From: antenna@well.sf.ca.us (Robert Horvitz) Newsgroups: rec.radio.noncomm,soc.culture.polish Subject: Mazovia Radio Solidarnosc Keywords: Poland, broadcasting Date: 7 Jan 91 03:45:19 GMT Organization: Whole Earth Review This is the second of a series of postings about broadcast reform in Poland, based on meetings in November 1990. None of these postings may be published without author's permission as they are from a work in progress. Comments, criticisms and corrections are invited. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 15 November meeting/station tour with Jerzy Farner, program director, Mazovia Radio Solidarnosc: Radio Solidarnosc ("Radio S") has its studio in a small building behind ul. Konwiktorska 7/9, in a quiet Warsaw suburb, next to a school for the blind. Operating with a provisional license since 18 June 1990 on 73.2 MHz, they have about 20 paid staffers. PAP says the station is "a joint stock company of the foundation of Solidarity Radio, the Radio Trust British firm, the Radio-Committee and British citizen Ludomir Lasocki, who was representative of the Solidarity Radio in the West in its underground period." Radio S has leased transmitter time on the PTT's big tower at Raszyn in the outskirts of Warsaw. Their signal range is about 50 km. The signal travels from the studio to Raszyn in a coax cable leased from the PTT, which apparently costs a great deal of money. According to Farner, "The rules are constructed in such a way that we cannot be owner of a transmitter. It is impossible now." But the rules will change next year, and in 1991 they plan to buy studio space in the center of Warsaw, and install their own transmitter on the roof. Moving from underground to legally-recognized status changed the nature of the station. Four people on the current staff were involved in the clandestine phase, which began in April 1982. One of their engineers used to build transmitters for covert broadcasts. Many were built - and more were imported - in a continual race against confiscation. The transmitters were usually designed to be turned on remotely and to operate unattended. On one occasion, Solidarnosc technicians cut and tapped into the cable carrying one of the state radio programs to a city-wide transmitter. Their program was aired instead of the government's for 10 minutes, until the breach was located and repaired. The turn-arounds continue, as most of the current staff got their training in state radio. Though they use Solidarnosc's name, they are now independent from the union. They did not endorse Walesa - or any other candidate - in the Presidential election. They have no staff political commentator or "editorialist." Interviewees and guests can give their personal opinions, but the station itself takes no position on political matters. From 5 - 9 a.m. there is a wake-up show featuring music, news, weather and traffic reports. Traffic information comes from the elaborate outdoor surveillance video system installed during martial law. The monitoring center in Warsaw police headquarters is now used for traffic control rather than "internal security," and the police report current road conditions, detours and bottlenecks to Radio S. A Program Committee is elected from the station staff to advise the station manager. Listeners are also regularly asked to tell the station what they like and don't like. A listener survey in August 1990 found that 36% of the people living in seven districts of Warsaw regularly listen to the station. (An article in "Rzeczpospolita" that month estimated their audience at 150,000.) Why do they listen? "People want good music, good news, short reportage from the city. That's all people want. They don't like talk shows," says Farner. They had too much of them in the past, and "they were too much propaganda." How does Radio Solidarity differ from what people are used to hearing? Programs on the state radio are usually planned or recorded long in advance. Radio S's shows are aired live (though most have prerecorded elements), and are structured loosely enough that they can be interrupted for news bulletins or emergency requests for help from listeners: "Our phones are open 24 hours per day... If they are looking, for example, for medicine, we can find it for them. It's a very helpful radio." Their "credo" (Farner's word) is to allow anyone to call the station and speak on the air if they want, so long as the content is relevant to the show's topic. Since they have no time-delay, this can be risky, as they sometimes get calls from drunks. On the other hand, they also call up prominent officials and put them on the air live. In most cases they want to be on the radio, so they cooperate. But music is the primary content, taking about 85% of the airtime. They retransmit news from the BBC Polish Service three times a day; otherwise, their 5 minutes of news on the hour comes from PAP and other domestic sources. Studio discussions are aired almost daily, about politics, economics and topics from the daily newspapers. Their only source of income is from the sale of advertising. They currently carry 35 minutes of ads each day, which is less than they need to break even. They want to increase that figure to one hour per day, and are looking for more customers. A 30-second spot costs 500,000 zlotys [about $50], plus 500,000 to 3 million zlotys [$50 - $300] for production. Farner started working with Solidarnosc 10 years ago, preparing audio programs on tape. These were not broadcast but played on the public address systems of factories in the Warsaw area. He was fired from state radio when his involvement became known. He started work on the above-ground station at the start of 1990, when the Solidarnosc Radio Committee was formed and asked him to be program director. Looking to the future, Farner expects 10-15 new FM stations to get licenses next year in the Warsaw area. Competition among them will be a good thing, he says, because it will force them to "work better." State radio is already quite different from what it had been just 1-2 years ago. There are live programs now, and live phone-ins, with more diverse viewpoints expressed. There will be "a funny situation" during the next few years, as the state radio, Radio Gazeta and Radio S continue to operate in the low band, while other new stations start populating the high band. Most people will have to buy new receivers in order to get both bands. The question is, in a period of tight money, how many will tune to the high band when many popular services remain in the low band? A few lucky stations will get frequencies in both bands, as Radio Gazeta has now, and as Radio S expects to have next year. (According to Farner, "the ministry" has already agreed to let Radio S have a frequency in the new band while continuing in their current channel.) It is their understanding that the new broadcasting law will give the government the right to assign frequencies, but not to control or censor program content. However, applicants for licenses will compete for available channels by presenting their plans to a committee that will evaluate them on the basis of the cultural merit of the proposed programming. Misrepresenting the station's plans would cost them their license. Farner added that there might also be restrictions on the broadcasting of programs not in Polish, to encourage domestic production. Solidarnosc plans to start FM stations in cities across Poland. These will be autonomous, not linked to form a national network. Programs will be produced locally; the only shared audio will be station IDs. They have already started building a new station in Poznan. Its director is Dr. Krystyna Laskowicz (home address: os. Oswiecenia, 105; phone 79-06-40). The antenna, tower and transmitter are already in place, and equipment for the studio was purchased the day before our meeting. Farner thinks Poznan will be ready to sign on "at the beginning" of 1991. The next cities will be Gdansk, then Szeczin. Will there be a "Telewisja Solidarnosc?" That's far in the future, Farner said. "To start with a program [in] television costs very big money. Radio transmitting is much more easy," because you can start with as little as $10,000. ---Robert Horvitz antenna@well.sf.ca.us -- !.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.| Robert Horvitz 1122-1/2 E St. SE Washington, DC 20003-2232 USA antenna@well.sf.ca.us ...{apple,pacbell,hplabs,ucbvax}!well!antenna