Fishing In The Night

Summary

Podcast Summary: 99% Invisible – "Fishing In The Night"

Episode Information:

• Title: Fishing In The Night
• Podcaster: Katie Thornton, Contributor to 99% Invisible
• Release Date: May 13, 2025
• Series: Divided Dial, Season 2

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Introduction to Shortwave Radio

The episode "Fishing In The Night" delves into the fascinating and often overlooked world of shortwave radio—a medium once hailed for its ability to connect the globe before the advent of the internet. Hosted by Katie Thornton, the series explores the intricate history of shortwave radio, its pivotal role during wartime, and its transformation into a tool for propaganda and extremist movements.

Early Beginnings and the Golden Age of Shortwave

Katie Thornton begins by reminiscing about the ubiquity of radio in the early 20th century, highlighting how shortwave radio allowed listeners to receive broadcasts from around the world long before modern communication technologies existed.

Katie Thornton [05:55]: "Among the early adopters, there was a sense of magic in tuning into distant stations, capturing voices from far-off lands through the crackle of the airwaves."

Listeners were captivated by the ability to hear broadcasts from places like Moscow, China, and Cuba, fostering a sense of global community and hope for a more interconnected world.

Shortwave’s Propaganda Prowess During War

As the episode progresses, Thornton discusses how shortwave radio became a powerful propaganda tool during World War II and the Cold War. Governments recognized its potential to influence public opinion across borders.

Katie Thornton [17:00]: "Radio Moscow wasn’t just broadcasting news; it was strategically weaving Nazi propaganda tailored to resonate with specific international audiences."

Germany, under Nazi control, leveraged shortwave radio to disseminate propaganda in multiple languages, aiming to sway American and other international listeners. Similarly, the United States established the Voice of America (VOA) to counteract enemy broadcasts and promote American ideals.

The Rise of Radio Free Europe and Cultural Broadcasting

During the Cold War, the U.S. government intensified its use of shortwave radio through initiatives like Radio Free Europe. This station aimed to provide truthful news to Eastern Bloc countries, often clashing with Soviet efforts to suppress Western broadcasts.

Katie Thornton [30:18]: "Radio Free Europe was portrayed as grassroots, but it was secretly funded by the CIA, intertwining journalism with covert operations."

Simultaneously, cultural broadcasts, especially jazz music, became a cornerstone of America's soft power strategy. Programs like the Voice of America Jazz Hour showcased American culture, promoting ideals of freedom and creativity.

Shortwave in the Post-Cold War Era and the Rise of Extremism

The end of the Cold War marked a significant shift for shortwave radio. As geopolitical tensions eased, the medium lost its central role in international communication. However, this vacuum allowed fringe groups and extremist movements to exploit shortwave radio for their agendas.

Katie Thornton [38:31]: "You must form your militia unit. Pay no heed to the federal government which is a counterfeit enemy foreign government."

These broadcasts often carried hateful and extremist messages, transforming shortwave into a platform for radicalization. The episode highlights how such groups utilized the anonymity and wide reach of shortwave to spread their ideologies, fundamentally altering the public perception of the medium.

The Modern Landscape and Future of Shortwave Radio

In contemporary times, shortwave radio remains a niche but active subculture. Enthusiasts continue to engage with the medium through practices like "fishing in the night," where listeners tune into various frequencies in hopes of catching signals from distant broadcasters.

Katie Thornton [41:05]: "Shortwave radio is still alive today, not just as a relic of the past but as a living, breathing community of dedicated listeners and broadcasters."

Despite the dominance of the internet, shortwave radio persists as a tool for communication in areas with limited internet access and remains a subject of interest for collectors and hobbyists. The episode hints at ongoing battles over the use of public airwaves, reflecting broader societal debates about media control and freedom of information.

Exploring QSL Cards: A Tangible Connection to the Ether

A particularly engaging segment of the episode explores QSL cards, the postcard-like confirmations sent between shortwave broadcasters and listeners. These cards are beautifully designed, often featuring cultural and national imagery, and serve as tangible proof of the vast reach of radio signals.

Katie Thornton [43:12]: "QSL cards are almost like miniature ambassadors of their home countries, showcasing everything a nation wants the world to see."

Collectors treasure these cards not only for their aesthetic value but also as historical artifacts that represent the golden age of radio broadcasting.

Conclusion: The Enduring Allure of Shortwave Radio

"Fishing In The Night" concludes by reflecting on the enduring allure of shortwave radio. Katie Thornton emphasizes that despite technological advancements, shortwave continues to hold a unique place in the hearts of its enthusiasts. The medium's ability to transcend borders and connect disparate parts of the world remains a testament to its enduring legacy.

Katie Thornton [48:23]: "Shortwave radio, in its essence, remains a symbol of human curiosity and the unending desire to connect across distances."

As the episode wraps up, listeners are left with a profound appreciation for the intricate dance between technology, culture, and politics that defines the history of shortwave radio.

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Key Takeaways:

• Shortwave Radio's Global Reach: Enabled unprecedented global communication before the internet.
• Propaganda Tool: Utilized extensively by governments during World War II and the Cold War to influence public opinion.
• Cultural Broadcasting: Jazz and other cultural programs served as soft power strategies.
• Rise of Extremism: Post-Cold War era saw shortwave being exploited by extremist groups.
• QSL Cards: Serve as historical artifacts and symbols of global radio connectivity.
• Modern Subculture: Maintains a dedicated following despite the rise of digital media.

Notable Quotes:

• "Radio broadcasting was the first time that human beings had had it in their power to be heard around the world." — Katie Thornton [16:37]
• "Shortwave radio is still alive today, not just as a relic of the past but as a living, breathing community of dedicated listeners and broadcasters." — Katie Thornton [41:05]
• "Shortwave radio, in its essence, remains a symbol of human curiosity and the unending desire to connect across distances." — Katie Thornton [48:23]

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Final Thoughts

"Fishing In The Night" offers a comprehensive exploration of shortwave radio's pivotal role in shaping global communication and its transformation through the tides of history. Katie Thornton masterfully weaves technical explanations with historical anecdotes, capturing the magic and complexity of shortwave radio. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersections of technology, culture, and politics, and how a seemingly obsolete medium continues to resonate in the modern age.

Transcript

[Roman Mars]

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[Katie Thornton]

Switch.

[David Goren]

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[Roman Mars]

This message is brought to you by Apple Pay. No matter where you're going this summer, odds are you'll need to pay for a few things like a rideshare, a souvenir or dinner at that spot on your bucket list. Instead of digging for your wallet every time, just use Apple Pay. It's accepted anywhere you see the contactless symbol and all it takes is a tap with iPhone or Apple watch. The best part is you'll still earn the card, rewards, points and cash back. You easy setup now, easier travel later with Apple Pay. Terms apply. This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars. I love podcasts, but like many people who work in this industry, my first love was the radio. I got my start working at my college radio station, WOBC 91.5 at Oberlin College. My musical taste and sense of humor were shaped by the DJs at WFMU in New Jersey and my professional radio career. And this very show began at my favorite public radio station, KALW 91.7 here in the Bay Area. But there's a whole other radio universe that I have a lot less experience with. Shortwave radio is the less used but further reaching cousin of AM&FM. It requires a completely different radio set. Long before the Internet shortwave connected people all across the globe instantaneously and it became an information battleground and powerful propaganda tool. This week we are bringing you the first episode in the second season of the Divided Dial. It's a series from on the media and longtime 99pi contributor Katie Thornton. In season one, Katie explored the history of political talk radio and how the radical right came to dominate the airwaves in the US but her new four part season is all about shortwave. I'll let Katie take it from here.

[Phil]

Zenith Transoceonics this is such a cool.

[Michelle Helms]

Radio with the little Last summer I met up with a journalist and radio fan named David Goren.

[Phil]

These were like beautiful radios for a few.

[Michelle Helms]

I went to his house in Brooklyn, New York so that we could listen to the radio together. Not any old radio, not AM or fm, nothing you can pick up in your car, but shortwave radio, the little known cousin of AM&FM with fuzzy stations that can reach insanely far distances. David's been listening to shortwave since he was a kid in the 70s when his uncle gave him a radio and.

[Phil]

I turned it on and it's like the radio like leapt out of my hand. With the North American service of Radio.

[Michelle Helms]

Moscow, suddenly the world was all within reach, available to him right there in this box.

[Phil]

In the seventh grade, I became the expert on the next five year plan in the Soviet Union, the economic plan.

[Michelle Helms]

Today he's part of the Library of Congress's Radio Preservation Task Force. And together on a sweaty Thursday afternoon last July, quick and dirty, we sat down to hear what we could find on the shortwave dial. Today, just like when David was a kid, we heard lots of government run stations like Radio Marti, the US broadcasting.

[Phil]

News and information to Cuba, Voice of Islamic Republic of Iran, China Radio International broadcasting in Spanish. Let's see, anything else?

[Susan Douglas]

Strong the Voice of Italy broadcast in Italian.

[Michelle Helms]

On other days, David has picked up English language shows from North Korea.

[Phil]

They have very strident, you know, military.

[Michelle Helms]

Stuff and news from Cuba.

[Phil]

This is Radio Rebelde, Radio Rebel and it goes back to the revolution.

[Michelle Helms]

On the short waves, the global tussle for influence plays out 24 7. But we didn't just hear news and propaganda.

[Phil]

Well, let's just go up the dance. I thought I heard some Morse code.

[Michelle Helms]

There were beeps and bloops, coded messages sent between amateur radio operators or between government officials who used the shortwaves to send military data or secret instructions.

[Phil]

Let's see what else we have.

[Michelle Helms]

And some of what we heard just sounded like normal radio with lots of music and preaching.

[Unknown]

Strong in the Lord and the power.

[Katie Thornton]

Of his might against the wiles of the devil. It was hidden just to hide the meaning and the power of the Divine Name.

[Michelle Helms]

It is inherent in the name of Yah that's an end times ministry that also preaches that the earth is flat.

[Phil]

Which is very interesting because shortwave radio wouldn't propagate in a flat earth, you know. But details, details.

[Michelle Helms]

In just about an hour of surfing the short waves, we heard prayer and propaganda news and conspiracy theories. So many languages and some really decent jams from all over the globe. I felt like I had been welcomed into a club that was somehow secret and yet right there for anyone to join. And I know it's cliche, but there was something magical about tuning into the world, training my ear to listen through the crackle, hearing the distance. As it turns out, this practice of scanning the dial, finding out what you can hear and from how far away is a century old art. It was popular among radio's early adopters.

[Unknown]

These early distance fiends, as they were.

[Michelle Helms]

Known, uncovered something very strange about how radio waves traveled through space. And what broadcasters did with that information completely altered the trajectory of the 20th century. This is season two of the Divided Dial. I'm your host, Katie Thornton. I've worked in radio since I was a teenager, sometimes behind the scenes, sometimes behind the mic. In season one, I investigated how Right Wing Talk took over AM&FM radio. But in all my years of radio research, I'd never really learned about shortwave radio before. And listen, I'm not going to tell you that shortwave radio is as influential today as the AM&FM talk radio we.

[Unknown]

Covered in season one.

[Michelle Helms]

It's not, but I, and I think you love the medium of radio. So this season we're diving into the often failed promise of a medium that was once ubiquitous, connecting people around the world long before the Internet ever did. But like the Internet, shortwave also took a turn for the chaotic. Over the next four episodes, I'm going to explain how shortwave radio became a propaganda tool for governments at war and then a propaganda tool for American right wing extremists and cults. And we'll explore what a little known battle playing out on the shortwaves right now between radio fanatics and Wall street can tell us about what happens when we cede control of our public airwaves. That's all coming up on this season of the Divided Dial. But let's get back to the story. Radio broadcasting, as in from one to many, it didn't start on short wave. It started on AM, taking off around 1920. And AM was inherently local.

[Katie Thornton]

Daniel Larsen and Mrs. Lester Larson. Happy birthday.

[Michelle Helms]

Signals reached up to 50, maybe 75.

[Katie Thornton]

Miles, by the way, down Texas way. Your Home state. Think a bow, will you not? I will.

[Phil]

Phil.

[Katie Thornton]

Ma Taylor up there in Lake Geneva says happy birthday to NASA. Now it's her birthday, too.

[Michelle Helms]

But at night, those listening at home noticed something strange. As the sun set, more stations emerged from the static. And they weren't coming from down the street or the next town over. Sometimes listeners in New York Edison Studios, WAAM, located at 1 Barn, would hear stations from Chicago. A listener in Kansas might hear an opera or a boxing match from the East Coast. After dark, it was like the world cracked open and distant stations faded in and out on ghostly, mysterious winds. Most people had never heard a faraway voice, period. Long distance telephone calls were the costly domain of dignitaries and government officials, and even those were fed across long, scratchy copper lines. A disembodied voice, without a wire, without a fee, from hundreds of miles away. That awed and baffled people, even scientists, some of whom believed that radio perhaps could be used to communicate with the dead. But of course, there was an explanation for these voices in the night.

[Katie Thornton]

Let us follow through the steps and the processes in transmitting or sending radio messages.

[Michelle Helms]

Here's what was happening. The way AM normally works is that radio waves get shot from the top of a tall tower, which is often on top of a tall hill.

[Katie Thornton]

The radio messages lead of the antenna as electromagnetic waves and travels with the speed of light.

[Michelle Helms]

The waves travel over the ground, basically line of sight from the tower to you. It's called a ground wave, and it's the thing that fades out a few dozen miles from the tower. But when you shoot out an AM signal, there's another thing that happens, almost a byproduct.

[Katie Thornton]

Radio waves are sent out in all directions.

[Michelle Helms]

It's called a skywave. And the skywave goes up into the atmosphere.

[Susan Douglas]

The lower layers of the ionosphere, which are about 45 to 75 miles above the Earth's surface, they're like a huge sponge during the day, and they absorb the signals that pass through them.

[Michelle Helms]

Susan Douglas is a professor of communication and media at the University of Michigan. She says that these lower layers of the atmosphere are made up of ions that get all charged up by the sun. And in the daylight, those layers are where radio waves go to die.

[Susan Douglas]

But at night, when the sun sets, these layers disappear. And the ones above them, they combine to form a dense layer, and it acts like a mirror to sky waves.

[Michelle Helms]

At night, these sky waves, the sort of byproduct of AM transmission, they keep going until they bounce off this other layer of the ionosphere and they come back down to earth vast distances away.

[Katie Thornton]

When these waves strike the antenna of a receiving set, this entire process is reversed. We hear sound originating at that very moment, hundreds or even thousands of miles away.

[Michelle Helms]

That's what these late night AM radio listeners were hearing. A radio wave that had ricocheted off the ionosphere to get to them, and it rocked their world. Long distance channel surfing became a fad called fishing in the night, with listeners casting out into the ether and seeing what they could catch.

[Susan Douglas]

They had a map on the wall with map tacks, and every time they reeled in a station, they would put a map tack on where that broadcast emanated from. Was it Kansas City? Was it Washington, D.C? wherever?

[Michelle Helms]

Radio manufacturers ran ads with slogans like concerts from 14 cities in one evening. In newspaper editorials, distressed housewives and sometimes husbands lamented that their significant other was spending every evening out in their Radio Shack. But while AM broadcast listeners burned the midnight oil to marvel at all the faraway stations, there was one group of people who weren't so surprised by radio's ability to go long. They were the amateur radio operators, what you might know as ham radio. Basically, guys who weren't broadcasting, but were tinkering with radio equipment just to chat one to one, like long distance walkie talkies. Back in the days before broadcasting, almost all radio transmission was one to one. The radio waves were mostly used by ship captains or the military and the hams who were just having fun. But In World War I, the US government got worried about interference on those AM airwaves. So they eventually assigned specific frequencies for ships, for the military, and for those meddling amateurs.

[Susan Douglas]

They were kicked down to the waves that were thought utterly worthless. Short waves.

[Michelle Helms]

Back then, people thought the short waves with short wavelengths picture a really tight squiggly line, just wouldn't go very far. Even Guglielmo Marconi, the father of radio, thought that longer wavelengths would mean longer distances. But the amateurs weren't put off.

[Susan Douglas]

They began experimenting with them.

[Michelle Helms]

And as it turned out, the shortwaves weren't the short end of the stick.

[Susan Douglas]

They were getting really far. They were getting stations in Australia, New Zealand, or stations in England and France.

[Michelle Helms]

For the most part, reception was clearer at night, but it didn't have to be dark to go the distance.

[Susan Douglas]

Amateurs reported spanning distances as great as 10,000 miles, which was unthinkable. Australia and New Zealand were described in the fall of 1923 as a bedlam of Yankee signals.

[Michelle Helms]

The amateurs proved something huge shortwave could do round the clock what AM could only do at Night, it could use the ionosphere as a springboard. And this changed the game for AM broadcasters who wanted their station to reach more people. In 1923, Pittsburgh's KDKA, the country's first commercial radio station. They got their station on shortwave and reached as far as South Africa. New shortwave stations started up in Switzerland and Japan and Venezuela. And with the scars of World War I still fresh, this burgeoning international medium was a source of hope.

[Unknown]

There was a lot of utopian discourse around radio that, you know, having allowed people to communicate across all these borders, you know, would there be no more wars?

[Michelle Helms]

Michelle Helms is a retired professor of media studies who has written a lot about radio.

[Unknown]

It would, you know, solve all kinds of problems. Just a huge enthusiasm over the possibilities of shortwave as a medium.

[Michelle Helms]

Entire magazines were devoted to helping people discover new shows on international radio. Listeners would write to far flung stations and the stations would reply with these beautifully decorated cards branded with the station name and maybe some imagery that evoked the national culture of wherever they were broadcasting from. They're called QSL cards. It's international code for I confirm receipt of your transmission. Shortwave listeners around the world amassed collections of these ornate cards, tangible evidence of their part in an ethereal global community. By the late 1930s, almost all home radio sets had AM and shortwave settings. But the peacenik aspirations for shortwave didn't last.

[Unknown]

It was the first time that human beings had had it in their power to be heard around the world.

[Roman Mars]

And.

[Unknown]

And a lot of governments figured out that this could be a really powerful tool for the common good, but also, of course, for the waging of wars.

[Michelle Helms]

Lots of the world's governments had taken to the short waves by the 1930s, but no nation used them quite like Germany.

[Katie Thornton]

This is Germany, Cohen. We are going to present tonight a radio play entitled Vision of Invasion.

[Michelle Helms]

Zeesen, Germany's state run shortwave service, had spent years building a large following in America and around the world, playing things like orchestral music. But in time, they started pushing out Nazi propaganda tailored for specific countries in 12 different languages. And with its own festering Nazi movement, the US was a key target.

[Unknown]

You had people like Axis. Sally, this is the.

[Michelle Helms]

And I'd just like to say that.

[Katie Thornton]

When the wind calling it paid to listen.

[Unknown]

She was an American living in Berlin. She became the first American woman to be convicted of treason after the war. But she was broadcasting into the United States on short wave.

[Katie Thornton]

Women of America waiting for the one you love Thinking of a husband who is being sacrificed by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

[Unknown]

You might have heard of a person called Lord Haw Haw.

[Katie Thornton]

The great exodus from Britain is well underway.

[Unknown]

He was a British man named William Joyce who was working in Germany broadcasting on their shortwave service.

[Katie Thornton]

The rich and affluent are removing themselves and their valuable as fast as they can.

[Michelle Helms]

There was also a big band called Charlie and His Orchestra run by the German Ministry of Propaganda. They'd take popular big band and swing songs and add or change lyrics to berate Roosevelt or denigrate Jewish people.

[Katie Thornton]

All the Jewish family. As a brand new heir he dare join Heaven sent. And they proudly present Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones.

[Unknown]

They were trying to persuade Americans that you know, that the Germans had the right side in the war and that it was crazy for them to fight non intervention.

[Katie Thornton]

How he shows it his decision to stand send troops along.

[Michelle Helms]

The US Government had banned all editorializing on domestic radio stations during the war, making it illegal for Americans to promote the Nazi cause on the AM airwaves. But the feds didn't have any control over shortwave broadcasts beaming in from Germany. So the content was still there for the many Americans who wanted to listen. Journalists at CBS and NBC launched counteroffensives.

[Susan Douglas]

The networks had what were called shortwave listening posts in New York.

[Michelle Helms]

Susan Douglas again.

[Susan Douglas]

And they had people who were fluent in foreign languages monitoring international shortwave broadcasts.

[Michelle Helms]

And then they turned their findings into entertainment, like the hit CBS radio series hosted by a popular detective novelist named Rex Stout. It was called Our Secret Weapon.

[Katie Thornton]

The truth is a weapon that isn't secret in our country, but it's a big secret to the people who live in Germany, Japan and Italy. Our enemies don't have this weapon. They don't dare let their people know the truth.

[Michelle Helms]

Every week, radio sleuth Stout debunked enemy shortwave propaganda.

[Katie Thornton]

First, a broadcast to the official German News Agency on August 2. The meeting between Churchill and Stalin was very excited and hysterical. It assumed a dramatic on August 8, being that England this morning, Churchill shook hands with Stalin at the Kremlin. As we now know, Churchill actually arrived in Moscow on August 3rd 12th. You can't beat that for a scoop.

[Michelle Helms]

The rest of the Allies were also busy fighting Germany's shortwave radio propaganda. It was during World War II that the BBC ramped up what would come to be known as the World Service on shortwave.

[Katie Thornton]

This is London calling in the overseas service of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

[Michelle Helms]

They broadcast news to the world with.

[Unknown]

Just a bit of pro ally spin.

[Katie Thornton]

The Danes have already had a taste of what German protection means. A better Word for it would be plunder, for the Germans are seizing goods and property at will.

[Michelle Helms]

And in early 1942, the US followed suit. The federal government debuted its shortwave radio service, the Voice of America, with an in language broadcast to Germany.

[Katie Thornton]

This is a voice speaking from America. Our voices are coming to you. From New York, across the Atlantic Ocean to London.

[Michelle Helms]

The Voice of America started as a government run radio show. And they partnered with networks like NBC and CBS to get it out worldwide. NBC and CBS were already broadcasting overseas via shortwave. But shortwave quickly proved so central to the war effort that the US government did something unprecedented. They nationalized all the roughly one dozen shortwave stations broadcasting from US soil, filling the international airwaves with approved broadcasts daily.

[Katie Thornton]

At this time we shall speak to you about America and the war. The news may be good or bad, we shall tell you the truth.

[Michelle Helms]

And for the most part, they did that, if a bit selectively. Michelle Helms.

[Unknown]

They were walking a fine line between willful propaganda and sort of putting a good spin on things.

[Michelle Helms]

As the US sent more troops into battle, it used shortwaves to boost morale.

[Susan Douglas]

They began to transmit entertainment programming via short wave to the troops.

[Michelle Helms]

Susan Douglas again.

[Susan Douglas]

And this was so important during holidays like Christmas and New Year's, when there you are, freezing and alone and scared.

[Unknown]

They had programs that would allow troops to speak to people back at home. You know, oh, here's Mailbag, and we have letters from soldiers. And they would read them aloud.

[Katie Thornton]

Dear Mother, tonight I'm very lonely. I've never written that before, and maybe it's a shock to you. And then again, maybe you've read between the lines and have known it all along.

[Unknown]

There was a very popular program called GI Jive with Jill.

[Katie Thornton]

Here's Jill and the GI Jive. Hi, you fellas. This is GI Jill with GI Jive.

[Susan Douglas]

You know the World Series, the 1942 World Series broadcast. You gotta have the World Series, Yankees.

[Unknown]

The Voice of America was very highly respected and many people think that it did a great deal to help us win the war.

[Michelle Helms]

By the end of the Second World War, the Voice of America blanketed much of the world. It ran in about 40 languages. But they were about to get lots of company on the airwaves because in the Cold War, the shortwaves exploded. That's coming up after the break.

[Roman Mars]

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[Michelle Helms]

This is on the Media. I'm Katie Thornton, host of OTM's Divided Dial series. We're right in the middle of Episode one of our second season. Before the break, we heard about how groups like the VOA dominated the shortwaves at the end of World War II. But during the Cold War, shortwave would become so much more Radio pk.

[Katie Thornton]

This is Tehran Radio Iran, the Australian Forces Radio. You are tuned to the North American.

[Michelle Helms]

Service of Radio Moscow, the voa, the BBC, the Soviet Union, China, Egypt, Iran, Argentina and sea. So many others were on shortwave, broadcasting their national identity to the world in stories and song. They were joined by newly decolonized nations like Libya and Ghana, whose leaders saw the shortwaves as a way to promote their independence and to fuel an international anti colonial movement. But the global superpowers, the US and the Soviet Union were two of the most dominant voices on shortwave, and shortwave was became one of the most ferocious battlegrounds of the Cold War. At bat for the Soviet Union was Radio Moscow. Founded in 1929. The USSR's government run network broadcast in over 70 languages with news, propaganda and human interest stories. It offered a Soviet alternative to the BBC and the voa.

[Katie Thornton]

America hit a new high in crime and according to FBI reports to the President, nearly half of the criminals were young people. The causes of this menacing situation are well known. The pornographic pictures distributed among adolescents and the exhibitions of abstract paintings and statues that say nothing to either the heart or the mind.

[Michelle Helms]

The BBC and the VOA were expanding too, sending more and more coverage over the Iron Curtain. But the United States government wanted to reach people in Eastern Europe with messages that weren't so obviously propaganda as the literal voice of America. So they lied.

[Katie Thornton]

Radio Free Europe gets through with the truth every day.

[Michelle Helms]

Debuting in 1950, Radio Free Europe was a flame throwing anti communist shortwave network.

[Katie Thornton]

Into the closed communist countries of Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania go the facts. The people are not allowed to hear the truth. The truth that helps them hold onto the will and the drive.

[Michelle Helms]

It was portrayed as grassroots, run by emigres and exiles, and it did employ those folks, but secretly it was funded by the CIA which was busy meddling in global politics and supporting pro capitalist coups. During these Cold War years. Radio Svobodna Evropa staff at Radio Free Europe launched weather balloons into the Eastern bloc and airdropped over 300 million leaflets instructing listeners on how to tune in. The Soviet Union did not like any of this. They spent tons of money trying to drown out Western broadcasts. They'd flood the shortwaves with ear splitting noises that listeners recalled sounding like a buzzsaw or a machine gun. Sometimes the battle went beyond the airwaves, like when a Czechoslovakian double agent poisoned the salt shakers at Radio Free Europe's Munich office. That plot was foiled before any of the 1,200 plus employees sat down for lunch. Years later, a Radio Free Europe journalist died after allegedly being stabbed with a poison tipped umbrella. But these US run shortwave stations weren't just beaming out journalism.

[Katie Thornton]

Willis Conover speaking. This is the Voice of America Jazz Hour. The music of jazz parallels the freedom that we have in America, something that not every country has.

[Michelle Helms]

In the 1950s and 60s, music, especially jazz, was a key component in the US government's shortwave campaign.

[Katie Thornton]

This is the Voice of America.

[Michelle Helms]

The federal government ran a jazz ambassador program that sent musicians like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington on tours around the world. They focused on countries that the Soviet Union was also hoping to win over. All the while Though many of these very same musicians faced racism and segregation at home and on the short waves, Radio Moscow and others were ready to exploit this contradiction.

[Katie Thornton]

The revolutionary people of Cuba sympathize with all people who struggle for social justice.

[Michelle Helms]

In the early 1960s, Cuba's government run service, Radio Havana regularly beamed this show, Radio Free Dixie, up to the United States.

[Katie Thornton]

It is in this spirit that we proudly allocate the following hour in an act of solidarity, peace and friendship with our oppressed North American brothers. Radio Free Dixie invites you to listen to the free voice of the South.

[Michelle Helms]

Radio Free Dixie was hosted by US Black power activist Robert F. Williams. He was on the lam in Cuba fleeing, drummed up charges that were later dropped. And he broadcast a perspective that couldn't be found in the mainstream US media.

[Katie Thornton]

1 Negro goes to the White House as a member of the President's cabinet, while another is gunned down like a wild dog for using a white folks toilet. It should be more than clear to us that if we are ever going to be free, we must liberate ourselves.

[Michelle Helms]

Outlets like Radio Moscow and Radio Havana want followers around the world. With their mix of propaganda and just factual reporting on civil rights abuses in the U.S. governments saw winning people over on shortwave as a key path to winning the Cold War. So Even after the CIA's secretive role at Radio Free Europe was revealed in the early 70s, not much changed. In fact, Congress increased its budget and they kept pumping out news and tunes. Increasingly they played the defiant and oh so American sound of rock music, which was heavily censored in the USSR and Eastern bloc. On the US Government run taxpayer funded short wave stations, they broadcast groups like Metallica and Motley Crue to listeners around the world. By the early 1980s, the US government's shortwave stations reached an estimated 80 million people each week. It took tons of manpower and it was a huge infrastructure project too. The government had miles upon miles of fields filled with antennas. But one man didn't think that was enough.

[Katie Thornton]

We're as far behind the Soviets and their allies in international broadcasting today as we were in space when they launched Sputnik in 1957.

[Michelle Helms]

On the home front, Ronald Reagan had vetoed public broadcasting budgets and overseen a massive deregulation of the airwaves that allowed for big businesses and conservative and religious broadcasters to dominate AM and FM radio. You know, season one of the divided dial. But on international radio, on shortwave, the great deregulator had no qualms about spending taxpayer dollars. He poured public money into the VOA and Radio Free Europe.

[Katie Thornton]

I'm pleased to call on Director Wick and Minister Filaly to sign this agreement, an important step towards strengthening the signal of the Voice of America.

[Michelle Helms]

Reagan's administrators wrung their hands over what to do about rock music. Lots of them didn't believe it represented the best of Western culture. But after long internal debates, they decided to keep the rebellious racket going on the short waves. Meanwhile, on the journalism side, Reagan led a shakeup by sidestepping one of the Voice of America's long held tenants, the idea that a free press is the U.S. s best advertisement. Sure, that idea hadn't always been perfectly executed, but Reagan opted instead for more heavy handed anti communist propaganda. Reagan's VOA ran explicit editorials on behalf of the administration. Many longtime leaders resigned, replaced by more amenable colleagues, including Richard W. Carlson, father of right wing bloviator Tucker Carlson. And it was Reagan who launched a costly new shortwave service targeting Cuba with hardline anti communist messages.

[Katie Thornton]

Today I'm appealing to the Congress, help us get the truth through, to support our proposal for a new radio station, Radio Marti, for broadcasting to Cuba.

[Michelle Helms]

While public broadcasting floundered at home, government subsidized propaganda and bad hair metal reverberated on short waves from the US to the world. In its first seven decades of life, shortwave transformed from an idealistic experiment in global cooperation into a hardened government tool of information warfare. And then in the late 1980s, much of the medium's reason for being crumbled.

[Katie Thornton]

In Eastern Europe, which the Soviets had held by force Since World War II, Mikhail Gorbachev said that Moscow would no longer interfere. Serious fighting begins in the early morning, a staccato of machine gun bursts punctuated by cannon fire. In the last weeks and months, we've seen one Communist party after the other in Eastern Europe knocked off its perch by the people.

[Michelle Helms]

The Cold War was over. On this medium that seemed almost tailor made for propaganda, there was vacancy, airtime for rent. And in the US a particular group of people was ready to snatch it up.

[Katie Thornton]

You must form your militia unit. Pay no heed to the federal government which is a counterfeit enemy foreign government.

[Michelle Helms]

Are you a white woman such as.

[Katie Thornton]

Myself who is sick of being harassed and tormented? Call Aryan nations for a whiter, brighter America.

[David Goren]

We don't want to have to kill you. We hope to not have to kill you.

[Katie Thornton]

But we can kill you. And if need be, we will kill you. Well, what are a few lives in.

[David Goren]

The grand scheme of liberty?

[Katie Thornton]

I'm sure you are now seeing the Reports of some things that are regularly said over the airwaves in America today.

[Roman Mars]

These stations and the programs grew and they took over. They dominated what is associated in the public's mind with shortwave. It's no longer of the BBC World Service. Now it's the guys who helped Timothy McVeigh bomb a federal building.

[Michelle Helms]

Next time on the Divided Dial, it's the shortwave story you've never heard the private citizens who took over a fringe medium with a fringe message and used it to build a movement that fundamentally changed mainstream US politics.

[Roman Mars]

Katie Thornton, it's so nice to have you back on the show. I love that episode.

[Unknown]

Thank you so much, Raman. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me back.

[Roman Mars]

I'm so excited to hear the rest of this series. So what made you want to do a series on shortwave radio at this moment, which is not the peak of shortwave radio usage, but it's something that is so fascinating and so cool?

[Unknown]

Yeah, you know, it's definitely not the peak of shortwave radio usage. The Internet really sort of took a bite out of it. But I was really interested in shortwave radio in part because I love radio and I had never really heard much about shortwave. I started volunteering at FM radio stations when I was in my teens. I worked at them throughout my teens and twenties. I obviously still make radio today. Like, I love radio. I love what it can do. I love that it moves through the air at the speed of light and it magically shows up in a box in your kitchen or your car or wherever. I think it's just sort of the same, this magical thing.

[Michelle Helms]

And yet I had never really heard about shortwave.

[Unknown]

And a friend of mine, after the first season of the Divided Dial came out, a friend of mine was like.

[Michelle Helms]

Hey, do you know about this station?

[Unknown]

It's, like, really powerful. It reaches every continent. It's like a shortwave radio station. And I remember thinking, like, shortwave, like, is that still a thing that's like that Cold War medium, right? Like, that's the only context I had for it. And so I really wanted to find out what the history was, what it's like today, and some weird stuff that's going to be coming up in the future on the shortwaves.

[Roman Mars]

So one of the things you mentioned, mentioned very briefly in the episode we just heard, is something I'm completely fascinated by, and that is QSL cards. So, first of all, can you describe what a QSL card is again, for people who are unfamiliar?

[Unknown]

Yeah, absolutely. A QSL card is almost like a combination thank you card and postcard that broadcasters send out. So they really started sort of in the late teens and early twenties when amateur radio operators were first starting to send their signals, you know, across the country, across national borders, across the world. And they wanted to know, like, how far they were reaching. Natural curiosity. You got this new technology, you're like bouncing it off the ionosphere. You're like, where can you hear me? And so these people who were out there on the short waves, they would basically say, hey, if you're hearing this, please write me a letter. Please tell me where you are, Please tell me what you're listening on. And like, what did you think of the program? Did it come through pretty clear? Things like that. So the listeners would send these letters and the people who were putting the transmissions out there would send them these beautifully decorated cards as sort of thank you notes back. The broadcaster got information about just how far their signal was reaching. And the listener got to sort of amass this collection that really showed off, like, here's how good I am at listening to the radio. I have all these cards from all over the world and they're all incredible.

[Roman Mars]

So before we talk about the sort of design of the physical cards themselves, what does QSL actually stand for?

[Unknown]

Yeah, great question, one that I had as well and was slightly disappointed by the answer. It's not an abbreviation, it's just part of this, what's called Q code. It's an international code that's basically an assortment of three letters, Q, followed by two other letters. And then they mean something like if you're transmitting in Morse code, qsl and on shortwave, QSL means I confirm receipt of your transmission. And so it's sort of like a shorthand for the same way you would hear, like on CB radio truckers communicating with one another. Like 10, four, things like that. Yeah, it's like a little language.

[Roman Mars]

So I've seen collections of these QSL cards and they're really beautiful. So could you describe to the audience what they look like?

[Unknown]

Yeah, they really are so beautiful. I mean, some of them are quite simple. They have like your handle. For the amateur radio operators in particular, they'll have like, you know, you have a series of letters and numbers that you go by on the radio. It's like you're licensed name. And so some of them are just sort of just that plain text. But some people would decorate their cards super beautifully, you know, something personal to them or personal from where they were broadcasting from. But the people who like, really went wild with the decorations were the broadcast stations. So on radio you have like one to one transmission. That would be a lot of amateur operators. They're just trying to make contact, like from one person to another person across a vast distance. But in the, starting in the 20s, you started to have broadcasting on shorewave. So that's like from one to many. It's actually like a term that early broadcasters borrowed from agriculture. Like, when you broadcast seeds, you basically scatter seeds all over the place. So you're just trying to hit as many people, in the case of radio broadcasting as possible. And so after there were some early AM stations that ended up transmitting their signal on shortwave and getting into different countries. And a lot of these stations, especially by the 30s and the 40s, were owned by governments. And so a lot of the broadcast stations, a lot of which are run by governments, they like went wild with the decorations on the QSLs. But yeah, I mean, these stations would really sort of use the QSL cards as an opportunity to paint a picture of how they wanted their home country to be perceived and understood sort of on the global stage.

[Roman Mars]

Yeah. And they're kind of like tourist picture postcards. I mean, they have like maps and they have, you know, highlighted features of the landscape and things like that. They're really beautiful.

[Unknown]

Absolutely. They're so beautiful. They are like postcards. Like, imagine if the official government tourism bureau was like, we will make a postcard to represent everything about our country in one image. That's sort of what they were trying to do with the QSLs was almost sort of like an element of this broader soft power campaign. Like, how do we want to broadcast ourselves, not just in sound, but in imagery to the rest of the world. So there's like beautiful maps, there's food items, there's like clothing that is specific to regions. There was a lot of like, architectural feats would maybe be depicted sometimes in an artistic style that was specific to that country. Like, they're colorful, they're beautiful. The fonts are amazing to watch change over time. One of the things that I love about these QSLs is how many of them, like, have radio imagery. Like, they're all so excited about the fact that they're using radio. Especially the ones from like the 30s, 40s and 50s, they all have that sort of early radio graphic of the lightning bolts, which to me is so cool because it was like, how do you demonstrate the power and the excitement of this invisible thing is obviously it's.

[Roman Mars]

Got to be lightning bolts and so what is the status of QSL cards today? Is this still something people do? I imagine they're collector's items, because the world of shortwave is a very. I don't know, it's a very active subculture of very dedicated people.

[Unknown]

Yes, absolutely it is. Absolutely it is. And it is still active. Certainly they're collector's items. These are beautiful historic objects, really. But there are still QSL cards that are going out today.

[Michelle Helms]

I talked to a ton of people.

[Unknown]

A ton of broadcasters, a ton of listeners. And I was at a station where I was going through the QSL letters. You know, the initial letter where somebody's.

[Michelle Helms]

Asking for a card.

[Unknown]

I was going through them with the station owner, and they had gotten letters from all over the place, you know, from the US and far beyond. And so, you know, I was going through the stack of letters where it's like, here's what I heard, here's how the reception was. And then in turn, he would mail back the station's qsl. You know, it's down from its heyday, just like a lot of things in the shortwave world are. But it's still very much happening today, which is really neat for.

[Roman Mars]

So before we wrap up, could you tell me a little bit more about the whole series and where it's headed from here?

[Michelle Helms]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

Well, the second episode is dropping May 14th. This next episode is really gonna dive into the pretty little known role that shortwave radio played in the rise of the American. Right? Especially sort of in the 90s and into the 2000s. We're also gonna go visit a very particular, kind of peculiar station operating out of the U.S. one of the most powerful broadcasting facilities on the planet that I did not know existed until quite recently, and play some very interesting material. And then we sort of end the series, the fourth episode, by talking about what's going on in the shortwaves today and what's happening in the future on the shortwaves. Because as I talk to people, I learned that there is a battle going on on the shortwaves right now that is really representative, I think, says a lot about how we value or don't value our public airwaves.

[Roman Mars]

Well, I'm so glad that the series is back. The first series of the Divided Dial was amazing. It won a Peabody Award. And now I'm so excited to hear the second season, and it's all going to be released on the media's podcast feed and on the airwaves. So thank you so much for being back with us.

[Unknown]

Thank you so much for having me. It was great to talk with you about this.

[Roman Mars]

The Divided Dial was created by Katie Thornton and WNYC's on the Media, edited by OTM's executive producer, Katja Rogers, with music and sound design by Jared Paul. The series is also supported by the fund for investigative journalism. 99pi's executive producer is Kathy Tu. Kurt Kolstedt is the Digital director. Delaney hall is our Senior editor. The rest of the team includes Chris Barube, Jason De Leon, Joe Rosenberg, Martin Gonzalez, Christopher Johnson, Vivian Leshma, Dawn Swan, Rial, Jacob Medina Gleason, and me, Roman Mars. The 99% invisible logo was created by Stefan Lawrence. We are part of the Sirius XM podcast family now, headquartered six blocks north in the Pandora building in beautiful uptown Oakland, California. We are all over blue sky and our Discord server is thriving. We'll have links to to those as well as every past episode of 99pi.at 99pi.org.

[Susan Douglas]

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