The genre would find it's birthplace on hosting website's like Bandcamp and Youtube. Most Broken Transmission is not available on Spotify or other monetized streaming platforms as the music uses uncleared samples. We can hear perhaps the first Broken Transmission project in 2011 with Midnight Television's self-titled album. The album is made to feel like the music one would find in the background of some late-night TV show while channel surfing somewhere inbetween 1980 and 2000. However, it sounds almost as haunting as it is comforting, it feels like longing for something that is no longer there. This is a typical feeling Broken Transmission seeks to explore, that meloncholic feeling that's somewhere between comfort and longing. This album is still Vaporwave than Broken Transmission, but we can start to see the shapings of a new genre.

The genre would continue to carve out a name for itself over the next year with releases from INTERNET CLUB, and Fuji Grid TV. The legendary, Oneohtrix Point Never would release a single in 2011, "Sleep Dealer." Which at the time would not be classified as Broken Transmission or Signalwave, but would later be seen as a large inspiration for the future of Signalwave.

January 1st of 2012 arrives the first project that is distinctly Broken Transmission."▣世界から解放され▣" by ░▒▓新しいデラックスライフ▓▒░. Which translates as "Freed from the World" by New Deluxe Life. Many new to the genre, would not think of this as music as they know it while listening. The samples are rigid and often without any transitions or background music to keep the samples together. Instead, the sample will suddenly repeat over and over, or suddenly change. Often the sample will get chopped, then chopped to be even shorter, then slowed or quickened. It is a truly dizzying listen. It is essential to understand what we are hearing and what the intent is to be able to fully appreciate it. The EP chops and screws samples from Japanese Television and Anime. The cover features a remixed frame of the Japanese cartoon from 1979, "Mobile Suit Gundam." I believe the intent of this project is to give one a distorted memory of watching Saturday morning cartoons as a child. Of course, as an American some of the samples may have a different affect. At points it gives me a feeling more similar to when I first discovered anime as a teenager.

After 2012 the genre would be in full swing with essential releases like Telenights' "g h o s t i n g" or Infinity Frequencies' "Into the Light." In 2016 came a fresh and staggering direction for Signalwave, "NEWS AT 11" by 猫 シ Corp. This album would see Broken Transmission pushed in it's most conceptual and perhaps most powerful project yet. The album takes samples from the morning of September 11th, 2001 before the cataclysmic terrorist attacks. The album is earily peaceful, meant to evoke a feeling of what could have been; the United States at peace on another regular Tuesday. The samples of News Anchors cheerfully wishing you a good morning on September 11th, matched to samples of smooth jazz is truly a haunting listen.

After 2016 the genre would continue to rise in number of releases and branch out taking queue's from more than just the weather channel. With releases like "Wasted Digital" from Western Digital, Vektroid & New Dreams LTD.'s Fuji Grid TV II: EMX<>, or 回​憶​曩​昔 by 翠柏. The genre is still alive and well with a small but dedicated community on Bandcamp.
"Vintage TV Color Bars" by Jeff Kopp is licensed under PDM 1.0 DEED.