Codes and Secret Codes in Old Time Radio

Coding is nothing more than converting information into another form to share with its intended recipients. Sometimes this conversion is necessary because of limitations in the medium. Computer language is a sort of code which is necessary to give electronic devices instructions. Samuel Morse invented a simple system of dots and dashes to convert letters and numbers to send over primitive telegraph lines.

When early wireless communication systems were developed, messages were still sent in Morse code because the dot and dashes were less vulnerable to atmospheric and electronic interference. Until recently, amateur broadcasters were required to demonstrate proficiency with Morse code before they were granted a basic HAM license. Technical innovations made voice and eventually data communication feasible, reducing the need for Morse code, but there was another vulnerability to radio broadcasts; anyone with a receiver tuned to the frequency you were broadcasting on could hear your transmission. This led to the more common understanding of coding; converting information into a secret language to keep it from outside parties.

Military, political, and commercial organizations place a high value on keeping their inside information secret, often from their friends as well as their enemies. Just like in suburbia, sometimes it is what you don't know about your neighbors that make a relationship possible. Just like governments and militaries, criminal organizations need to use codes to share information. Drama ensues as the good guys figure out how to break the bad guy's codes.

• When you understand the codes that your enemy uses, they lose some of their power over you. On Adventure Ahead we hear a story of the effort to build a railroad in Western Africa, but the witch doctors of the Ashanti tribe oppose the idea. The witch doctors communicate with their "Talking Drums", but the son of the railroad project boss is a music student who might be able to figure out what the drums are saying before it's too late.
• During the War, Captain Midnight send secret messages to his listeners at the end of his broadcasts using the Ovaltine Key-A-Matic Code-A-Graph. More than just a plug for Ovaltine, the messages gave fans a clue about the next episode, heightening the excitement of the cliffhanger. Codes were part of the story as well when the Captain used them to communicate with his friends in the Secret Squadron.
• Chandu the Magician uses his hypnotic powers of persuasion to convince Arigne the Spider to tell him the meaning of the coded message, but something frightens Arigne even more than Chandu.
• "America's Ace of the Airways" Hop Harrigan parachutes into Nazi territory in Occupied France so he can steal a Messerschmitt, but he is tricked and the Gestapo tries to learn his secret code.
• Being part of "Annie's Secret Society" was half the fun of listening to Little Orphan Annie. Coded messages are sent to members of the Society at the end of the Thursday night broadcast. The messages come in code, and only members of the Society can understand the Mystery Radio Code using their Decoder Pins.
• On the serial Magic Island, the wealthy Mrs. Gregory and the crew of her yacht try to use mysterious codes to send messages to the outside world about the mad scientists on the secret island of Euclydia. Of course, the Euclydians can block their radio signals, and they are able to figure out whatever code the good guys can devise.
•  When Secret Agent K7 Returns he has to be especially cagey to get past his enemies, including disguising himself as a blind man in Paris who uses his white cane to tap out messages in Morse code.
• Sky and Penny leave the Flying Crown Ranch to search for stolen pearls in San Francisco's Chinatown. When they find a murder, they think there is a clue in code, but the code turns out to be knitting instructions. However, the knitting stitch the instructions describe reveals the real crook on Sky King.
• Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen travel to the Southwest to investigate a series of airplane crashes at a remote airfield. They discover a code hidden in weather reports over the radio – the real message is hidden in every third word of the forecast. After sending Jimmy to alert the authorities, Superman has a run in with Bengal tigers!