First Commercial Private Radio Stations in Ukraine: From Experiments to Business
First Commercial Private Radio Stations in Ukraine: From Experiments to Business

Summary/Abstract: The article concerns the first two years (1992-1993) of the formation of commercial broadcasting in Ukraine. It studies the factors that influenced the creation of the first commercial radio stations, which gradually attempted to switch from a "game mode" to the broadcasting business and business entrepreneurship. The activity of the first ten commercial radio companies is studied by means of systematization, content analysis, generalization and other methods. The authors of the article offer the documented time of the first airwaves of each company mentioned (from the authors‟ personal archives). The role that these stations played in the formation of commercial private broadcasting in Ukraine is analyzed. Additional information is given about the creation of the Association of Private Radio Stations in Ukraine which was intended to unite commercial radio stations. The minute of the seminar "Local Radio" is published for the first time. The meeting with the head officers of the radio stations present was organized by the public organization International Media Center – Internews (Ukraine) and by the training center British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC, England) from May 20 to June 3, 1994 in Pushcha-Vodytsia near Kyiv. It was there where they decided to create the association. One of the radio projects of MMCInternews "Interview from Internews" is examined. It may be considered as the first radio project unifying commercial radio stations, and also the first student radio project at the private radio station in Ukraine. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to study facts and documents (from the authors‟ personal archive) certifying the dialectic progress of Ukrainian commercial broadcasting from the so-called "musical patchwork" to the transformation into a profitable means of mass communication.

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