Et hårdnakket rygte kunne fortælle at radioerne var designet så de kun kunne modtage tyske sendinger.[kilde mangler] De kunne imidlertid også modtage de stærkeste udenlandske radiostationer.[3] Senere, under anden verdenskrig, blev det strafbart for tyskerne at lytte til udenlandske radioudsendelser.[4]
^ ab18.08.2008, spiegel.de: Propagandamaschine Volksempfänger. Hört, hört! Citat: "...Seit wenigen Monaten ist er "Reichsminister für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda" und lässt es sich nun nicht nehmen, an diesem 18. August 1933 beim obligatorischen Rundgang über die Berliner Funkausstellung persönlich die neuesten Geräte auszuprobieren...Um diese Revolution voranzutreiben wartete der Propagandaminister an diesem Tag mit einem echten Knüller auf: dem VE 301. VE steht für "Volksempfänger", die Modellnummer 301 für den 30. Januar, den Tag der Machtergreifung der Nationalsozialisten einige Monte zuvor...Das Innenleben des Volksempfängers entwickelte Otto Grießing, Chefingenieur der Firma Seibt...", backup
^ ab7 January 2008, transdiffusion.org: Hitler’s Radio Citat: "...The sets were designed by Otto Griessing on the order of Josef Goebbels, and were sold under the Volksempfänger, Deutscher Klein Empfänger (DKE), Gemeinschaftsempfänger, and Kraft durch Freude (KdF) brand names...It was a simple two band set: few Volksempfänger came with short wave, and they generally had limited sensitivity so as to receive only local stations, as the Nazis were worried listeners could pick up broadcasts from the Soviet Union or Britain. The dials were only marked with German stations...Even the humble Kleine Volksempfänger was not as weak as the Nazis would have liked. All versions came with long wave, which meant that, if you understood English or Russian, the BBC or Radio Moscow could be picked quite easily after dark, and many who wanted to hear how the war was really progressing increased the power of a Volksempfänger by inserting makeshift wire aerials in the back or increasing the sensitivity of the set...", backup
^historylearningsite.co.uk: C N Trueman "Radio in Nazi Germany" Citat: "...Therefore, true to course, the Nazis made it a treasonable offense to listen to oversees broadcasts. Anyone caught doing so faced a spell in a feared concentration camp and in the first year of the war alone, 1500 Germans were imprisoned for listening to London-based broadcasts...", backup