Finance Bros Are Coming for the Public Airwaves

On the Media | Aug 28

Nowadays, scrappy pirate broadcasters rule over shortwave radio. On this week’s On the Media, an unlikely group of finance bros have plans to take over the frequencies for their own gain. 

In recent years, creative, often music-focused pirate broadcasting has been thriving on shortwave radio. But these surreptitious broadcasters are up against a surprising enemy: Not the FCC, but a deep-pocketed group of finance bros that is trying to wrestle the airwaves away from the public, and use them for a money-making scheme completely antithetical to broadcasting. This week we share an episode of The Divided Dial, which first aired last year. Reporter Katie Thornton asks: What do we lose when we give up our public airwaves? 

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