Clandestine Radio Broadcasting

Clandestine radio broadcasting stations are unlicensed, illegal stations that broadcast to countries that prohibit or limit the expression of dissident political viewpoints. The stations are frequently operated by revolutionary and counterrevolutionary groups or intelligence services such as the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.), whose intent is to undermine the governments of countries to which they broadcast.

Description

The transmitters of these stations frequently claim to be located in the countries to which they broadcast, but are actually located outside the country, particularly when they broadcast on shortwave frequencies. As an example, the C.I.A. operated a clandestine station called “Nasha Rossiya” during the 1950s that claimed to be operated by native Russian dissidents, but whose shortwave transmitter was actually based in Athens, Greece. Similarly, a radio station called “Freedom Station 904” claimed to be operated by dissident West Germans within that country, but actually broadcast on the mediumwave bandwidth from Magdeburg, East Germany, which controlled the station. Freedom Station 904 signed on shortly after the West German Communist Party was banned in 1956. The station's purpose was to make it appear that West Germany, like East German, silenced political opponents.

Clandestine radio stations are sometimes referred to as pirate stations, but this term usually refers to commercial, offshore stations such as Radio Caroline and Radio Veronica, that broadcast popular music to Europe from ship-based transmitters during the 1960s. Unlike clandestine radio stations, whose purpose is to undermine or overthrow governments, pirate stations are operated to make money.

Origins

Clandestine radio broadcasting began after Adolf Hitler became German Chancellor in 1931. One of the first clandestine stations, an anti-Hitler station, was operated by Otto Strasser, whose brother Gregor Strasser was killed on June 30, 1934 at Hitler's orders during the “Night of the Long Knives.” The Strassers joined the Nazi Party believing that it was actually a socialist party, which it was not. As Gregor Strasser noted, “We National Socialists want the economic revolution involving the nationalization of the economy...We want in place of an exploitative capitalist economic system a real socialism.”

As part of his consolidation of power, Hitler ordered the elimination of left-wing elements in the Nazi party, as well as many of his non-Nazi opponents. Gregor Strasser and many of his allies were murdered during the Night of the Long Knives in order to maintain ideological uniformity in the Nazi party and to eliminate potential rivals to Hitler.

Following Gregor's murder, Otto and some remaining members of the Black Front, as Strasser called the movement, started an anti-Hitler station called the “Voice of the Black Front.” It broadcast to Germany three times daily for an hour from Czechoslovakia, not far from the German border, beginning in September 1934. The station was constructed and maintained by Rudolf Wormys, the former chief engineer of Stuttgard Radio. The broadcasts ended on January 25, 1935 when Wormys was killed by Gestapo agents.

Between the silencing of “Voice of the Black Front” and the outbreak of World War II, other anti-Nazi clandestine stations operated by Hitler's German opponents went on the air, usually claiming to broadcast from within Germany. These stations were generically referred to as the “German Freedom Station,” thus confusing one clandestine station with another. One station broadcast to Germany from Spain until the defeat of the Spanish Republic in 1939. Although broadcasting from Spain, German officials contended that the broadcasts originated in the Soviet Union, the Nazi's bete noire. (After the fall of Spain and the outbreak of Worlf War II, the station did move to Moscow and was renamed German People's Radio.)

Another more-widely heard German Freedom Station was operated from France by former German Communist Party member Willi Munzenberg, after he broke with Stalin. Following the signing of the Hitler-Stalin Pact in 1939, the German Communist Party denounced Munzenberg's station as an “operation by the French government, which misuses its name for misleading the German and Austrian people, to cheat them, and exploit them for its own imperialist aims.” When France collapsed in 1940, this German Freedom Station went off the air, as Munzenberg attempted to escape the Nazi onslaught. Munzenberg was apparently killed by Soviet NKVD agent who were with Munzenberg when he attempted to flee, although the Communists claimed he committed suicide.

The image of anti-Nazi crusaders operating mobile, German Freedom Stations at their peril from inside Germany captured the imagination of British and U.S. filmmakers, who made two World War II propaganda films, Freedom Radio (1941) and Underground (1941 film), about fictitious clandestine stations operating under the noses of the Gestapo. Both films depicted heroic, well-educated anti-Nazi activists whose relatives were initially Nazi supporters. By the end of both films, the pro-Nazi relatives realized that Nazis were brutal liars, and joined the underground, also participating in German freedom broadcasts. Both end with the station operators being hunted down and killed by the Nazis for their underground activities.

World War II Clandestine Broadcasting

When World War II began, Great Britain established an office called the Special Operations Executive (SOE) that was to conduct subversive warfare. SOE had two branches, SO1, which was to conduct psychological warfare; and SO2, which was to conduct sabotage and guerrilla warfare. Psychological warfare included the operation of clandestine radio stations that broadcast to Nazi Germany, its allies, and occupied countries. The first SO1 station was called “Sender der Europaischen Revolution” (“Radio of the European Revolution”), which began broadcasting anti-Nazi programs to Germany in 1940. Among German emigres who helped found the station was anti-Nazi activist Hilde Meisel. The Sender's broadcasts were produced by members of New Beginning, an organization of exiled German socialists, operating under the supervision of Richard Crossman, a labor party politician, SOE leader, and expert on Germany. The station went off the air in 1942, after the Soviet Union joined the anti-German alliance.

The next clandestine station that SO1 started was called “Frats Roman” (Brother Romanians), which commenced broadcasting on November 10, 1941, two weeks before Romania signed the Tripartite Pact, allying Romania with the Axis powers. On November 15, a third SO1-sponsored clandestine station, “Radio Inconnue,” signed on, broadcasting to German-occupied France from a transmitter in Great Britain, but claiming to originate from a hidden transmitter in Paris. The next day, “Radio Italia” signed on, claiming to be operated by an anti-Mussolini underground that accused the Italian dictator of being Hitler's sychophant. It used the slogan, “Don't believe, don't obey, don't fight.” On November 17, another SO1 clandestine station, “Radio Travail” (“Worker's Radio) started broadcasting to France, claiming to be the voice of the French working class. The November 17 broadcast was the first of more than 550 broadcasts made by Radio Travail. To assure that potential listeners knew where these stations could be heard, SOE operatives in occupied countries distributed and posted stickers announcing the times and frequencies of the clandestine stations in the regions where it operated.

At the end of 1941, SO1 was removed from SOE and placed in a separate entity called the Political Warfare Executive (PWE), which was responsible for aboveground or white propaganda, as well as black or clandestine propaganda. British journalist Sefton Delmer was head of the black propaganda operations. With the creation of the PWE, the British were able to better coordinate their black and white propaganda efforts. By the time PWE was created, Britain had put more than a dozen more clandestine stations on the air, including a Marxist-oriented station, “Rotes Wien,” that broadcast to Austria; an Italian socialist station; and a gray clandestine station that broadcast messages from General De Gaulle's Free French Forces. Most of these stations broadcast from transmitters whose power was 7.5 kilowatts or less. The most famous of these stations was Gustav Siegfried Eins, which broadcast to German troops, claiming to be operated by a patriotic but disgruntled German officer called “Der Chef” (“The Chief”) .

In an effort to reach larger areas of Europe, the PWE purchased a 600-kilowatt transmitter built by RCA, which had been in storage. The transmitter was dubbed “Aspidistra” from the lyrics of a popular song. The transmitter’s frequency could be changed, allowing it to broadcast messages from ostensibly different stations. One of the stations that broadcast from the Aspidistra transmitter was a clandestine station called Soldatensender Calais (Soldiers’ Station from Calais), which claimed to be a German-operated armed forces radio station, broadcasting music, entertainment and news to frontline troops. Because of its immense power, the station was able to reach much of Europe, not just German troops on the western front, for whom the station purportedly claimed to broadcast. But unlike real German radio stations, the station carried subtle anti-Nazi reports along with reports on German losses and setbacks, something actual German stations avoided mentioning

Because of its power and its presentation of news that was not available on stations in Germany and German-occupied Europe, the Soldatensender developed a large listenership, particularly for a clandestine station. A survey of German listeners conducted after World War II ended found that 23 percent who listened to non-German stations reported listening to the Soldatensender. Although many of the listeners believed that the station was operated by the Allies, it was deemed safer to listen to than the Voice of America or similar stations because it claimed to be a German station. Listening to Allied stations in Germany was forbidden and listening was punishable, whereas listeners could claim they tuned to a German rather than enemy station when listening to the Soldatensender. Furthermore, German officials did little to counter the Soldatensender’s claim that it was a German station out of fear of drawing attention to it and in so doing, increasing its listenership.

The Office of Strategic Services' Stations

In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked William J. Donovan, a former World War I officer who was known as “Wild Bill” Donovan and the 1932 Republican candidate for Governor of New York, to travel to Great Britain on a fact-finding mission to assess Britain’s abilities to singlehandedly fight Germany. Roosevelt wanted to know what aid Britain needed, and what it was doing to fight the war. Donovan arrived in London on July 17, 1940, where he met with Winston Churchill, King George VI, and other political leaders, as well as officials of the SOE, who showed Donovan the highly secret operations of SO1 and SO2.

After returning to the United States, Donovan informed Roosevelt about what he saw, and about Great Britain’s need for military assistance. Donovan had his law firm research the legal basis for transferring military equipment to Great Britain, under a program called Lend-Lease, as well as trying to convince FDR and other political leaders of the need for the United States to establish an intelligence agency similar to what Britain created with the SOE. In June 1941, as it became clear that the United States would soon be involved in the war, FDR appointed Donovan as head of the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI) which Donovan envisioned as similar to SOE – collecting and synthesizing intelligence, conducting propaganda operations, including clandestine stations, and organizing guerrilla operations inside of occupied territories. For COI, Donovan began recruiting academics with experience collecting and synthesizing information, mass media workers with experience producing radio programs, and attorneys, whom Donovan viewed as sufficiently trained to analyze evidence and presents arguments based on it. One of Donovan’s first COI recruits was Edmond Taylor, who wrote a book titled, The Strategy of Terror, that described how rumors, sabotage and white and clandestine broadcasts worked together to undermine France and bring about its collapse at the Beginning or WWII. Taylor was one of the first COI recruits to be sent to Great Britain to observe and learn the tactics practiced by SO1. Upon his return Taylor became an advocate of organizing underground operations in the way Great Britain had.

Recent clandestine radio operations: Afghanistan and Syria

Clandestine stations operated by revolutionary and counterrevolutionary organizations usually go on the air when civil unrest occurs and attempt to encourage or even inflame the unrest. Beginning in the late 1950s, Cuban opponents of dictator Fulgencio Batista, operated a number of clandestine radio stations, which stoked opposition to the dictatorship. The most famous of these stations was “Radio Rebelde,” operated by rebels commanded by Fidel Castro, which broadcast from a hidden location in Cuba's Sierra Maestra mountains. After the Taliban government was ousted by the United States in 2001, the Afghan Taliban started a clandestine radio station called “Voice of Shariat.” Other low-power Taliban stations signed on after that, which criticized the U.S. invasion and Afghan government, as well as airing hymns and Islamic fundamentalist commentaries. The stations were so successful that U.S. and the Afghan governments tried to counterprogram and jam the broadcasts.”

During the Syrian civil war, a number of clandestine stations took to the airwaves broadcasting programs against the dynastic regime of Bashar al-Assad. The stations had names such as “Radio Watan” (“Radio Homeland”), “Radio al-Kul”(“Radio for Everyone”), “Radio Hara” (“Neighborhood Radio”) and “Radio Alwan” (“Colors Radio.”). Some, like Radio al-Kul, broadcast from areas in Syria controlled by rebels; some broadcast from abroad, including “Radio Alwan,” which had broadcast from Turkey. As in Afghanistan, clandestine radio broadcasting was used to disseminate anti-government messages because printing presses and paper were scarce in rebel-held areas, and electricity and internet connectivity spotty.