What would the radio sound like?

[Matt W]

Initial thoughts/suggestions for radio traffic near the Great Lakes. Hopefully, each of them can inspire an adventure "hook"

Lakers/Shipmen:

The Weather

Every midnight there would be some LOUD spark-gap morse transmissions from about 10 or 20 stations. Note: The limitations of spark-gap radio means that this takes up a lot of bandwidth. These transmissions would be "in clear" and consist of a list of weather measurements (temperature, rainfall, barometric pressure, wind velocity, etcetera). This would continue for about an hour and then go quiet. At 5 AM there would be a single station (again in spark-gap mode) which broadcasts a weather forecast for the next 24 hours. This is acknowledged and re-broadcast by each of the original stations

Maxwell's Militia:

SW Talk Radio (all "in-clear")

Farmers' Almanack. General advice for farmers, including a weather forecast (obviously influenced by the Shipmen program)
Market reports - daily report on average prices paid for crops, fish, services etcetera in towns controlled by the Militia
Security notices - warnings of any bandit activities, quarantine orders, and so on
News - reports of "interesting" events, interviews with celebrity Militia Commanders, etcetera
Roving Reporter - a mobile radio transmitter, interviewing locals. This is pro-Militia propaganda, but - sometimes- real journalism creeps in
Radio Theater - soap operas, plays and comedies
Ask Doctor Sally - a show hosted by a qualified EmDee, responding to letters sent in by listeners

FM Music

A few low-power stations. In towns and urban areas only. These broadcast a mix of music from old CDs, records and a few "modern" musicians. Some of these stations are officially sanctioned, but others are created by hobbyist-technicians and are allowed to exist only if they don't get critical about the Militia


Frozen Chosen

Mainly a mix of Gospel Music (performed live) and inspirational messages, but news and weather forecasts are a regular feature

Kentucky Free State
There might be areas where you can pick up transmissions from the KFS.

But that gives me an idea for 'Operation Fallback"...

Station VOK is "the Voice of Kentucky". Cheerful music, propaganda about the KFS liberating villages and warnings about the crazy Morrow Project