Fans of Radio Canada International’s SWL Digest will be delighted to hear that Ian McFarland has teamed up with Colin Newell for a new podcast episode, SWL Digest 2025. It’s a nostalgic nod to the classic RCI program and a welcome chance to hear Ian’s familiar voice once again!
Listen here: https://colinscafe.com/podcast/swl-digest-2025-episode-1/
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Rich Cuff for this tip: EBC has released Parque do Rodeador: Half a Century of Transmissions, a five-part radio documentary (in English) exploring the history of Brazil’s Rodeador Transmission Park—one of Latin America’s most powerful broadcast centers. Launched in 1974 during the Cold War, it enabled Rádio Nacional’s shortwave and medium wave signals to reach across continents. The series covers its political and technical legacy, including Brazil’s international broadcasting efforts, the challenges of aging infrastructure, and the future of digital shortwave. Listen here.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Jeramy, who shares this Nebraska History Podcast episode about women radio hosts in Nebraska:
Radio has always played a role in connecting people. Early homemaker radio programs, like Mary Moore Homemaker on WJAG in Norfolk, focused on providing content and support for the women in their listening areas.
In this episode of the Nebraska History Podcast, we explore radio’s impact in connecting with and influencing women in Nebraska through the 2019 Nebraska History Magazine article, “Stirring Up Conversation: The Radio Homemaker,” by Mark Smith and Larry Walklin.
Award-winning journalist Katie Thornton has launched a new season of the Peabody-winning podcast, The Divided Dial, produced by On the Media and WNYC Studios. In this season, Katie focuses on shortwave radio—a medium that is near and dear to our hearts.
In Episode 1, “Fishing In The Night”, Thornton explores the international ambitions and shadowy past of shortwave broadcasting. The episode features our friend and resident Shortwaveologist, David Goren, who shares rich insights on the cultural and political influence of the shortwave dial.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dennis Dura, who shares the following news item from EIN Presswire:
Weather forecasting, climate, radar, GPS and more to be explored with industry experts in new video podcast
WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, March 27, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Wireless Innovation Forum (WInnForum) is pleased to announce the launch of a new video podcast about spectrum, titled “Beyond the Radio Dial.” The series addresses the role that the radio spectrum plays in everyday life. The title alludes to the familiar FM or AM radio dial and what lies beyond either end of the frequencies on that dial, although frequencies within the dial may occasionally be addressed too. [Continue reading…]
Checkout the new podcast episodes here: https://www.wirelessinnovation.org/Beyond-the-Radio-Dial
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, William (W8LV), who writes:
Bob Heil’s story, as told BY Bob Heil, is available as a podcast. Here, find real music and amateur radio history as told firsthand!
Available here:
Check out: 50 Years of Maximum Rock n’ Roll:
Thank you, William! As a sample, here’s one of the episodes:
For the full episode archive, check out this link.
Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Dennis Dura, Michael McShan,
and David Iurescia for the following tips:
Despite being created 180 years ago and not being a requirement for amateur radio operators to learn since 1990, it has been kept alive by radio enthusiasts – and now more young people are getting involved.
A combination of pandemic lockdowns forcing youngsters to learn something new, and the use of Morse Code by popular K-Pop bands, has led to ‘a renaissance’ in teens wanting to learn the once groundbreaking form of communication.
From five-year-olds to 99-year-old war veterans, people all over the world are tapping in to communicate with others on the radio. [Continue reading…]
As he sits in a shed on the outskirts of Cambridge, Martin Atherton twists a radio dial and picks up a message being sent in Morse code. The audio dots and dashes, familiar from black-and-white war films, might seem to be relics of a past era.
But more than a century after it was first used, this mode of communication appears to be making a comeback. Since 2006 the number of amateur radio licences, which allow holders to send Morse and voice messages, has increased by almost 60 per cent, according to the Radio Society of Great Britain.
Last year the number of 13 to 44-year-olds viewing the society’s online tutorials, which cover topics such as “improving your Morse skills” and how to build your own equipment, more than tripled.
Allowing people to reach out to distant lands on a shoestring budget, the hobby could have been tailor-made for lockdown. The Netflix series Stranger Things, in which a “ham” radio set is used to contact another dimension, has also been linked to an increase in interest.
“Teenagers are picking it up, so are retirees,” said Atherton, 69, a member of the Cambridge University Wireless Society. [Continue reading…]
In the 1960s, the BBC had a vise grip on British radio, and rarely played the pop and rock music that was all the rage. So a group of rebellious radio DJs decided to give the people what they wanted, and started broadcasting popular music from boats stationed in international waters. Soon enough, these young DJs became national superstars… until the British government decided it was time to sink these pirates once and for all. This story comes from the History This Week podcast.
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