GEO-BLOCKING AND THE DEATH OF DXing (Radio Distance Listening)

As I've mentioned before on my blog, one of my hobbies has been long distance radio listening, mainly to the AM radio broadcast band, a pastime known to some as Medium Wave "DXing".

Although lately I haven't really done that much active MW DXing, I usually tune in to a couple distant stations each night, if only to see what the atmospheric conditions are like. And -- of course -- I'll tune into the Merced, California rock station called "The Bear" on 1660 khz., KBRE. KBRE's 1660 station is a relay of their local FM translator in Merced on 105.7.

Online streaming of far away commercial radio stations is becoming a disappearing opportunity. National network stations, like some BBC services as well as Sweden's SverigesRadio and Norway's NRK, still have streams of their stations available. Who knows how long that will last, before they also geo-fence?

I've written about 105.7 The Bear on this blog before, it's a great rock music station, and worth checking out if you live in the Western United States and Canada.

I've listened to them online as well as on the AM band, and used their online stream a few times when the AM nighttime atmospheric conditions were abysmal, or during times of the day I wouldn't be able to hear their signal otherwise.

Unfortunately I discovered, to my chagrin, that The Bear now geo-fences or "geo-blocks" anyone who tries to stream the station, who lives outside their metro area. Like an increasing number of stations in the U.S. and Canada, they are limiting who listens to the online stream because of streaming costs.

INCREASED STREAMING ROYALTIES AND GEO-BLOCKING

This is an increasing trend taken among radio stations here in the U.S., something not only noticed by DXers, but also by expatriates and people trying to hear some programming from "back home".

I've noticed geo-fencing on TuneIn, an app that I used to use quite a bit. Now, it seems half the time I "tune in" to a commercial radio station online using TuneIn, I hear their one-minute commercial and then I get nothing but dead air, or a message saying "This station isn't available in your area".

It's not TuneIn's fault, of course. It's the station itself choosing to geo-block their broadcast. They are doing it to save money because of royalty costs and internet connection costs. Radio, after all, is a business in the United States.

 I know, it's just rock music on the AM band, but The Bear still sounds pretty cool!

When radio stations first discovered the internet in the early 2000's (some stations embraced it in some form in the very late 1990's), they were proud of their overseas and nationwide listeners on the internet. Many people in the radio industry opened up their own online radio stations -- either as a hobby, or as a small enterprise -- with new types of music formats; and some radio hobbyists saw online radio as an affordable way to "play DJ" or popularise music and artists that weren't usually getting played on the airwaves.

But with the increase in streaming music royalty fees, many stations simply can't justify having streaming listeners who aren't in their local market -- the costs of paying the royalties do not outweigh any benefit of having listeners that aren't marketable to advertisers.

And this is not helped by an economy that has hit radio revenues hard, according to radio business experts.

And many small online-only radio stations have gone out of business, too. For many, the streaming royalty fees have done them in. The costs of operating an online station outweigh the benefits.

Ironically, while the world is slowly going "global" -- with the internet increasing ties that cross international borders -- radio is unfortunately slowly going in the opposite direction.

WHERE 'DXing' FITS IN

The hobby of DXing is a relatively unknown one but it's existed since there was such a thing as broadcast radio. Whether music and programming were broadcast on AM, FM, Shortwave, or Longwave, there have always been people trying to see how many far away stations they can pick up on their radios. I'm sure in the DAB countries there are people who try to hear the DAB transmitters in the next metro.

It's part of the adventure in listening. For many, radio is just a local jukebox-style music service, but for others, it's a window to the greater world.

Before there was an internet, there were people who loved reading newspapers and magazines from other countries -- and there also were people who loved hearing radio programming from other areas, regions, and countries, too.

For many years, radio Long Distance Listening -- especially on the Shortwave radio bands -- was an education in other countries' cultures. It was the radio equivalent of going to a news or cultural website hosted by another country, in another language.

I used to listen to the Voice of Russia (and its predecessor, Radio Moscow) and I learned a lot about the Soviet Republics and Russian culture by listening to their programs. I would tune in the Russians' SW "Mayak" programming sent out to their mariners in the Pacific, trying to learn a bit of Russian -- and listening to the music.

When I hear the Brazilian Radio Nacional da Amazonia on the SW band, I can hear all sorts of interesting programming in Portuguese.

Now, I understand very little Portuguese. But I hear music and commercials and all sorts of windows into Brazilian life on Radio Nacional da Amazonia that I would not have if I didn't have access to their radio broadcasts.

It's much the same when I have listened to the NRK's stations. I've heard bands and artists I wouldn't have heard otherwise. I've been able to learn a bit of the Norwegian language from listening.

I have learned a lot about the goings-on in other U.S. cities and states (and in Canadian provinces) by listening to radio stations from those areas on my AM radios... I think in some small way it has helped me understand my countrymen in other states because of it, and I know I have a better understanding of Canada because of my listening to the CBC.

True, you can access websites that have all sorts of printed information on other areas of the world, but what if you want to hear something from another part of the world? To actually listen to their local media?

God forbid over-the-air broadcasting goes away: all chances of someone in Seattle hearing live programming from places like San Francisco, Sacramento, Reno, Salt Lake City, Portland, Los Angeles, Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and other places in North America will slowly vanish. All will depend on the extent of geo-blocking that stations choose to engage in.

WHEN BROADCASTING BECOMES NARROWCASTING 

It is my opinion that once online streaming replaces FM and AM broadcasting (which may happen in 20 years or so), you can kiss off the idea of listening to anything from outside your own local area. Unless streaming royalties drop precipitously (they probably won't), all radio will be local only, and without any over the air transmissions there will be zero chance of a listener in the US hearing broadcasts from another state, or another country.

Now, to most FM radio listeners, that's no great loss. Who cares about what's happening in the next city or state? Who cares about what happens in another country overseas? Who needs to hear programming in another language, or music from another part of the world presented by people from that area? Who needs that when you can listen to the Top 40 on your local FM over-the-air or online station?

Soon enough it may be time to take the hammer to the mini-boombox?

But there is something lost when that opportunity is gone. When we read about some countries blocking internet access from other areas of the world, we complain about "censorship". But what happens when we allow broadcasting to become narrowcasting?


I'm certain that when over-the-air radio disappears -- probably years from now -- there may be some countries that will keep their online streams open: any country that wants to influence listeners overseas may do so. But as long as royalty fees remain high -- once over-the-air broadcasting starts to disappear -- the idea that you can regularly listen to programming from another region, area, state, province or country will go the way of the Dodo. It will change the definition of the word "broadcasting".

And that will be a sad day for the free exchange of ideas and radio cultural programming.