A LAST MESSAGE TO MAJOR TOM
A tribute by JoeFM listeners transmitted to space.
January 10th, David Bowie dies after fighting cancer. Joe FM, A Belgian local radio station, wanted to pay tribute.
Instead of transmitting David Bowie’s music, we gave our listeners the chance to use our transmitter to send him a last message. A message to space. Normally our transmitters send a signal to a satellite which bounces it back to earth. For this occasion we changed our antenna’s angle and aimed it to somewhere far above the moon.
January 12th, Joe FM launches the idea. During one week our listeners were invited to send in their last message on lastmessagetomajortom.com. The days that followed it turned into a radio topic sharing tributes online and on air.
Finally we created a small event on the roof of the Joe FM station. A live broadcast. Heard on radio, and later on social media. All 2700 messages were converted to a radio signal, which at the press of a button was sent into space.
Just like David Bowies legacy, all message are out there forever. Hope he can hear them.
Although we didn't get them to actually help, NASA did prove to be a friendly chatting partner on Facebook. :)