Shortwave Radio!

I like listening to international shortwave broadcasts.

Now that I mention it, I don't really know why I like it. Maybe it has something to do with the idea of listening in on something happening far away, something that I don't neccesarily fully understand. The mystery, perhaps? At times I find myself listening to broadcasts in foreign languages that I can't even identify. Nothing but mystery there...

For the most part, there are only a few broad categories these broadcasts fall into:

News

Every country wants to point out what's important to it, and that's what news is for. The great part of listening to international news is the range of viewpoints you get. Back in the States, the major networks are...um...all the same. No difference. The same stories on every channel.
Well, on shortwave you have as many viewpoints as you can stomach! Most are even quite respectable.

The BBC World Service is, for most intents, the shortwave broadcaster in the world. They've been active since the beginning of time, and show no signs of stopping. Solid reporting, and, well, _that_ accent. 'Engage.'

Radio Australia also has a nice range of programming. Over here they're as easy to get as the BBC, but your mileage may vary. Their semi-local broadcasts to the Pacific/Oceana region are interesting.


Although the end of the Cold War meant the end of the wacky Radio Moscow broadcasts and a resultant rise of homogenity to things, there are still a fair number of 'out-there' broadcasters for your political edification.

North Korea has the current top honors for wierdness in eastern Eurasia, with their endless songs in praise of Kim Jong Il.


Music
Although AM broadcasting is not exactly well suited to high-fidelity sound reproduction, there are still many music shows out there. Living in Osaka as I do, with its poor-to-middling radio stations, these shortwave music broadcasts are a useful way of keeping up with the state of music in the world. Although there's a general emphasis on the top 10s of various countries, there are shows for any taste out there if you're wiling to search a little bit to find the interesting ones.


Religion
The missionary zeal is alive and well on shortwave, and you'll have no problem finding someone with unsolicited advice on the state of your soul. Most are Christian of one flavor or another, and they go the full spectrum from laid-back to fire-n'-brimstone. Other religions don't seem to put the effort into international shortwave, or at least they're not as loud.

Aum Shinrikyou used to be pretty active on Russian frequencies with laughable songs by Asahara Shouko, but his companion interest in nerve gas sort of took the fun out of that, as you can imagine. These days, they're laying low (perhaps gone for good?)