My experiences are exactly the same as yours with the `golden age of shortwave’. I listened on my Dad’s Zenith Trans-Oceanic, the old vacuum tube model in the black wood case.
Radio Moscow: “Nobody in the USSR speaks English that good! He must be a turncoat!”
Radio Havana: I perfected my Spanish listening to Castro rant for hours. The Cuban cha-cha music was pretty good.
Radio Budapest: The Racokczy March intro. Radio Nederland’s intro was carillon bells pealing.
BBC: World Service reportage was the best in the world.
Nowadays, next to nothing in the ether, even out of my Hammarlund HQ180A receiver (young hams call it a `boat anchor’).
Belongs to another time. Like listening to LP records.
Yes, it sounds like we are describing a time which has come and gone.
Kids today may not even know what a shortwave radio is. Some young people today don’t even listen to terrestrial radio at all. They are much more likely to listen to podcasts of programming, or satellite radio in the car.
Perhaps the way the world has changed, and with so much hi tech equipment such as computers, young people today just don’t have the same feeling many of us do about radio. The idea that we’re expressing about listening to shortwave radio from other countries, or AM radio stations from distant cities, is just lost on many young people today.
I know exactly what you mean.
I used to listen to Radio Moscow and their pronunciation of English was so good it made me self conscious of my Boston accent, and how we Bostonians pronounce English words leaving out the Rs. -Tom
Remember Carlos Puebla y sus Tradicionales? They sang "folk songs" about Fidel and Che . . . the lousy Commies!