A look back at the Long Wave band in 1991...

In a recent video on his popular Oxford Shortwave Log YouTube channel, Clint, M0OXF lamented on how few stations are now listed in the 2025 edition of the World Radio TV Handbook. 

I have embedded the video at the bottom of this post.

Just by chance, I came across the 1991 edition of the same publication today and I had a look at the Long Wave section.

As might be expected, there were no shortage of stations back then in Europe and in Asia.

The list for Europe, Africa, the Near & Middle East is shown above and below..

As was common with long wave stations of the day, power levels up in the hundreds of kilowatts were pretty common.

The other region of the world where Long Wave was used was the eastern part of the then USSR and Mongolia. The first section is shown above with the second part below...

This was of course a time when broadcasting on the Long Wave, Medium Wave and Short  Wave bands was a source of information and entertainment in a pre-Internet World.

The video below from Clint shows the current state of the Long Wave band in 2025...

End of the road for the World Radio TV Handbook (WRTH)

It was announced today that the World Radio TV Handbook is coming to an end and the 2022 edition will be the last one.

In a statement, the publishers wrote... "Having produced this book for the past 24 years, we are very sorry to announce that WRTH 2022 will be the final edition of World Radio TV Handbook produced and published by WRTH Publications. 

This has been an extremely difficult decision and was only made after a lot of thought and discussion. 
We know that many people rely on WRTH and greatly enjoy getting the new edition every year. 

We realise that this news will be disappointing for many people. We wish to thank you all for your loyal support over the years.

Good DX and Happy Listening,

Nicholas Hardyman (WRTH Publisher) and the WRTH Editorial team"

Back before the widespread use of the Internet in the mid to late 1990's, this book was a must for any serious short wave listener.

Fast forward to today and there is a huge amount of information available for free online. In addition to that, shortwave broadcasting in many parts of the world has disappeared or declined.

The current price for the 2022 edition is £35 which is about €41 or $46. There may be post & packing costs to be added to that so it is quite expensive in contrast to what is free online.

If you would like to purchase the 76th and final edition of the World Radio TV Handbook then go to their website... https://wrth.com/_shop/