[turretslug]

That's a good point- supposedly, the so-called tropical SW broadcasting bands came about as a result of the difficulties with lightning interference on MW frequencies at low latitudes. LW with its wider range would presumably have been guaranteed to have storms affecting it much of the time. (Having said that, there's something oddly comforting about spits and splats on 198kHz- early warning to wind the barbecue down, get the chairs in, check the sunroof's closed....)

It does seem slightly odd that the huge territories of Canada and Australia (say) didn't make use of LW broadcasting with their British influence- presumably a market conditions rather than technical consideration thing. Algeria uses famously powerful and far-reaching LW senders, I imagine this started under French colonial rule and continued on.