“Radio waves” transmit music, conversations, pictures and data invisibly through the air, often over millions of miles — it happens every day in thousands of different ways! Even though radio waves are invisible and completely undetectable to humans, they have totally changed society. Whether we are talking about a cell phone, a baby monitor, a cordless phone or any one of the thousands of other wireless technologies, all of them use radio waves to communicate.
Here are just a few of the everyday technologies that depend on radio waves:
- AM and FM radio broadcasts
- Cordless phones
- Garage door openers
- Wireless networks
- Radio-controlled toys
- Television broadcasts
- Cell phones
- GPS receivers
- Ham radios
- Satellite communications
- Police radios
- Wireless clocks
The list goes on and on… Even things like radar and microwave ovens depend on radio waves. Things like communication and navigation satellites would be impossible without radio waves, as would modern aviation — an airplane depends on a dozen different radio systems. The current trend toward wireless Internet access uses radio as well, and that means a lot more convenience in the future!
The funny thing is that, at its core, radio is an incredibly simple technology. With just a couple of electronic components that cost at most a dollar or two, you can build simple radio transmitters and receivers. The story of how something so simple has become a bedrock technology of the modern world is fascinating!
Some people know what they want and try really hard to get it,” says TV on the Radio multi-instrumentalist Dave Sitek. “We’d rather write a song about robots fucking.” This oddball aesthetic is apparent on the band’s debut CD, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, a cool collage of electronic fuzz, jazz skronk, doo-wop vocals and dark pop.
The group’s mishmash of styles can be credited, in part, to singer Tunde Adebimpe’s unusual upbringing. Adebimpe spent several years of his childhood in Nigeria, where his father worked as a social worker. “We’d listen to Fela Kuti, and Indian and Pakistani music,” he says. “I remember getting a copy of the Beach Boys’ Smile and not being able to wrap my head around it. I loved it, but I was just like, ‘Is it music?’ ” After high school, Adebimpe moved to New York to pursue a filmmaking career. He rented a room in Brooklyn with Sitek, who was selling acrylic paintings and producing local bands such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Liars.
“He was a weird motherfucker,” Sitek says of Adebimpe. “There was no question we were gonna do something together.” The two made some demos, took their name from a friend’s random suggestion and set out gigging after adding Kyp Malone as another noisemaker (the band recently added a drummer and a bassist for its live shows).
TVOTR recorded much of Desperate Youth by improvising for hours, then picking out the best parts. Unable to play an instrument, Adebimpe used a pedal that allowed him to sing over his own beat-boxing. But for its entire chaotic sprawl, the album is still a coherent paean to youthful confusion.
Despite the band’s surprise success, Sitek claims TVOTR don’t plan on getting more professional. “We don’t have the attention span to find the ‘right’ way of doing things,” Sitek says. “And we’re highly susceptible to caffeine.”
