Russian TV & Radio

[Benjamin Rifkin]

Dear SEELANGers:

I thought these items from Johnson's Russia List might be of interest to you.

With best regards,

Ben Rifkin

***

Johnson's Russia List
#7148
20 April 2003
davidjohnson at erols.com
A CDI Project
www.cdi.org


********

#25
New York Daily News
April 20, 2003
Moscow must-see TV is here
By MILA ANDRE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Credit Russian Media Group (RMG) for getting Russian TV programs to the
millions of former Soviet citizens now living in the U.S.
With headquarters in Fort Lee, N.J., the company has been broadcasting
Russian-language programs across the U.S. for more than a decade.

Now RMG has scored another coup - becoming the sole distributor of
RTR-Planeta, the Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Company's
international TV station that televises directly from Moscow.

The news was announced at a bilingual press conference last week at the
Russian Consulate in New York attended by Rabbi Mark Golub, president and
CEO of RMG and hosted by Viacheslav Pavlovskiy, consul general of the
Russian Federation.

Yuriy Ushakov, Russia's ambassador to the U.S.; Gennadiy Gatilov, deputy
Russian ambassador to the UN; Oleg Ivanov, UN ambassador from Belarus and
Anton Zlatopolskiy, CEO of RTR, also attended.

RTR has two national TV stations, Culture and Rossiya, and 89 affiliated
stations. Subscribers to RTR-Planeta can enjoy all the company offers - but
at a price.

Installation of a special satellite dish and a receiver is $29.99, and the
monthly fee is $29.99 in Brooklyn and $34.99 elsewhere.

There are, at present, three channels that are available exclusively as a
package through the Russian Media Group (RTN, RTR-Planeta and Russian
World). RTN also is available on various cable systems (thousands see it on
Comcast in Boston, for example) and, as of April 1, it began broadcasting
on New York Cablevision - which serves the largest Russian-speaking
population in the United States.

"In the time period that Russian Media Group has existed, I am very proud
of what we have achieved," said Gary Flom, RMG director of marketing and
distribution. "And, now that we have opened a new era in the business of
Russian television, I am thrilled with the potential that lies ahead of us."

*******

#26
New York Daily News
April 20, 2003
Station's news: It's in Russian
By JOYCE SHELBY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

The topics of discussion on this brand-new Brooklyn radio station range
from the doings of Hollywood celebrities to the situation in Iraq.
The commercials tout everything from the names of neighborhood doctors to
the lowest rates for phone cards. Most of the music is European or World Beat.

And the language is Russian - 100% of the time. Introducing New Life Radio,
620 on the AM dial. WSNR-AM was an all-sports channel until March 1, when
the format changed.

Now, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on
weekends, the station airs programming in Russian.

"We do news, talk, music, public affairs, weather, traffic and stock
reports," said Alexander Rozbam, vice president of New Life Radio. "We
broadcast in Russian, but we are an American radio station - and we support
America."

That distinction became very important when the U.S. went to war in Iraq,
Rozbam said.

"We explained to our listeners that we support the United States, not the
Russian government," said Rozbam. "This is a free country and all opinions
have a place. But we support this country."

During the early days of the war, listeners relied on program hosts to
translate the New York newspapers into Russian, and to explain the latest
developments.

"Callers were very worried," recalled mid-morning program host Maria
Shkolnik. "And they are still concerned. They wonder whether Saddam Hussein
is dead or alive, and what's going to happen next in Iraq."

But as the focus in Iraq turns to rebuilding, the concerns of callers are
shifting, said Michael Bouzoukashvili, also a midmorning program host.

Mayor Bloomberg's economic policies, the city's ban on smoking and raising
children in the U.S. have all been recent topics of discussion.

"We do many broadcasts on health," said Bouzoukashvili. "I am a marathon
runner, and I try to promote healthy ways of living."

2 million potential listeners

At the top of every hour, New Life broadcasts news summaries either from
Echo Radio of Moscow or the BBC. The station also carries reports from its
correspondents in New York, Chicago, Moscow, Ukraine, Europe and Israel.

The Midwood-based operation is the second launched by New Life Radio. The
first went on the air in 1979, in Chicago, which has a population of about
500,000 people who speak Russian.

Rozbam estimates that there is a potential audience of nearly 2 million
people in the metropolitan area.

"It's a much bigger audience than we expected," he said. "Since we've been
on the air, we have heard from people who are Ukrainian, Lithuanian,
Georgian, Polish and Bulgarian. There are listeners from former Yugoslavia,
and many Jews who immigrated here from the former Soviet Union, which had
15 republics."

Russian radio programming also is available locally via a satellite
station, WMNB of the Ethnic-American Broadcasting Co. But no fees or
special equipment are required to pick up WSNR.

"The New York audience has been surprisingly receptive," said Nathan
Liberman, the president of New Life Radio "We've been warmly received by
our sponsors. We've been welcomed as part of the family of media, not as
competitors."

While it is too early for ratings, Rozbam said there are ways to estimate
the station's popularity. During WSNR's third day on the air, its
transmitting tower was damaged.

"We were off the air for 12 hours," he said. "In that time, we received
3,000 calls."

The station hopes to expand programming to 24 hours a day within the next
year.

--
=================
Benjamin Rifkin

Professor of Slavic Languages, Slavic Dept., UW-Madison
1432 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Dr.
Madison, WI  53706 USA
voice: 608/262-1623; fax: 608/265-2814
http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/slavic/rifkin/

Director of the Russian School
Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT  05753
voice:  802/443-5533; fax: 802/443-5394
http://www.middlebury.edu/~ls/russian/

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