As a primer, I'm just starting to learn the basics of CB radio as well as ham radio. I'm by no means an expert on understanding the nature of radio frequencies - at least currently at the moment; however, and since I'm learning more about CB radio as well as ham radio, I wanted to make an interesting analogy - that those said radio frequencies and the communities surrounding them - were and are to this day - the underground internet.
The reason why they're the underground internet is because they share a similar networking structure. Much like how the internet utilizes and deploys computer IP addresses in a node based network of those said IP addresses, where some of them host websites and the like, much is the same with radio systems (at least I assume, but correct me if I'm wrong).
For instance, a man or woman can use his or her radio to broadcast a radio singnal on a certain frequency, much like how they can utilize their computer to use the internet in order to deploy a website, create a social media profile, or to create a bitcoin address, and or a stemmit account.
The difference between the two concepts of what the said person can do with the two different forms of technology is that ham radio systems and or CB radio systems are more durable in terms of being able to resist the various botttlenecks of that the world has to offer (think DDOS attacks, zero-day, and the like).
These said ham radio systems are resistent to most forms of censorship - unlike how the internet in its current form is. Most ham radio networks (as far as I know and can tell) are decentralized by nature (though some are licensed by the government) - through the usage of decentralized airwaves and or frequency broadband signals.
It is much harder for a government to simply jam a radio frequency as opposed to removing and blocking other content online. But, again, and as I'm learning about how all of this works, correct me if I'm wrong.
More importantly, and in times of grave need or concern, or prehaps in the aftermath of a great tragedy, we need to recognize that the internet would be hampered, or if not mostly destroyed. Take for instance nuclear war: there would be billions of lives lost in the following weeks of the preemptive strike that would take place between the nuclear exchange of the various superpowers of the world.
TV and the Internet would be gone, cellular communication would most likely be gone, and all other advanced forms of communications would also be gone as well. Radiation would poison the world for the weeks if not months succeeding after the time that the great nuclear strike had occurred. Millions of other lives would be lost after the billions just by the sheer deadliness of the said radiation or radioactive fallout.
What would most likely be left - would be you guessed it - ham radio! The simplified nature of the whole medium of the communication system as well as its decentralized nature would make it easier for the whole thing to survive - if the said broadcasters had fallout bunkers right next to their bases of operation.
Overall, I would expect these kinds of people to have nuclear bunkers anyway, as they're most likely prepping for such a scenario (even though it is highly unlikely (though still possible!)).
For all of these reasons, ham radio or CB radio is truly the underground internet. If you beg to differ or to offer constructive criticism - please do so. I encourage disussion on this topic - as I find the whole concept of it all to be interesting.