When the BBC closed down its Thai service in March 2006, World Service Managing Director Nigel Chapman justified the decision by saying that "its dedicated journalists have seen Thailand emerge as an Asian democracy with an extensive choice of radio and television outlets."
That statement struck me as strange at the time, coming as if did after a series of news reports showing that all was far from well with press freedom in Thailand. That was before the coup - now things are much worse. I wonder if Mr Chapman had been properly briefed. The fact is, the BBC desperately needed to find the resources to start an Arabic TV channel.
The government having decided not to award any additional funding, the BBC was faced with the necessity to close a number of radio services. Thai was chosen as one of them, I suspect, because of its relatively small regular audience. Of course, had it still been on the air when the coup happened, that audience would suddenly have become much bigger.
Back in 1963
International broadcasting has always been event-driven to some extent. I remember at the age of 13, hearing about the assassination of President Kennedy, and tuning to the VOA's English-language service via a mediumwave transmitter in Munich on 1197 kHz, which had continuous coverage of events in Dallas, and reaction to them.
In those days, of course, there was no satellite TV, and 24-hour news channels hadn't been invented. I was not a regular listener to VOA, but even at the age of 13 I figured it would be the place to go for the most up-to-date information.
Of course, back then, the VOA had a 24-hour English language radio service, which sadly no longer exists. If something major happens in the US, or involving Americans, during the hours when it's not on the air, then you'd be better off checking CNN. Like the BBC, the VOA has cut back on some of its radio services in order to save money required for an expansion of international TV services.
Arabic from HilversumIt's not always easy to make the right decisions. Back in 1994, when Radio Netherlands experienced the first of several rounds of budget cuts, it was decided to end programmes in Arabic. At that time, it was felt that the service was not making sufficient impact. Had it been possible to predict what was going to happen less than a decade later, that decision would, almost certainly, never have been made. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
One problem, of course, is that most international broadcasters have very little idea how many people are listening to them on a regular basis. Estimating audience sizes has become more complex with the increasing range of delivery platforms, and it's difficult to know whether an individual listens to a particular station on a single platform, or a mixture of several platforms. Radio Netherlands plans to address these issues by setting up listener panels, to give us more information and feedback about how people use our services. You will hear and read more about that in due course.
But raw numbers are not necessarily the only criterion for deciding whether a service is successful. The Dutch service of Radio Netherlands has found that providing special programming targeted at niche groups produces a very high approval rating, and a lot of positive feedback.
The programme for Dutch "truckers" driving around Europe has just celebrated its first birthday, and we recently launched a programme called "Uruzgan FM " for Dutch forces in Afghanistan, their families and friends.
The target audiences for these shows are numerically small but very dedicated, and it's the nearest an international broadcaster can get to "community radio".
Understanding the audience is becoming increasingly important, as there are so many more options available to them than was the case even 10 years ago. Radio Netherlands used to have the slogan "keep in touch with the Dutch", which at the time referred to tuning into us on shortwave. These days, keeping in touch is a two-way process. International broadcasting is becoming more of a dialogue, whereas in the past it was more like a busy market with lots of people shouting for attention.
Broadcasters must listen too
But the broadcaster must be prepared to listen. Complaints from Thailand about the BBC's plans to shut the Thai service fell on deaf ears. The decision was announced some months in advance, and could have been reversed. It was even raised in the British parliament. Sometimes, the first decision is clearly the right one. In this case, it obviously wasn't. Let's hope the lesson has been learned.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the personal views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Radio Netherlands.
Tags: bbc, international broadcasting, radio netherlands, target, thai, thailand