Radio nights
PASSEPARTOUT
Christopher & Nirit Slaney
Sun 14 Nov 2010 10:19
|
In an open top flying car moving through a
city inspired by Fritz Lang, Freddie Mercury told us, "Radio, you've yet to
have your finest hour." But then Freddie didn't live to see the World Wide Web,
his entire back catalog on an iPod or hear the Crazy Frog ring tone.
Radio's finest hours might actually have happened before Freddie
was born and a short timetable would include Orson Welles' space
invasion spoof, the Brooklyn Dodgers triumphant and - take your pick -
Churchill, De Gaulle or Hitler urging their listeners on to victory. Still, I'm
discovering plenty of strange life survives out there on the
airwaves.
Our main means of communication on board Passepartout is
a satellite system giving broadband Internet and phone service. In
Gibraltar I bought a transistor radio which covers the entire short wave
frequency range. The radio is a back-up for receiving weather
forecasts and catching up on the news while we're mid-ocean. There are
also a few 'cruiser nets', informal networks of yachts taking part in a
daily exchange of sailing tips, weather info and general
chat. Often times during the night watches I take out the radio and
scan through various bands hoping to find either the BBC World Service or
Radio France Inter, but what I stumble across is this:
In the 120 meter short wave band there's a station
broadcasting from Texas with two themes. That the 9/11 attacks on
the World Trade Center and Pentagon were controlled demolitions, part of a
government conspiracy. And complaints against the TSA, the federal body
responsible for airport security. This isn't one person with an axe to grind and
a microphone. For hour after hour the show features live interviews
with conspiracy theorists described as 'Patriots' from places as far from Texas
as Stockholm and Alice Springs, all with fresh insights about how the rest
of us were fooled into believing Saudi terrorists flew airplanes into those
buildings.
Sharing the 120 meter band is a collection of fire and
brimstone preachers pitching success in this life, eternal rapture in the next
one and all in return for whatever we can afford to donate. I thought this
business had migrated to satellite TV, it just goes to show how resilient the
radio market is.
At around 3410 kilohertz is something I can use. A
computerized woman's voice transmits weather data for every major European
airport. A time check preceding each airport location lets me know it's very up
to date and the information includes wind direction, speed and visibility. Just
what a sailor needs to know. The only snag is I can't fathom out the sequence,
it's definitely neither alphabetical nor geographical. I hear
Amsterdam Schipol, East Midlands, Hannover and Shannon followed
by Brussels and Montpelier. What I could use is Santa Cruz, Tenerife
or Las Palmas but I'm impatient, start twiddling the dial again and
find,
Radio China International! This station is absolutely
everywhere on the frequency scale in the way that the BBC or Radio Vatican used
to be. I've heard them crystal clear in English, Italian and German. Their news
is rather, well, Chinese, but the sports results include European
football and the NBA. Quite a bit of airtime is given over to Chinese language
lessons.
Another station in the 40 meter band is one long
commercial for renewable energy products. Rechargeable batteries, fuel
cells, wind turbines and complete geothermal systems, this station has it all.
The voices in the promotions are all American English but the phone numbers
and web addresses where you can place your orders are in
China.
Finally, a surprising discovery. When I was a
teenager and the BBC's main music station was focused on the worst kind of
sugary pop music, a few 'pirate' stations pumped out the rock and
roll and R&B I wanted to hear. They were broadcasting from
ships off the Dutch coast or, for a while, from abandoned First World
War forts in the Thames estuary. Radio Caroline was probably the most
powerful and had a reliable schedule of DJ's and music styles. I remember
hearing Pink Floyd for the first time through the AM static on Caroline. Well,
at 6055 kilohertz around 2100 UTC someone is keeping the legacy of
Radio Caroline alive. The station calls itself Caroline International, it has a
post office box in France, plays music from the sixties and seventies and even
has one of the original presenters from the pirate days.
Now it's back to the satellite in order to post
this message. |
