What's On Topic Here in the Entertainment Radio subforum? (shortwave, best)

[Bo]

This is the Radio subforum of the Entertainment forum, which means the topic for this forum is radio broadcasting. There are many other uses for radio signals which are not broadcasting, such as amateur radio and radio scanners. Although those forms of radio can be very entertaining, they are not specifically entertainment. To avoid overlap with the Hobbies and Recreation forum at City-Data, discussion of those types of non-broadcast radio will be off-topic in this forum. (A few threads from that forum and a few threads from Self-Sufficiency and Preparedness which discussed radio broadcasting were moved into this forum today.)

If you have questions about whether something related to radio is on topic for this forum, feel free to send me a Direct Message to ask.

[Bo]

A couple of topics were brought to my attention that weren't addressed in the post above.

Internet Radio: Internet radio is broadcasting and it is entertainment. Some of it is the same as programming that is simultaneously transmitted on the radio. As mobile Internet becomes available more widely, Internet radio will compete more with terrestrial and satellite radio and it will increasingly affect both more traditional forms of radio broadcasting. Internet Radio is on topic in this forum.

Podcasting: Podcasts are recordings and they're not sent out in real-time. They're downloaded and used at the listener's convenience, so they're not broadcasting. City-Data's Internet forum is the place for threads about podcasting. Podcasting is off topic in this forum. It can be discussed within a thread if the podcasts are of a radio broadcast, but it can't be the topic.

[Bo]

Based on the discussion in this thread, I've decided that Shortwave Radio programs are on-topic in this forum.

The Entertainment Radio forum is not the right place to discuss the technical aspects of shortwave radio equipment, antennas, band openings, etc or anything that wasn't a program. Those are more in line with the kind of topics that would overlap with and interest the amateur radio (ham) operators in the Hobbies forum. Perhaps someday there will be an amateur radio and shortwave subforum of Hobbies. The best way to make that happen is to start lots of threads about those hobbies and make those discussions as active as possible. The more threads and posts, the easier it is to make the case for a subforum.