From news.cs.tut.fi!news.funet.fi!fuug!mcsun!uunet!well!antenna Mon Dec 28 03:50:50 EET 1992 Article: 1330 of rec.radio.noncomm Newsgroups: rec.radio.noncomm Path: news.cs.tut.fi!news.funet.fi!fuug!mcsun!uunet!well!antenna From: antenna@well.sf.ca.us (Robert Horvitz) Subject: Studentsko Radio - Skopje, Macedonia Message-ID: Sender: news@well.sf.ca.us Organization: Internews Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 00:32:19 GMT Lines: 107 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: +38 91 255-231 -- !.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.| Robert Horvitz, Radio Consultant, The Soros Foundations Karlovo nam. 15 121 27 Praha 2 Czecho-Slovakia antenna@earn.cvut.cs antenna@csearn.bitnet antenna@well.sf.ca.us