Show Notes
What do Wilco, Cold War espionage, and creepily cryptic radio messages have in common? ...Quite a bit, actually.For decades, mysterious shortwave radio broadcasts from "numbers stations" have sent out eerie transmissions of seemingly random numbers and words representing incomprehensible messages to unknown recipients.
Numbers stations have long fascinated radio enthusiasts and intelligence agencies alike. In the late '90s, they caught the attention of Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, who incorporated one particularly unsettling recording into the band's masterpiece, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
On this episode of Tape Spaghetti, Scott and Blake investigate the shadowy history of numbers stations, their documented connections to real espionage, and the remarkable journey of one intercepted transmission from the airwaves to alternative rock history.
Throw in some record label infighting, a copyright controversy, and a little Cold War intrigue, and you've got a musical mystery that remains tantalizingly unsolved.
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