AM radio - a vital tool for information

Far from being consigned to history, AM radio is an important tool for uncensored information

Last week, James Cridland wrote an article on AM radio's future, painting a bleak picture of the future of the medium. However, Rimantas Pleikys, the Manager of Radio Baltic Waves International, writes:

There are some cases where AM is still very important. Our private Lithuania-based company, Radio Baltic Waves International, is broadcasting the programs of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) to Belarus and Russia.

Currently we broadcast 12.5 hours a day, including 9.5 hours of the RFE/RL programmes. In June 26 RFE/RL discontinued their short wave (HF) broadcasting to Russia and Belarus. The remaining communications platforms are IP (to stationary PCs and mobile devices) and satellite (to stationary tuners).

Satellite broadcasting can be easily censored: we experienced this when the Belarusian language program of RFE/RL was disrupted because it was transmitted in the same digital downlink stream as the Farsi service of RFE/RL, uplink-jammed from Iran.

Access to the main broadcasting platform of RFE/RL - the Internet - is liable to be disrupted in the event of a crisis in Russia. Even if the Internet continues to work, the government of Russia can block RFE/RL websites. Internet filtering and satellite jamming will mean catastrophic failure of the US broadcasting to Russia and Belarus.

What is the solution? Preserving and enhancing of cross-border AM radio.

The number of AM/FM radios in the coverage area of the Lithuanian AM transmitter (Sitkūnai, 1386 kHz, 75 kW), Russian Federation statistics: 26% of the population own AM/FM car radios, 39% own other types of AM/FM/SW radios. In total, 65% of the population of Russia own AM/FM receivers. Over 100 million of the combined population of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine own portable, table-top and car radios with the AM/FM band.

Editor's note: at the end of March, the US government has funded an upgrade to this 75kW broadcast facility, transforming it to a 200kW transmitter.