Have you heard On the Media’s Peabody-winning series The Divided Dial?

It’s awesome and you should, and now you will. In this episode they tell the story of shortwave radio: the way-less-listened to but way-farther-reaching cousin of AM and FM radio. The medium was once heralded as a utopian, international, and instantaneous mass communication tool — a sort of internet-before-the-internet.

But, like the internet, many people quickly saw the power of this new technology and found ways to harness it. State leaders turned it into a propaganda machine, weaponizing the airwaves to try and shape politics around the world. And as shortwave continued to evolve, like the internet, it became fragmented, easily accessible, and right-wing extremists, conspiracy theorists and cult leaders found homes on the different shortwave frequencies.

And even today - again, like the internet - people with money are looking to buy up this mass-communication tool in the hopes of … making more money.

This is episode one from the second season of The Divided Dial a limited series from On The Media.

Listen on Spotify (https://zpr.io/hKCcFEGTLb5a)
Listen on Apple Podcasts (https://zpr.io/tQ86YmEmiivR)
Listen on the WNYC App (iTunes, Android)
Listen to the full Divided Dial series (https://www.onthemedia.org/dial)
Follow On The Media on Instagram @onthemedia

The Divided Dial was supported in part by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

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From Theory to Practice - November 17, 2025