BLACK RADIO

The term given to ostensibly conventional broadcast stations that deliberately misrepresent their status and purpose to deceive listeners. Having acquired an audience by guile, the programming can be manipulated to  achieve a particular objective, the best examples being Soldatensender-Calais, Atlantik-sender, and Radio Livorno, which purported to be authentic Axis stations during World War II providing a service to troops in  Nazi-occupied countries in Europe. In reality the staff was made up of Britons fluent in German and anti-Nazi defectors and émigrés who provided commentaries intended to undermine morale and sap confidence in Adolf  Hitler’s regime. Although very little research has been undertaken to determine the effectiveness of black radio, it is believed that it has a greater impact than orthodox propaganda of the type conveyed by Tokyo Rose and William Joyce.