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Wireless Internationalism and Distant Listening

During the 1920s and 1930s radio was transnational in its reach and appeal, attracting distant listeners and encouraging hopes that broadcasting would foster international understanding and world peace. As a new medium, radio broadcasting transmitted speech, music, news, and a range of exotic and authentic sounds across borders to reach audiences in other countries. In Europe radio was regulated through international consultation and cooperation to restrict interference between stations and to unleash the medium’s full potential to carry programmes to global audiences. A distinctive form of ‘wireless internationalism’ emerged, reflecting and reinforcing the broader internationalist movement and establishing structures and approaches which endured into the Second World War, the Cold War, and beyond. Distant listeners, meanwhile, used new technologies and skills to overcome unwanted noise, tune in as many stations as possible, and comprehend and enjoy what they heard. The BBC and other international broadcasters sought to produce tailor-made programmes for audiences overseas, encouraging feedback from listeners and using it to inform production decisions. The book revises our understanding of early British and global broadcasting, and of the BBC Empire Service (the precursor to today’s World Service), and shows how government influence shaped early BBC international broadcasting in English, Arabic, Spanish, and Portuguese. It also explores the wider European and global context, demonstrating how fascism in Italy and Germany, the Spanish Civil War, and the Japanese invasion of China, combined to overturn the utopianism of the 1920s and usher in a new era of wireless nationalism.