When the BBC announced it was phasing out shortwave broadcasts to North America, East Asia and the Pacific, we here at The Radio Pages speculated that this was probably the beginning of the the end for traditional shortwave broadcasting, as other broadcasters would probably follow the BBC's lead and convoluted reasoning. Now YLE, Radio Finland, is abandoning broadcasts in English, French and German. If you want to hear Finland in English, you have only until October 27th, 2002. Try 0630-0658 UTC on 15135 and 21670 KHz, and 1230-1259 UTC on 15400 and 21670. Or, you could learn Finnish....
The first consistent use of the shortwaves was by ham operators making transatlantic contacts, but broadcasters jumped very quickly into the act. At first they used the shortwaves primarily for relays, but the world was changed forever by Stalin's decision to broadcast Revolutionary propaganda to the Western democracies during the early 'thirties.
As the world spiraled down into darkness during the Prague Crises (fall of '38), most American manufacturers made shortwave capability a standard feature on all but their cheapest radios. The BBC, although it indulged in disinformation and propaganda, quickly gained a reputation for nonetheless being an objective source of news. The Voice of America enjoyed a similar reputation, and most of the world got its hard news from these two sources until the advent of CNN.
For many years now, almost every government has had a shortwave information service. Some, such as North Korea and Cuba, continue to use theirs primarily to promulgate the views of the government running the station. Most, though, have a some autonomy of their own, and bring some objectivity to the news, at least in their English language broadcasts
But non-English broadcasts can also be interesting. Many English broadcasts we receive here in America actually originate from powerful relay stations on this continent, not in the country of interest. Broadcasts in native languages are far more likely to come from an antenna in a distant part of the world. The exception is Spanish; most of the loud Spanish stations we hear in the United States originate here (does anyone in the United States really consider Spanish a foreign language anymore?). And, if you listen to the shortwave to hear types of music to which you would otherwise never be exposed (as I do), foreign language broadcasts are a must, as most countries clog up their English broadcasts with American pop music, which seems like a good way to build an audience in America. The flaw in this thinking is that it puts you in competition with thousands of FM stations all across America, all carrying the same kind of music you are...
Sucessfully receiving shortwave broadcasts does require a little knowledge, particularly of how the different bands propagate, and antennas. Don't let this dissuade you; all you really need to know to get started is on this website, at the above links. You can read them in a few seconds.
Don't spend too much money on your first receiver. Avoid the entry-level ones, though, as they don't have single-sideband capability, which shuts you out from hearing hams and "pirates." A book called Passport to Worldband Radio is a good place to start gathering information about receivers; there are also numerous web sites with similar information. As long as shortwave broadcasters continue to use relatively simple AM technology, you can even build your own receiver, either using a kit or even building one completely from scratch! Although the performance of a well-built kit or homebrew receiver will be slightly below that of a professionally made radio, you can still hear all sorts of stations from all over the globe, and the satisfaction of using a receiver you built yourself can be very rewarding!
Of course, there's no limit to how much you can learn. Many a ham (including this one) got started by shortwave listening...