Audio waves at War

The role of radio… … broadcasting, instead of developing into an agency for peace and better international understanding, serves often to incite hatred throughout the world, and is often used, for motives which obviously are not disinterested, and by men in conflict, to dominate, rather than to enlighten, the public mind. Science once again has made a gigantic step forward… J. Grandin, The Political Use of the Radio (Arno Press, [1939] 1971), p. 7

Harness the power of the radio During the World War II time period, 90 percent of American families owned a radio, and it was a part of daily life. During World War II, the Allies and the Axis powers made heavy use of radio for propaganda purposes. Goebbels claimed the radio was the "eighth great power" What do you think the seventh great power was? Goebbels approved a mandate whereby millions of cheap radio sets were subsidized by the government and distributed to German citizens.

Legit stations The BBC was “white”. White stations identify themselves correctly and are legal, using their registered wavelength. Their operations are overt, although occasionally their funding may not be. Until 1973 the Cold War stations Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, for example, were covertly funded by the CIA, and not by private funds as their publicity claimed.

In the Grey Zone Clandestine stations, “black” or “gray”, are not registered with the International Frequency Registration Board. In theory, gray stations are run by dissident groups within a country; black stations masquerade as stations of the opposition.

Spreading lies Both sides recruited native speakers to broadcast radio messages to the opposition in the hopes of spreading disinformation and sowing discontent. These mysterious radio personalities became minor celebrities during the war, and some were even arrested and branded as traitors when the fighting ended.

Several American Nazi sympathizers worked as broadcasters for German state radio, but perhaps none was as famous as Mildred Gillars. Her nickname was ‘Axis Sally’

Beginning in 1939, millions of Britons regularly tuned in to a German propaganda broadcast hosted by a smug Nazi sympathizer nicknamed “Lord Haw Haw.”

More than a dozen female Japanese broadcasters were dubbed “Tokyo Rose,” but the nickname was most famously linked to an American named Iva Toguri.

As the head maestro of Britain’s “black propaganda” radio programs, Sefton Delmer used cloak-and-dagger methods to turn the airwaves into a tool for psychological warfare. Beginning in 1941, Delmer operated a phony German radio station called Gustav Siegfried Eins, or GS1.

The Technical Team "Germany" assisted in about 50 major events and drove over 360,000 kilometers (nine times around the earth). Radio Propaganda - The text translates: "All Germany hears the Führer on the People's Receiver." The Nazis, eager to encourage radio listening, developed an inexpensive radio receiver to make it possible for many people to hear Nazi propaganda.

As well as domestic broadcasts, the Nazi regime used the radio to deliver its message to both occupied territories and enemy states. “It would not have been possible for us to take power or to use it in the ways we have without the radio...It is no exaggeration to say that the German revolution, at least in the form it took, would have been impossible without the airplane and the radio…[Radio] reached the entire nation, regardless of class, standing, or religion. That was primarily the result of the tight centralization, the strong reporting, and the up-to-date nature of the German radio.”

Roosevelt By 1942, the most famous radio program airing overseas became known as the “Voice of America.”Voice of America A popular government wartime radio show, performed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was known as "fireside chats“. Franklin D. Roosevelt

The King’s Speech This is the King's Speech which George VI broadcast to his people in Britain, and throughout the Empire, immediately after Britain's Declaration of War against Germany on September 3,

In conclusion World War II was a radio war