Today, Explained - Radio, someone still loves you

Episode Date: March 11, 2022

The BBC is bringing back shortwave radio broadcasts to counter censorship and disinformation in Russia and Ukraine. Professor D.W. Stupples explains. This episode was produced by Victoria Chamberlin, edited by Matt Collette, engineered by Efim Shapiro, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, and hosted by Noel King. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's Today Explained. I'm Noelle King. It's an older tool of communication. The way Republicans and Democrats are shoving each other around down here in Washington, they'll all wind up on the spot by November. The White House request for new controls on grain for whiskey makers is considered a political cutie. Once upon a time, it united the world. Germany, the enemy who drove all Europe into war, has been finally overcome. Today, it's used a lot less than it was in the past. It's a backup. Sometimes it's just plain fringe. But when Russia made it virtually impossible for both Ukrainians and Russians to get news about the war, it found a new purpose. World news from the BBC. Several cities across Ukraine came under assault overnight.

On today's show, the life and afterlife of shortwave radio. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. Professor David Stupples teaches electronic and radio engineering at City London University. Professor, we were struck by the fact that the BBC has decided to resume shortwave broadcasts in Russia and Ukraine. What did you think when you heard that news? Well, I was delighted because the BBC would normally put its broadcasts or some of its broadcasts out online as you are. And that can be blocked out by Russia or turned off by Russia.

But blocking off an HF transmission, which is in the shortwave, would be more or less impossible. A shortwave transmission is basically a transmission that would go anywhere around the world, depending on what frequency it is, because what happens is that the radio wave bounces off a part of the atmosphere called the ionosphere and it would just skip its way around the world. So it's a worldwide broadcast and anyone can hear it. Whereas the medium wave, which is a lower band, it will suffer from loss of power over long distances. The shortwave band, from a BBC's point of view,

to be able to get to all those people in Russia, and in fact anywhere around the world. It's a good transmission medium. How is the information transmitted exactly? So its name is a carrier wave. So it carries the audio or music or whatever. And then at the other end, the receiver will take off the modulated part from the carrier and you'll be able to hear it.

As a short wave leaves its point of origin, what does it look like going out into the world? Well, I wish I could see it, but it's an electromagnetic wave. So it is a radio wave. It leaves an antenna, an aerial antenna, and it's transmitted into the ether. It is everywhere. It's all in the atmosphere. It isn't just a beam, it's everywhere. So if you're sitting round in Russia with your radio, shortwave radio, with an antenna sticking up, and most things are being done on the internet. And so I'm thinking of people in Ukraine and Russia and wondering whether this will be accessible to them. Will people need to have special radios to receive that shortwave signal?

Many people have HF radios, and they will have them on multi-bands. So they'll have medium wave, high frequency, which is the short wave, and then VHF. So these will be able to pick up radio stations on any of those bands. If people could remember what frequencies they were being transmitted on, they could certainly receive it. And if they're being broadcast and you're receiving it, nobody would know you're listening to the BBC. Is it the case that people in Ukraine and Russia have radios just because of the way life has gone in Ukraine and Russia, that they are less connected to the internet? Why the assumption that people will have these in their homes? Well, I think if people live in cities, it will be very easy to get onto the internet.

I have internet radios as well. But I also have other types of radio, as you might well imagine I do. And a lot of people in Russia, because they may not be connected to the internet, the ones in the remote districts, they will probably have these radio sets as well. And if someone in Ukraine or Russia is tuning into that shortwave radio broadcast, what will it sound like? Will it be clear? Just like you and I talking now. Really? Clear enough, I would say. Welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.

I'm James Kimara-Sami. On day five of Russia's invasion of Ukraine... That's if it's not being interfered with by the state. Who's taken up arms to defend his country. First, there are gunshots. Then there are screams of victims. And then you understand that, OK, this is real. But normally the BBC broadcasts on very high quality.

We're ashamed. I never thought we'd be in this situation. We were normal people. We had jobs, schools, a normal family. Let me take you back in time and ask you who invented this remarkable thing, shortwave radio. Who is responsible for it? The real practical side of this was done by Marconi in the turn of the century. Not this century, the last century, and where he transmitted a signal from the UK to Newfoundland. And that was the first of the long-range radio transmissions.

And from that came very, very quickly radios that were used with Morse code in a very short space of time from Marconi's, if you like, first practical demonstration of this, we then had good radios. The Marconi you're referring to is Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian. The very same. I named my dog after him. Guglielmo King is his name. And what a fine name you should give a dog. And you should put a little antenna on his head.

As a radio professional, it seemed the only appropriate name for my very loud dog. I want to go back to the early days. Who would have owned them? Who would have been listening to them? Was it like televisions in the beginning where only a select few had them? The transmission of them were mainly state-owned, so therefore they would broadcast news and foreign affairs. This is Moscow. Good evening, everybody. You are tuned to the North American service of Radio Moscow. This first part has to do with the titanic struggle for supremacy between the East and

West. Companies would own them, like shipping companies, and also in the early days of aviation they would have had them as well. So these radios were, the transmission side were privately owned, but then the home radios, people were starting to buy from the mid-1920s and onwards. And they became, if you like, like the dining room table, everybody had to have one. Is it fair to say that the shortwave broadcasts decades ago were a lot like the internet in the way that people around the world could all be listening to the same thing and accessing the same information? It was and still is in major parts of the world

the only way that people listen, receive news information, government broadcasts or music or discussion programs. Radio is probably the primary source still, although the internet is becoming as popular. What, to your mind, is the significance of the BBC restarting shortwave broadcasts in this region? What does this tell us? Well, it tells us that Russia, in this particular case, was blocking off the transmissions through the internet. And it can do that because it controls the internet once it's in Russia. Now, in Ukraine, what the Russians did there was take out the radio broadcasts from the state,

as you saw on television. They hit the towers with missiles and destroyed that. Russian forces have attacked a TV tower in Ukraine's capital. The Kyiv Independent says TV channels have stopped broadcasting. This comes hours after Russia warned it would attack facilities in Kyiv. They would have certainly destroyed a lot of the internet in Ukraine as well. So the only way that we can get news and briefings and instructions to the people is via radio. And that is omnipresent. And that's the reason that we will never ever leave radio because it is in fact an omnipresent

source. we will never ever leave radio because it is in fact an omnipresent source and once the electromagnetic wave is in in the ether of the atmosphere it is going to if it's got enough power it will get to your antenna and you'll be able to listen to it We will not walk in fear one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine. And remember that we are not descended from fearful men. Not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular.

Cassius was right. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. Good night and good luck. Support for Today Explained comes from Ramp. Ramp is the corporate card and spend management software designed to help you save time and put money back in your pocket. Ramp says they give finance teams unprecedented control and insight into company spend. With Ramp, you're able to issue cards to every employee with limits and restrictions and automate expense reporting so you can stop wasting time at the end of every month. And now you can get $250 when you join Ramp. you can go to ramp.com explained ramp.com explained r a m p.com explained cards

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Raise your game to the next level this year with BetMGM, a sportsbook worth a slam dunk, an authorized gaming partner of the NBA. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns

about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Professor David Stupples in London. So you were in the Royal Air Force in the 1970s as a radio man. What was your job exactly? I dealt with electronic warfare, which is using radio to fight with. How does

one use radio to fight with? I'm not sure if you're talking about propaganda or something a bit different. Well, both actually. I can jam radars. I can jam missile systems. I can jam radars, I can jam missile systems, I can jam satellite communication systems, jam the navigation systems. Jamming them in such a way that they can't be used. But if you wanted to spy on the nation, then you would do this through radio. How would that work? I would just listen to all of their broadcasts. And there was no way for the Soviet Union to block you from doing that? No.

Because of shortwave? Once the radio wave or electromagnetic wave gets in the ether, it goes everywhere. How were spies using shortwave during the time of the Cold War? That comes back to our communications because there was no internet. How would you communicate with agents or spies as you call them? Let's be kind and call them agents because you can't go up and knock on their door and say we've got a message for you. What you would then have is these, and it comes back to your shortwave radios again. A shortwave radio transmitting information worldwide to agents. Now, if I'm transmitting to my agent somewhere in the Soviet Union or somewhere in East Germany,

what I would then do is transmit the information in code. So after a startup piece of music which actually tells the agent that we're on the air will then send out a set of numbers which actually said this message is for for agent whatever agent number is receiving this. That's followed by coded messages in numbers and these numbers would then be translated by the agent using a one-time pad, which is an encryption method. And they would get a message. The message might be short and say, there is a message in your Dropbox. Or it may be long by giving the agent some instruction.

But it's more than likely it's telling him there's a message in the dropbox. So what they would do is have a special, have a place in the behind a tree. If you looked at some of your spies that have been working in the United States, they use dropboxes to pick up messages and also send information back. And the Russians were very, during the Second World War, were using this method to communicate with Russian spies that were in the US. where the agent was located was not known, and they could never find that out by the communications, because it was a one-way communication to the agent. The transmitter was in somewhere. It would transmit worldwide,

so therefore the agent would be able to listen to the message. The authorities would never know where the agent will be able to listen to the message. The authorities would never know where the agent was. From what I've read about life in the Soviet Union, behind the Iron Curtain, one of the big problems was misinformation, right? The Soviet Union not being honest with its people about what was going on. They were receiving a lot of propaganda,

a lot of propaganda coming from the top. Was the BBC doing that too? How did that work? That's precisely what the BBC World Service was doing. But let's put the blame somewhere else as well, because the voice of America did the same thing. Wherever you may be listening to this broadcast, remember this. The people of the United States extend a hand of friendship to you across the seas. Depends on what you call propaganda,

but they would certainly try to tell the truth to the Soviet Union, the Soviet people at that time. Of course, the Soviet Union was nearly all of the Eastern Bloc countries and so therefore they would broadcast in Russian, German, Polish, Czech and Slovakian and several of the Arab languages that are used within the the Soviet Union as well. So they would broadcast in all of those languages. And they would then give news and current affairs programs. And I believe try to tell the truth, but I'm sure that there was a degree of propaganda on both sides. So the BBC World Service broadcasting now in shortwave is going to be sending straight news into Russia and Ukraine. Can you talk about the

importance of the BBC taking this decision to begin shortwave broadcasts again in Russia and Ukraine? I think it's an admirable decision. We know in Russia and probably in other parts of the world as well that they control the media, but they will also control the internet. And if they found that stations were broadcasting to their nation, that were giving information to their population, their people, that they didn't want the people to have, then they could certainly use the internet to block that. With radio, they can't do that. They could jam the radio, in other words, put a whole bunch of noise up there so you couldn't hear this on your radio. But that's difficult to do all of the time, because the human ear and the human brain is very good at picking out speech from what is noise, people will be able to listen to that. And since you can't

stop waves traveling on the electromagnetic, on the ether, it's impossible to stop them. You can't put a brick wall up. They get there, whatever happens. Censorship then becomes exceedingly difficult. If we want to get information to the Russian people and to the Ukrainian people from the point of view of trying to bolster their confidence, then we would do this through radio. It's the sure means of getting it through. It sounds like reports of the death of radio are greatly exaggerated, and we're learning that now. If I want to communicate to people in other parts of the world,

especially in times of conflict as we have now, then I would do that through the shortwave, which cannot be stopped. Professor David Stupples in London. Today's show was produced by Victoria Chamberlain, edited by Matthew Collette, engineered by Afim Shapiro, and fact-checked by Laura Bullard. I'm Noelle King. It's Today Explained. And what's your light? My only friend Through teenage nights Is everything I had to know I heard it on my radio

You gave them all Those old time stars Through wars and wars Invaded by Mars. You made them laugh, you made them cry. You made us feel like we could fly. So don't become some background noise. A fact of both the girls and boys. Who just don't know or just don't care

And just complain when you're not there You've had your time, you've had your power You've yet to have your finest hour Radio Your finest hour Radio All we hear is Radio caca Radio cuckoo Radio gaga All we hear is

Radio caca Radio gaga Radio what's new Radio Radio, blah, blah, radio, what's new? Radio, someone still loves you. We watch the shows We watch the stars On videos For hours and hours

We hardly need To use our ears Our music Changes through the years Let's hope you'll never leave or pray Like all good things are new and declared

So stick around cause we might miss you When we grow tired of all this visual You've had your time You've had the power You've yet to have your finest hour is all we hear is radio kaka radio google radio gaga all we hear is Radio Gaga Radio Google

Radio Gaga All we hear is Radio Gaga Radio blah blah Radio what's new Someone still loves you you someone still loves you Thank you.