Apparitions of Transmissions:
Alan – G3XAQ: The Number Station Seeker
& The Fessenden Transmission of 1906

Initially starting out as an investigation on radio advertising the project began to include the idea of Number Stations and Government conspiracies. In addition, I was also inspired by the writings of Brandon LaBelle, with his essay “Phantom Radio.” Although the essay focuses more on the idea of radio inducing memory. I interpreted the text as a means to embody the nature of broadcasting in a more fantastical phantasmic manner. However, I in reflection I realize that my usage of history is an attempt to create a feeling of nostalgia, despite the ambiguity of both of directions the project took forth.

I began my project by doing research on a medium which I have been intimately attached to, but had no idea of its beginnings and history. My historical research revealed two interesting stories:

1. The Fessenden Transmission of 1906:
On Christmas Eve, 1906, Reginald Fessenden used a synchronous rotary-spark transmitter for the first radio program broadcast, from Ocean Bluff-Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Ships at sea heard a broadcast that included Fessenden playing O Holy Night on the violin and reading a passage from the Bible. This was, for all intents and purposes, the first transmission of what is now known as amplitude modulation or AM radio.

2. Pepsi Cola Hits The Spot:
During the Great Depression, Pepsi gained popularity following the introduction in 1936 of a 12-ounce bottle. Initially priced at 10 cents, sales were slow, but when the price was slashed to five cents, sales increased substantially. With a radio advertising campaign featuring the jingle “Pepsi-Cola hits the spot / Twelve full ounces, that’s a lot / Twice as much for a nickel, too / Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you,” arranged in such a way that the jingle never ends.

Using these two historical artifacts I utilized them as tools to explore my wishes to provoke, critique, and reveal several notions:

1. Radio transmissions lay dormant in our atmosphere. Waiting to be tuned into, to be discovered or left all alone — forever perpetuating throughout our atmosphere.

2. The conspiracy regarding the government and the invisible space of our radio waves. The creation of unknown channels for secrecy and information.

3. The ephemeral nature of radio. In turn instigating the importance of the Radio as a medium to communicate messages, advertisements, and information.

The final embodiment of my project was a narrative driven by text and sound. There are two movies with alternative endings.

In a deeper post reflection of the project I decided to create more ambiguous artifacts. A tainted CD with 12 recordings. A USB jump drive obtained from an intercepted government package, both containing 12 recordings with encoded messages which have not been decoded or reverse engineered.