over the last three solar cycles. It's incremental, but there is a NASA chart showing how each of the recent cycles' peaks are lower than the previous one, since around 2002.

I haven't bought a SW magazine since probably 2012 or 2014, during one of the last times I went into a Barnes & Noble, and saw a couple mags were still publishing. They were priced higher than the previous time I'd bought one, and as the Recession was still on, I didn't have a ton of money to spend. Even so, I bought one. It felt even then like the end of an era, because I could see then the writing on the wall.

This is one reason I still DX the MW even if I don't really feel like it. I still hear the same 250 stations every night but at least something is there that's distant, and it's still pleasant to tune around and hear what's coming in one evening or morning that wasn't there the previous couple.

As for printed materials versus the internet, I rely on my ears first, and log down what I hear in my logbook. If I am not sure what I heard, I will look it up later -- first on my personal MW station log, and then on my computer listing which I got from a now-defunct AM DX website -- a text file I keep updated with format and call changes.

After that, maybe I'll use an internet source. With SW I'll use Short-wave.info or EiBi. I have EiBi listings saved on my tablet computer browser, which I usually keep handy. I don't even have to have the WiFi on to pull it up and see what I might have heard -- on that rare occasion that when I tune the SW bands I actually hear something.

Medium wave, I'll wait til I'm on the computer, and look something up if I'm not sure what I heard.

And that's how things have progressed, I guess. I think if the sun was more cooperative, the SW hobby might look a little brighter. I know there are stations broadcasting still, over on the other side of the world. It's just that you need a large rhombic in your back 40 to hear them, until the sun cooperates.

 

[MichaelTheZ]

The last time I bought a WRTH was in 1993, a year before I moved for grad school and basically stopped all shortwave radio listening. It's in pretty good shape for a 30 year old paperback. Honestly though I think there's no need to publish the WRTH anymore, given how dead the shortwave bands are and how available info is on the internet. But it is sort of nostalgic going through the shortwave tables and remembering how enthusiastic I was about it all.

 

[Mediafrog+]

By the way, the sun has been gradually decreasing its output over the last three solar cycles. It's incremental, but there is a NASA chart showing how each of the recent cycles' peaks are lower than the previous one, since around 2002.

Scientists who study the sun theorize that the familiar 11-year sunspot cycle is actually part of a larger, more long-term cycle. They believe that if only the peaks of each 11-year cycle are plotted in a long timeframe (many centuries) the result would be another smoothed pattern of highs and lows, including a "grand maximum" and a "grand minimum". It is believed the last grand maximum was with the peak of sunspot cycle #19 in 1957, which saw spectacular shortwave and VHF reception. Such a theory explains why sunspot cycle peaks since 1957 have been trending lower.

I think if the sun was more cooperative, the SW hobby might look a little brighter. I know there are stations broadcasting still, over on the other side of the world. It's just that you need a large rhombic in your back 40 to hear them, until the sun cooperates.

A big issue for us in North America is that virtually nothing is beamed our way. You can easily hear the domestic U.S. private SW broadcasters, as well as Radio Marti, a few VOA broadcasts still coming from Greenville, and Radio Havana Cuba. But for everything else you have to do a lot of digging, and even then there is not much that is actually at listenable levels.

Having access to online SDRs helps. You will find there is more to hear on receivers based in the eastern hemisphere, as Africa and Asia are still targeted by the remaining shortwave broadcasters. Even then the numbers are way down from what they were decades ago.

The peak of sunspot cycle #25 in the 2025-26 time range might be the last hurrah for what is left of shortwave broadcasting. There might be a few stragglers for the peak of cycle #26 around 2037, but by the peak of cycle #27 in the late 2040s, shortwave is likely to be dead for broadcasting.

 

[cyberdad]

Between 2011 and 2016, I tuned the SW bands every night, and sometimes early mornings as well. ,,,,,,,

The points you make in your post pretty much reflect my experiences and feelings.