Every so often you are enlightened by something that makes you reconsider everything you've known about the world. Kind of a
Matrix sort of experience, where you discover that your assumptions...or maybe everything that you've been taught about the world is wrong.
The bad thing is that
this article was published in 1995. OK, so 18 years later, I have this
Matrix-like experience while everyone else is presumably fully aware that the CIA majorly funded modern art as a way to undermine communist ideology. Was everyone else in radio circles aware of this? Although I'd read a lot about Radio Swan and Radio Americas broadcasting from Swan Island and trying to help out with the Bay of Pigs invasion, I did not know that the CIA was also secretly funding ultra-abstract artists, such as Jackson Pollock. The CIA was also secretly funding jazz and classical artists and concerts and publishing journals.
Why were they doing these things? To show the creativity and freedom that could be experienced in the United States. Combating Soviet realism one paint-splattered canvas at a time. And it wasn't just an ideological war; at least some of the CIA administrators were evidently big fans of the art and the music.
Another fascinating bit to me is that while the FBI was infiltrating left-wing organizations in the '60s while trying to bring them down, the CIA was infiltrating the arts in the '60s (presumably filled with left-wing fans and artists) while attempting to strengthen them.
Isn't it about time that the CIA showed to the world what a great and freedom-loving country this is by secretly sponsoring a number of shortwave pirates? If the Radio Free Whatever t-shirt sale suddenly hits 50 (see below), you'll know what happened.
* If you're getting low in pirate radio t-shirts, your favorite heavy-metal-with-fake-Russian-accented-DJs-on-shortwave pirate is coming through in the clutch.
Radio Free Whatever t-shirts are now available for $20. Those who haven't heard the station might think you're a psycho communist if they see you wearing it, but it does make for a good conversation starter. Be on the lookout if people start wearing Jackson Pollock t-shirts around you; the CIA might've infiltrated your inner circle.
* The 27th Annual Winter SWLfest is coming up on March 14 and 15, and the list of forums have been announced. Taking center stage is
Behind the Curtain: North Korean Broadcasting and Propaganda, which "will extensively discuss and feature audio and video examples of North
Korean internal and external broadcasting, international and clandestine
broadcasters that manage to penetrate through the regime’s jamming, as
well as descriptions and photographs of the media infrastructure used by
the North Korean regime as the prime instrument of control over the
population."
* Pirate YHWH has not been reported on any of the pirate forums lately, but on the HFU blog, Everett Curry
commented that he heard it on 14350 kHz on January 16 at 2300 UTC.
* I bought a new radio for restoration, a Philco 87 lowboy console. I've started stripping the cabinet and cleaning the chassis. I haven't forgotten about the Goldentone, but it's poorly made and I'm still in the process of trying to drill out the pot-metal screw that holds the tuning knob onto the potentiometer. Hopefully, I'll start posting a Philco 87 running account this week.
* Radio song of the day? "
Radio Song" by Superbus from France
