The Man Who Turned Radiowaves into Downloads
42ZERO thrives on the unexpected — those moments where creativity bends technology into something completely new. Few stories capture that spirit better than Zoran Modli, the Serbian pilot who turned FM radio into an app store.
Zoran Modli: The Pilot Who Broadcasted Software Over Radio
1983 Belgrade. Radio Belgrade.
While most people tuned in for music, Zoran Modli was broadcasting something else — computer programs.
Not tutorials. Not instructions. Actual, working software.
Listeners across Yugoslavia would sit by their radios with ZX Spectrums and Commodore 64s, hit record on their cassette decks, and capture the strange beeps and tones Modli sent through the air. When they played those cassettes back into their computers, the code would load — games, utilities, even creative tools — all delivered wirelessly, through sound.
Before app stores. Before the internet. Before digital downloads.
Modli had already built a distribution network.
His radio show, Ventilator 202, became a digital underground — one of the world’s first examples of mass software distribution. Thousands tuned in weekly to get the latest programs, all freely accessible, all shared in the open.
By day, Modli was a commercial pilot for JAT Yugoslav Airlines.
By night, he was a tech visionary using analog airwaves to shape the digital future.
He passed away in 2020, largely unknown outside his region, but his idea predicted everything:
- Streaming data over broadcast networks.
- Open access to software.
- The democratization of technology.
Sometimes the most revolutionary ideas don’t come from Silicon Valley.
They come from a pilot with a radio transmitter and a belief that technology should be free.