Cosmopolitan Noises: Atmospheres in Shortwave Radio Listening

After World War II, radio as a borderless medium became more and more important as an international agent connecting people worldwide. To date, these transnational connections have been explored primarily in relation to their function as political propaganda during the Cold War. In contrast, the present study explores the link between radio listening and the atmospheres emitted by international radio. It includes research in the production archive as well as a reenactment of the listener’s situation using historical radio sets. The article looks at the changes in media-cultural practices which were responsible for the valorisation of atmospheres, as well as at the value of the acoustic interferences of radio transmission. It traces how these auditory and bodily confrontations with noise(s) evolved into a resensing of cosmopolitan feelings. The study is a contribution to a history of mobility intertwined with a history of the senses and atmospheres.