Radio airspace and seaspace share a problem of mapping, and therefore of control. In 1609, Hugo Grotius accelerated the project of empire by arguing in his Mare Liberum that the sea and the air were alike in the sense that they could not be permanently occupied and were without limit, and that therefore they should be regarded as a commons. A breach formed between the empty expanse of this ideal landscape and the reality of turbulent waters. Waves of broadcast and of water are linked by more than metaphor: when they meet at the surface they produce interference, which can disrupt navigation. These pieces occur within the pattern of that interference and in the space of the breach. Listen in, and don’t worry if you find yourself getting lost.

In this program, the MRHS resurrect long-dead Morse messages, neuroTransmitter take a trip into international waters; Cathryn Morgan-Richards elegizes a notorious radio fabulist, and Charlie Morrow calls the ships to shore.

Featured works:
Night of Nights / Maritime Radio Historical Society
Chronicle / neuroTransmitter
Why Don’t You Go Home? / Cathryn Morgan-Richards (2009)
Toot n’ Blink Chicago / Charlie Morrow (1982)

This episode of The Radio Art Hour was produced by 2025 Radio Art Research Fellow Bill Corrigan. Corrigan is a sound archivist, musician, researcher and writer. Starting as a freeform DJ at Ann Arbor’s WCBN-FM, he has been digging into radio stations and archives across the United States, from Detroit’s WDET to Charlottesville’s WTJU, and has undertaken research and preservation activities at the Pacifica Radio Archives and the Library of Congress. He has made sounds for interdisciplinary ensembles Underword and the Llano Estacado Monad Band, and currently performs duets within the Resuscianne group.