Fox, not farmer
American Radio History has added some issues of International Broadcast Engineer from the '60s. IBE was a British trade journal for shortwave and TV broadcasters.

What caught my attention was a listing of tech articles and developments. Half were British, half Russian, only a few US or German.

The first two didn't surprise me. England was THE CENTER of electronics research and development for 140 years, from 1830 to 1970. IBE was catching the tail end of British dominance before the bankers took over the economy and deleted all non-banks. Russia was a late starter, but I'd always been aware that Russia was a major source of development starting in the '50s. England and Russia were cooperating and sharing tech info in both directions, while USA was handing off its electronics to Japan in a one-way gift.

The lack of other Euro and US contributions did surprise me.

= = = = =

A lively article on the pirate radio stations of the 60s focuses on Radio 390. (Radio Caroline was the most familiar of those pirates.)

Ted Allbeury, the Kent farmer who is managing director of Radio 390, said that the PMG has been misinformed about offshore radio and that he would welcome the occasion to explain to him exactly what they are doing, how they are doing it, and why they are doing it.

Radio 390 has been likened to the BBC Light Programme he said. The comparison is a fair one, he added, but unlike the BBC which tries to satisfy all of the people some of the time, Radio 390 sets out to please some people all of the time.

The serious press reaction was interesting in that while treating the pirates like a headmaster might speak to pleasant pupils who'd been party-ing without permission, it expressed sympathy with the needs which they supplied and advised the Government not to behave in a negative fashion.

Made me curious. Did Allbeury end up in prison, or did he simply return to farming?

Neither. And he wasn't a farmer at all, HE WAS A SPY.

From Wikipedia, Allbeury was a Special Ops spy in the '40s and '50s, then briefly ran an advertising agency, then briefly ran Radio 390, then settled down into writing spy novels.

In other words, he switched from military warfare to information warfare, and those pirates were Deepstate operations.

This explains the mild reaction of the serious press. They always know who's Deepstate and who isn't.

Unlike the BBC which tries to satisfy all of the people some of the time, Radio 390 sets out to please some people all of the time.

Here's the seed of Fox "versus" CNN. Murdoch and Turner, both Deepstaters with equally murky origin stories, created "competing" networks with a pirate feel. Each set of viewers feels like a clandestine group committed to defeating the other set of viewers. Neither set is ever exposed to facts. They spend all their time "debating" Shared Lies.

Labels: Answered better than asked, Shared Lie

  ¶ 1:47 AM