Radio activity

Technological progress, almost by definition, is towards greater efficiency.  Too often, though, efficiency equates to a kind of antiseptic lifelessness, a modern, alien tower block which has replaced picturesque but rather scruffy cottages.  The movement from LP to CD is towards one such kind of sterile cleanliness, and has been much bemoaned by purists.  Another, less well-recognised, has occurred in the world of radio.

The apparently unstoppable march to FM transmissions instead of AM has meant, certainly, steadier, clearer reception, the possibility of stereo broadcasts, and far less in the way of cross-station interference.   But just as some of us harbour romantic memories of the gentle humanising pops and clicks which used to accompany vinyl, so there is a sociability and warmth to AM radio which FM lacks by virtue of its very strengths.

FM radio is essentially local: the signal dies away very rapidly with distance.  This has the advantage for broadcasters that there is very little interference between stations using the same or similar frequencies but which are some way apart.  For the listener, though, it means that you are ghettoised; you are doomed to wander your radio backyard and no further.  Contrast this with AM, especially for the longer waves/lower frequencies.  There you may easily receive broadcasts from all over Europe, with stations in France, Germany and Spain almost as clear as local ones.

At least at certain times of the day.  Such transmission is very dependent on atmospheric conditions, in turn partly dependent on the position of the sun.  As a result, the spectrum of radio worlds available on AM changes subtly with the hour, rather than remaining boringly constant as on FM.  Moreover, because of the shifting strengths of stations, some of which use very similar frequencies, you hear interesting aleatoric experiments in collage and superposition.  For example, I have heard heavyweight Spanish discussion programmes with a subtle and totally appropriate wash of serious classical music wafting in from some unknown station as a background.  Radio ceases to be a passive, and takes on a life of its as the great DJ in the sky mixes and matches signals from around the world.

And what a rich, crowded and complex world it is.  Every 5 kHz step along the dial seems to reveal another voice, another view.  Scanning through the frequencies you are suddenly aware of how this planet is buzzing 24 hours a day with the babel of a thousand radio tongues.

The fact that we can receive them means that they are all passing around us - the ones we listen to and the ones we never find - every moment of the day and night.  In fact, if we could see radio waves as we see light and the only difference is frequency - we would gaze upon a world filled with a thousand subtly shimmering colours.  Based on this, an American conceptual artist once marked out a volume of air in a museum, describing it as an exhibition of all the radio waves passing through it.  A nice idea and a slightly worrying one.  Given all this incessant bombardment, you must begin to wonder whether such radio activity, however good for your mind, can really be so good for your health.
 
(23.2.92)

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