Radio Netherlands Worldwide has made the decision to close its Bonaire shortwave station in October 2012. RNW’s Head of Programme Distribution, Jan Willem Drexhage, said the closure was regrettable, but stressed that this was a financial decision, and doesn’t mean that RNW has imminent plans to drop shortwave.“It is a beautiful station, with good equipment, and ideal for reaching North, Central and South America, but the number of hours we are broadcasting from the station has been steadily falling in recent years. We anticipate that by the end of 2012, the number of hours will be so small that it would be too costly to maintain the station. That doesn’t mean we will stop shortwave immediately, as we will lease time on other stations in the region, for example Montsinery in French Guiana and Sackville in Canada. So the closure of Bonaire doesn’t automatically mean that we are giving up shortwave.”
(Radio Netherlands Media Network Weblog)
