Radio Thoughts
Grand concerts, distracting background noise, banal chatter, highly scientific lectures by renowned professors, a source of factual information or a medium for manipulating the masses: the diversity of attributes and the scale of contrasts are almost impossible to grasp. From the very beginning, radio has been a medium that has been subject to a wide variety of objectives in all its diversity – both on the part of radio producers and consumers.
If one wanted to determine the personal significance of radio for individuals, there would certainly be as many different attempts at explanation as there are listeners. What radio has in common is the unique opportunity to make acoustic contact with people, to communicate with them, and to appeal to their suggestive power. In contrast to television and print media, radio does not offer any ready-made images—neither authentic nor fake—on which to focus and which diminish the power of the spoken word. Although radio listeners take in impressions from outside, they rely on their own imagination to process what they hear.
Radio is a very special, unique medium that can convey news, connect continents, unite peoples, and expand the human spirit. However, there are also sufficient examples of radio waves being used or abused for the opposite purpose. Representative examples include Hitler's Germany, North Korea, and even today's Myanmar. With some reservations, the countries of the former Warsaw Pact could also be mentioned. People have been and continue to be deliberately targeted by censorship, deliberate disinformation, and manipulative propaganda in the interests of an all-powerful state, becoming victims of intellectual conformity, for which radio is used just as much as other media.
And yet: Internet connections can be cut, television programs are only available locally anyway, and satellite reception can be largely restricted and controlled. Radio waves, however, are perfectly suited to orbiting the earth in the medium and short wave ranges and transporting information to the furthest corners of even the most hermetically sealed countries. BBC London, Radio Moscow, Radio Beromünster – these were the words of terror that once made Propaganda Minister Goebbels' blood boil. Even today, radio is still used to provide people with information from outside their own country when intellectual freedom and media control are restricted. Even during the Cold War, governments behind the Iron Curtain were unable to silence stations such as the BBC, Deutsche Welle, or Voice of America, despite jamming transmitters and bans.
Whether in a country with strict censorship or in a pluralistic world, it is always up to the individual to separate the wheat from the chaff and distinguish objective facts from deliberate propaganda. Just like images, words can also be suggestive, depending on how they are spoken and emphasized. Even in the so-called free world, there are repeated attempts by various parties, companies, and organizations to mobilize and manipulate people in the interests of a particular idea. A very recent and particularly striking example is the unspeakable media coverage surrounding the US government's build-up to the Iraq War under George W. Bush. It is precisely under such extreme conditions that radio proves to be a medium that requires a certain critical distance and caution on the part of its users.
I have had a very special relationship with radio for over 30 years now – a fascination that gripped me when I was a little boy and first started searching for stations on the medium wave dial of our old steam radio. Mysterious names piqued my curiosity: Kalundborg, Moscow, London, Beromünster. This inner urge, born of a thirst for knowledge, a desire to explore, and childlike curiosity, still inspires me today. Radio is still an important part of my life, and I would sorely miss it if it weren't there.
Radio brings the big, wide world into my home and sometimes even allows me to experience distant regions and cultures for myself. Numerous genuine friendships that enrich my life have developed through radio and my correspondence with broadcasters. My love of radio and my friendships with broadcasters from many countries around the world have already taken me to China, Taiwan, Turkey, Romania, and the Czech Republic.
Source of information, hobby, technical fascination, passion for research, bridge to the world—radio is present in many facets of my life. Once you have been captivated by the magic of radio waves, you remain under their spell forever.
October 2007