WILLIAM S. Martin, director, Operations & Stations Division, Office of Technology, Services & Innovation, United States Agency for Global Media, issued the following statement on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024:
“I suspect your organization has heard over the past week(s) about a big change taking place at the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Robert E. Kamosa Transmitting Station or REKTS. The change is a discontinuation of all shortwave radio transmissions at our Saipan and Tinian sites, the first step in closing the station. On background, here is some information about the closure of REKTS:
“On June 26, 2024, the U.S. Agency for Global Media or USAGM — the independent federal agency that oversees the Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and other U.S.-funded international civilian broadcasters — announced it was closing the Robert E. Kamosa Transmitting Station, its two shortwave radio transmission sites on Saipan and Tinian.
“USAGM operates the Saipan and Tinian sites to broadcast multi-language radio programming from Radio Free Asia and Voice of America into the East Asia region. Broadcast operations on the islands go back many decades, with the US government building its first transmitting station on Saipan almost immediately after the U.S. entered World War II in December 1941.
“While shortwave radio was an effective and popular way for people in media-deprived countries to access international news and information during WWII and the Cold War, shortwave use has fallen dramatically almost everywhere since the invention of the internet and the fall of Soviet Union in the 1990s.
“As audiences turn to other media and people increasingly access news and information from digital and other platforms, many international broadcasters that were once active on shortwave have reduced or completely eliminated their shortwave operations altogether.
“Further, shortwave broadcasting is increasingly expensive, especially compared to other platforms that are more popular with global audiences. USAGM and other broadcasters have sought to balance maintaining costly legacy shortwave operations with investing in other platforms that reach much larger audiences.
“For REKTS, the challenge worsened when Category 5 Super Typhoon Yutu ravaged the Northern Mariana Island group in October 2018 and the station’s transmission infrastructure was destroyed. USAGM sought to restore the station’s transmission capabilities, but budgetary constraints limited efforts to restore its full functionality.
“USAGM is not abandoning shortwave, but it is reducing broadcasts in places with no discernible shortwave audience and consolidating its global transmission network. The REKTS closure is a consequence of this consolidation effort.”
