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.
The Three Categories of Political Radio Intelligence and communication experts typically divide political broadcasting into three color-coded tiers based on transparency:
White Radio: The station is completely transparent about its location, ownership, and purpose. Examples include official state-sponsored networks like Radio Free Europe or Voice of America. White stations are not clandestine stations.
Grey Radio: The station is run by an indigenous dissident groups inside a target country, or the group uses a transmitter located outside the country to send the messages to the target country. An example of a grey station is Radio Watan, which broadcast from within Syria during that country's civil war.
Black Radio: The most deceptive tier. These are clandestine operations run by one country or faction but completely disguised as if they are originating from the enemy's own government or military forces to create confusion.
Revolutionary radio operations
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.
Clandestine stations can be distinguished by whether they are “black” or “gray.” Black stations are stations like “Freedom Station 904” that misrepresent their purpose, their sponsorship and even the location of their transmitters. These stations are usually sponsored by governments that are adversaries of the countries to which the stations broadcast or by intelligence agencies seeking to advance the interests of their countries.
Gray stations are usually operated by revolutionary or counterrevolutionary groups and may be, but are not always, located in liberated areas of the countries to which they broadcast. As previously mentioned, “Radio Rebelde,” “Radio al-Kuhl and the Taliban stations had broadcast from within the countries to which they broadcast. On the other hand, “Oggi In Italia” (Today in Italy) broadcast programs and news of the Italian Communist Party to Italy from a transmitter in Prague until 1970. The station was unplugged by Czechoslovak authorities because the station voiced opposition to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, which deposed the liberal communist government of Alexander Dubcek. The closing of "Oggi in Italia" demonstrates that clandestine stations operating from abroad are dependent on the largesse of their host country. On the other hand, the Syrian clandestine station “Radio Fresh” was destroyed when Syrian army helicopters dropped barrel bombs on the building that housed its transmitter, showing the danger that comes from operating a clandestine station within a country where a civil war is taking place.
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.
In late 1936, after the formation of the International Brigades that travelled to Spain to defend the Republic from General Francisco Franco’s troops, the International Brigade of the Communist Party of Italy started a clandestine radio station in Barcelona that broadcast anti-fascist propaganda to Italy. The Italian government of Benito Mussolini, along with Nazi Germany, backed Franco’s military uprising. The station, Radio Milano Libertà was established in Barcelona, and was first heard on October 26, 1936. The station claimed to be based in Italy. The broadcasts were aired from 10:45 PM daily on the 28 meter wavelength until the fall of the Republic, when the station went silent.
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.