Nothin beats shortwave listening at night!

For a while I've been on the radio bandwagon, but a question keeps coming to mind. Where does the monolith known as radio sit with modern technology?

Yes, I know WiFi and other frequencies are used a lot within devices. But when I say "radio," I mean it in the simplest, oldest terms. The common conception is that a "radio" is the device you turn on for the weather or music.

I recently bought a Pomtrex for a dollar at a garage sale, and even though I have a few shortwave transceivers, I have recently enjoyed just turning it on and spinning the dial! The absolute steal of a deal has been genuinely enjoyable. Many people from the late 70s and after know that the term "radio" doesn't just mean AM or FM, but can also be shortwave or low wave.

The Pomtrex does all of the above, and it has made me nostalgic for when I was a kid and my late grandmother would turn on the radio and we would listen to local stations. If I had to put the feelings into words, I would say it's the simplistic nature that draws me to radio. You flip the power switch, spin the dial, and find something you like? No subscription, no buffering. Content brought to you at the speed of light and sound!

I am also starting to get the appeal of shortwave broadcasting—the concept of sending power into a piece of conductive metal and having it become a radio wave that is then bounced off the atmosphere to be received by anyone with a receiver. It makes me realize the resiliency of radio and the pitfalls of the digital age.

For example, let's say in a hypothetical scenario, I live in a country where the government controls information. If that means controlling information via networks and the internet, or through local broadcasters, it doesn't matter—as long as you can receive shortwave, you can get information from anywhere in the world.

Radio—shortwave, at least—served a very important role in information dissemination during WWII. If you lived in a place that was captured, you could receive information from allied stations and neighboring countries. It allowed information to flow regardless of where you were. Does that mean the information was true? That's for you to decide, but the greatest strength of radio is that everyone receives the same broadcast. There is no broadcast that plays into your radio and learns about what you like and dislike, then sends it back to the broadcaster. So then the broadcaster can individually social engineer you like modern social media.

And I'm not lying—for the last week I've just been turning it on late at night, spinning the dial and hearing Spanish, English, and many other stations all over the world. At one point I heard WRMI from Florida; they were playing some podcast about a guy, and I don't want to get into the weeds here. But this guy talked a lot about current societal issues, and I remember thinking to myself, "Can he say that stuff?" To which I remembered there is no monolithic, godlike algorithm deciding what is okay to say and what is not "advertiser friendly." I enjoyed most of the broadcast, though some things I think the speaker was saying were utterly insane and untrue. But that experience made me kind of smile because I could hear somebody just say what they think.

Regardless of what is considered true or not, there really wasn't any kind of stupid-word sidestepping.

"Whoa, it's so sad he got unalive(d)"

"We're not gonna use the G-word because I would get demonetized"

"Ah, heckin' heck, we cant swear or we'll get penalized"

They just said what they felt, and there was no beating around the bush.

"People are lonely."

"Social media is ruining social interaction. I remember working as a broadcaster in the late 70s, where almost everybody I worked with at the studios—people I was great friends with—we all had great friendships. We'd hang out after work and knew about each other's lives. We were that close. Now it feels like you don't know anybody you work with, and it's a soulless interaction."

I enjoy hearing other people talk about the problems of the world, not some censored bullshit.

REAL PEOPLE, FULLY THREE-DIMENSIONAL PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT LIFE.

Not "aw, heck guys, I'm just having a bad day, but I don't want to burden you with my issues, and I'm worried you'll dislike me because I'm flawed, and my topic is NSFW, so I don't want to make anything related because it's not profitable to advertisers."

I miss the early internet, where people had a third dimension.

Very few "influencers" actually feel like people; they're just a face to push product. Is that really an influencer?

I at least like to watch people on media platforms who make content about what they like and love. They're passionate about it and couldn't care what a stupid LLM might think of them. Is it profitable? No—but that's why I enjoy that content! It's made to entertain, not to sell you a pair of shitty earbuds!

I guess this blog-like post has kind of spiraled into my frustration with the modern hellscape of the internet.

So what are your thoughts?