Make sure that you get a “full coverage” radio. That means it can receive a station anywhere on the shortwave radio spectrum, not just a few pre-defined bands.
Before the internet, I used to listen to several stations located inside the USA like WWCR in Nashville, TN for the truth outside the government controlled media. Several cheaper shortwave radios I had did not cover some of the frequencies of WWCR.
I was a big-time Shortwave enthusiast back in the day, but it seems now the only things I hear on SW are religion stations. All of the old big broadcasters have moved on to satellite and Internet.
I would not say this Cycle is going to be that robust. The solar flux data I have been looking at show us behind where we were at this point during Cycle 20. Should be OK for the HF bands, but 6M F2 is not looking too good right now. 8-(