26-30 Radio Facts
26. In order to transmit radio signals to submerged submarines, one technique is to place electrodes in the ground many miles apart, using the earth’s core as a giant antenna. – Source
27. Douglas Adams, creator of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, wanted Slartibartfast’s name to sound very rude. He was originally called “Phartiphukborlz” and changed it gradually until the BBC accepted it for radio broadcast. – Source
28. In the early 1990s, DJs Opie and Anthony promoted a giveaway of “100 Grand” over several weeks on their radio show in Boston. When the winner was finally chosen, they revealed that the prize was a 100 Grand candy bar and not $100,000. – Source
29. Garth Brooks’s 1993 song “We Shall Be Free” was boycotted by some country radio stations because it included the line “When we’re free to love anyone we choose.” – Source
30. NASA has a radio station, and all they play is alternative rock. – Source
31-35 Radio Facts
31. The little plastic thing at the end of data cables is called a Ferrite Bead, and it is used to block interference from radio signals from other electronics. – Source
32. On the 18th of April, 1930, a slow news day, the BBC’s 6:30 PM radio announcer said: “There is no news” and went off the air. – Source
33. David Sarnoff, the founder of RCA, fought so hard to prevent FM Radio from succeeding that the inventor of FM Radio, Edwin Howard Armstrong, commit suicide because of emotional and financial distress brought on by RCA lawsuits. – Source
34. A radio station played N.W.A.’s song Express Yourself for 24 hours as a protest against censorship after being forced to stop playing F*ck that Police. – Source
35. All of our terrestrial radio and television broadcasts become indistinguishable from background noise at only a few light years away from the Earth thanks to the inverse square law. – Source
36-40 Radio Facts
36. One of the most popular radio acts of the 1930s was a ventriloquist, a fact which baffled contemporary critics. – Source
37. One of the first radio communications from an aircraft in flight was “Roy, come and get this g*ddamn cat.” – Source
38. People who believe they suffer from Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS) have relocated to a 13,000 square mile U.S. Radio Quiet Zone where wireless is banned to prevent interference with radio telescopes. – Source
39. France banned mentions of Twitter and Facebook on radio and TV, as in “Follow us on Twitter” or “Like us on Facebook” because they were deemed as promotion and unfair to other sites. – Source
40. Corn Nuts released a radio commercial in the early nineties with the tagline “Bust a nut!”. The ad was promptly pulled from many radio stations. – Source
