Before travelling the seven hours back to Virginia, today, Amanda reminded me to grab some stuff off the Internet that we could listen to on the way home.

I went to my favourite radio programs and downloaded their latest (and some times a few more) podcasts. I burned the files to a few audio CDs with ease and we listened to them on the way home. Great idea.

Of course this got my mind wandering somewhere around Dunn, NC. All of the podcasts that I grabbed I usually listen to over the radio. Before the VOA stopped most of its' English broadcast I could usually hear Our World on shortwave in the early morning hours. I used to listen to the BBC broadcasts as well until they stopped their shortwave service to the Americas (and now Europe and...). Radio is now FM. And that is where I usually listen to my other radio shows but listening to them without any static or that "radio" sound made me a little sad. I used to love to just listen to the AM signals coming into my receiver. The static and shifting signal was a comfort to me knowing that I was able to hear news and world events without having to rely on any other technology other than the transmitter and the receiver. And the receiver you could build yourself.

It is amazing to me that the BBC would have discontinued their shortwave service to so many parts of the earth. The BBC World Service used to be, in my opinion, the elite of the elite. But sadly they felt that the Internet and local FM radio stations would cover their listening area for them and they should discontinue their transmissions. What they don't understand is that some NPR stations do broadcast the BBC World Service over FM but it is during the hours of 0100 to 0500 when most people are asleep and that most places still don't have access to the Internet in a true fashion to make use of this service.

Oh how I long to hear the BBC come through my shortwave receiver speaker.