Long before cable TV, YouTube, and social media, there was radio. We grew up listening to local AM and FM stations, sometimes on our very own portable transistor radios. But there was another type of radio broadcast out there in the ether, one with a secretive, faintly Cold War flavour to its name: shortwave. Once the domain of international broadcasters like Radio Free Europe, the BBC World Service, Voice of America, Radio Moscow, Radio Havana, and hundreds of others, the new world of the Web left the old world of shortwave radio gasping for air.

This week’s episode of Rabbit Holes explores the history of shortwave radio; who’s still broadcasting; software-defined radio dongles that let those so inclined (like us) more easily tune in and turn on to wavelengths of more modest proportions; antennas and radio shacks; pirate radio; Lord Haw-Haw; Tokyo Rose; and more.

Music and Image credits
Podcast “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Radio Tower image by Andreas Lischka from Pixabay
Car Crash from BBC Sound Effects
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com

The guys are back on-station after an undeserved two-year hiatus during which time there was no personal growth other than Dave's pants size and two beards, one of which belongs to Richard. This week's episode was taped just before the Big Slack Off and continues a series dedicated to music albums that left a mark.

In 1971, a musical duo from New York State who'd named themselves after a steam-powered dildo called “Steely Dan III from Yokohama” in William S. Burroughs’ 1959 novel Naked Lunch appeared on the music scene. We're not making that up.

In November 1972 Steely Dan's debut album, “Can't Buy a Thrill,” was released. It was an enormous hit featuring songs like “Do It Again,” “Dirty Work,” and “Reelin' In the Years.” Much success ensued, but something about that album caused it to resonate across the decades like a vapour-enabled sex toy.

And so it begins...

Music and Image credits:
Podcast “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Car Crash from BBC Sound Effects
Record albums photo by Joyce G on Unsplash

According to industry statistics, only 11% of podcasts make it to fifty episodes, and 90% never publish more than three episodes before drowning in a raging torrent of abject shame, humiliation, and self-abuse. (We may have made up the part about the torrent.)

Founded in August of 2022, the same month the FBI raided Donald Trump's Palm Beach bolthole looking for classified documents he ripped off from the White House on his way out the door, we are now proud members of the elite 11%. In this week's episode, we celebrate our historic Big Five-O by re-living some of Semi-Retired's more or less memorable moments.

As a bonus, Dave recounts his recent fall from social media grace at the non-corporeal hands of an Instagram AI "team member."

Warning: Some content verges on self-abuse. Listener discretion is semi-advised.

Music and image credits:
Episode graphic by Richard Bonomo and ChatGPT (or is it the other way around?)
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock