Editing Radio broadcasting (section)

==International broadcasting==
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2021}}
{{main|International broadcasting}}
[[File:World Family of Radio Maria.png|thumb|300px|Worldwide presence of [[Radio Maria]] broadcasters]]
Broadcasters in one country have several reasons to reach out to an audience in other countries. Commercial broadcasters may simply see a business opportunity to sell advertising or subscriptions to a broader audience. This is more efficient than broadcasting to a single country, because domestic entertainment programs and information gathered by domestic news staff can be cheaply repackaged for non-domestic audiences.

Governments typically have different motivations for funding international broadcasting. One clear reason is for ideological, or [[propaganda]] reasons. Many government-owned stations portray their nation in a positive, non-threatening way. This could be to encourage business investment in or tourism to the nation. Another reason is to combat a negative image produced by other nations or internal dissidents, or insurgents. [[Radio RSA]], the broadcasting arm of the apartheid South African government, is an example of this. A third reason is to promote the ideology of the broadcaster. For example, a program on [[Voice of Russia|Radio Moscow]] from the 1960s to the 1980s was ''What is Communism?''

A second reason is to advance a nation's foreign policy interests and agenda by disseminating its views on international affairs or on the events in particular parts of the world. During the [[Cold War]] the American [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|Radio Free Europe]] and [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|Radio Liberty]] and Indian Radio [[All India Radio|AIR]] were founded to broadcast news from "behind the [[Iron Curtain]]" that was otherwise being censored and promote dissent and occasionally, to disseminate [[disinformation]]. Currently, the US operates similar services aimed at [[Cuba]] ([[Radio y Televisión Martí]]) and the [[People's Republic of China]], [[Vietnam]], [[Laos]]  and [[North Korea]] ([[Radio Free Asia]]).

Besides ideological reasons, many stations are run by religious broadcasters and are used to provide religious education, religious music, or worship service programs. For example, [[Vatican Radio]], established in 1931, broadcasts such programs. Another station, such as [[HCJB]] or [[Trans World Radio]] will carry brokered programming from evangelists. In the case of the [[Broadcasting Services of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia]], both governmental and religious programming is provided.