NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9717

Text File | 1993-01-01 | 5.9 KB | 128 lines

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From: [e-mail] (Bruce Girard)
Subject: Macedonian Radio
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Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 21:09:36 GMT
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The following report was sent by Robert Horvitz, an American
consultant based in the Czech Republic.


                          ===============

                    Studentsko Radio - 88.4 MHz
                         Skopje, Macedonia

Founded by the Students Association of Cyril & Methodius University,
Studentsko Radio has been on the air since 2 August 1991.  It is
staffed by volunteers, except for 3 professional positions:  the
program director, financial manager, and music director.  Karolina
Petkovska, who graduated from the university last summer, is the
program director and president of the board.

Twenty-five students work part-time at the station, which is on the
roof of a 12-story dormitory.  DJs come from all academic disciplines,
journalism students create information programs, and engineering
students keep the equipment operating....barely.  Their 250-watt
transmitter's main power stage failed 7 months ago.  With no money
to fix or replace it, they have been reduced to using the 15-watt
exciter, which puts out such a weak signal that they cannot be heard
at one of the four C & M campuses in Skopje.

Because the station occupies rooms designed for storage, their only
source of heat is a portable electric-coil heater, which moves from
the office to the studio to the control room, depending on who feels
the coldest.  This station is the worst equipped of any that I've
seen in Central/Eastern Europe:

       1 Better SM-3080 6-channel disco mixer
       1 portable cassette player
       1 Tesla turntable
       2 microphones
       1 speakerphone

...plus 2 cheap Technics CD players which are their pride and joy.
They have no music collection - DJs bring what they own, borrow from
friends, or (for a special treat) rent a few new releases from a
CD shop.

For 19 hours/day, they broadcast programs for the general public.
Five hours/day are aimed at students.

Their morning show (7:00 a.m.- noon) gives "service information"
along with music.  Every day there are reports on road conditions,
the weather, what petrol stations are open (Greece and Serbia both
cut off deliveries, causing dire fuel shortages), and what blood
types are needed at the hospital.  (There are tens of thousands of
refugees from Kosovo, Albania, Serbia and the war zone.)  Like most
of the 19 new local radio and TV stations in Macedonia, Studenstko
Radio is afraid to broadcast overtly political news because of the
republic's fragile situation.  On Mondays they add a feature on
herbal and folk-medicine remedies, responding to the shortage of
imported pharmaceuticals due to the war and the dinar's de-
valuation.  On Tuesdays, they do a close-up on the problems of a
specific neighborhood in Skopje.  On Wednesdays, they take
dedications and requests for Balkan folk music - their most popular
feature.  On Thursdays they run film and theater reviews.  On
Fridays, they have a cooking show.

>From 12:00 - 5:00 p.m. it's "Student Magazine":  music and reports
on what's happening at the university's campuses and faculties.
Often they elaborate on topics being discussed in particular classes.
One day per week the show is produced by and for foreign students.

>From 5:00 - 10:00 p.m., they run commercially sponsored programs,
including a top-20 music count-down, contests, "entertainments" and
ads.  All of the station's income derives from this part of the
schedule.  The student association and the university contribute no
money to the station;  they have none to spare.

>From 10:00 - 4:00 a.m. it's the "Night Show," with phonecalls from
listeners alternating with music.  Different topics are covered each
night:  Mondays are for love and relationships, Tuesdays are
provocative subjects (non-political), etc.  To put callers on the
air, they aim one of the studio microphones at the speakerphone.

>From 4:00 - 7:00 a.m., it's mainly music.

Despite bad equipment, freezing rooms and no money, the level of
dedication and enthusiasm at Studentsko Radio is very high.  It is
the training-ground for Macedonia's future broadcast professionals.
The station is less than a year and a half old, but most of the newer
start-up stations have hired its graduates to help launch their radio
projects.

The Open Society Fund/Skopje and the US International Media Fund
are teaming up to replace Studensko Radio's studio equipment and buy
them a new transmitter.  The equipment should arrive in January.  I
will help install it.  But they still need more:  donations of CDs
and cassettes (blank or pre-recorded) would be particularly welcome...
as would contact with other student radios anywhere in the world.
A sense of isolation - the feeling that no one cares about Macedonia
- undermines the few hopeful attempts at economic reform and
democratization.  If this doesn't change soon, it will be too late.

If you send CDs or cassettes, please use registered mail to ensure
delivery.

Please contact:     Karolina Petkovska, Zoran Stefanovski and
                       Dimitur Stojanovsky
                    STUDENTSKO RADIO
                    ul. Ilindenska 45
                    Skopje, Macedonia
                    tel:  [phone]

!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|
        Robert Horvitz, Radio Consultant, The Soros Foundations
        Karlovo nam. 15     121 27 Praha 2      Czecho-Slovakia
[e-mail]     [e-mail]    [e-mail]