A Conversation w/ Julia Barton & Alexander Kleimenov

To This Paired Point
Nannette - April 7, 2003 - #7

I'm awed by your description of the size of the regions, and by the limitations and fears. It's interesting how we live with whatever situation there is in every town and country.

Here's my fantasy: all newscasters, DJs and producers are paired with translators and sent to switch jobs across the globe for a few months. What would we listeners learn?

I'd love to hear a little about you as individuals to start with. How did each of you come to radio and to this point?

Accidental Recruit
Julia Barton - April 7, 2003 - #8

I got into radio by accident, after running into a friend at the University of Iowa, where I was in grad school. She was working at the local public radio affiliate, WSUI-AM, and recruited me to be an evening announcer. I was terrified--I didn't know anything about broadcast equipment and was pretty certain that nothing I said during breaks actually went out over the air.

Accidental Conscript
Alex Kleimenov - April 7, 2003 - #9

I came to radio by accident really. When I started Grad School at the Univ. of Missouri, I had to take a radio class that included regular shifts at an NPR affiliate KBIA. Since I had come to the United States just 2 weeks earlier I hated the class--I had no idea what was considered news in Mid-Missouri. ... Now, I think, I'm the only one from that class who reports for the radio.

Back in Ukraine I started freelancing for NPR, The World and later for CBC Radio: Ukraine is not in the center of anyone's interest these days and very few US media have their people here. I find it extremely compelling to report about my country for audiences in North America. It also keeps me away from Ukrainian editors.

It would be a great idea to switch news staff the way Nannette suggests, only you'd need to incorporate into the project a month of culture shock. Quite often, what Americans coming to this part of the world consider news is no news to people living here. It's also true the other way round. On the other hand, people in many parts of the former Soviet Union really enjoy watching/listening to stories about their countries done by foreign journalists. A Russian TV network NTV has started airing reports about Russia from western TV-crews based in Moscow. The stories I saw were about "samogon" (moonshine) and "sosul'ki" (icicles). Both were very funny. But on a larger scale, what we might learn from these exchanges is the difference in values. What one nation considers its stronghold may turn out to have little significance for others, where someone laughs--others cry, where some drift apart--others come together. It would great to know what these points are.

Points Of Difference
Viki Merrick - April 7, 2003 - #10

Alex, interesting point about different views. Did the samogon and sosul'ki pieces intend to be funny? Or was it just a curious alien piece?

What are some of those points of difference - what would you consider the sources of different "strongholds" that you speak of? Based on need? Geography? Climate?

Also, I am a little confused - there is no similar public vs commercial radio in Russia as in the US? Beyond the FNR efforts, Russian radio sounds like its goals are fairly superficial, even hedonistic, based on the examples you've given. What do the "other" Russian citizens listen to?

From Beets To Passion Fruit
Alex Kleimenov - April 8, 2003 - #17

The "samogon" story was looking into different recipes of moonshine. ... The story was definitely very funny for both foreigners and Russians but probably for different reasons. While foreign viewers might see it as another aspect of Russian "weirdness," Russians are more likely to appreciate innovative uses of various household items and even jot down a list of ingredients ("Wow, I never used beets for that before!")

The icicles story was about a special team in Moscow that knocks down chunks of ice from building roofs. The piece was set against a rich symphonic music bed that gave it a war-like mood. While many western-Europeans must have never thought of a 200 Lb. icicle falling on their head, people here have never looked at an icicle fight in terms of battlefield art.

Talking of strongholds... one of them, sadly enough, is freedom of speech. "We Americans" may treasure it above many other things, "We, the average ex-Soviets" mostly take it as a passion fruit--we've always lived without it and we may just as well continue that way. Just the other day, for instance, Ukraine's prosecutor general has opened an investigation into "media reports damaging the reputation of president Kuchma." The prosecutor's office describes such reports as "those that could prevent the president from fulfilling his duties, are offensive or defamatory." I doubt this decision will cause an uproar in the Ukrainian media.

Insidious Mist
Viki Merrick - April 8, 2003 - #11

Living in Europe, I felt like the rest of the world got a lot of play - in the news anyway. I was shocked when I got back to the U.S. to hear NOTHING on the tv-news about the rest of the world, and having to flip through the newspaper to the back "international" section (this was several years back, "normal" time not war-time). It is not news of disaster that gives us a sense of other nations and cultures.

It's ironic today that the more wide open the channels for information become with satellites and internet, the more insidious this sense of censorship and propaganda hangs on me like mist on a foggy day. I find myself believing nothing I hear, assuming the opposite of what I am told. I wonder if this state of being may be as dangerously or equally isolating. Strange times.

Unexportably US
Julia Barton - April 8, 2003 - #13

The stations that we visited were all commercial, due mainly to the fact that my partner organization works with them. There is a highly developed state radio system in Russia, stemming from Soviet days, though it too takes some ads. Despite its state sponsorship, I'd say it's more the bastion of radio professionalism there. It has the resources and the reach, plus an amazing network that reaches down to the neighborhood level in many places. If anything were to become like "public" radio in Russia, I think it would have to be a more enlightened version of this.

Still, I wouldn't dismiss Russian commercial radio as completely "hedonistic." In some cases, yes, the stations are owned by greedy dudes who just want to make a quick buck. But others are just doing what they can to survive, and in a new market, they're still trying to figure out what that means. Is credibility something to hang onto, or just something to sell off in pieces? It's the same ethical quandary facing American media, though we're more slick about it.

One thing I did for FNR on this fellowship was write a paper on the history and structure of public radio in the U.S. ... I realized how completely accidental our system is in many ways. We have part of the FM band reserved for non-commercial broadcasting--simply because AM had been gobbled up by corporations in the 1930s, and they threw educators a bone in 1938: sure, you can have part of that experimental spectrum your engineering departments are developing. Then in the 1960s, public radio was something of an afterthought to public television, which was supposed to revolutionize society. Meanwhile, Pacifica Radio was already on the air, trying to do that.

Such a weird sequence of events isn't exportable--it's barely even explainable.

Good And Blasé
Nannette - April 8, 2003 - #12

Distracted by current events, I must say I was drawn to this topic by Jay's introduction:

As Americans we like to believe we are good. Others do not share that belief. Is this a problem of communication?

We are in a time of failed communication across borders, a time when stories and news and propaganda are mingled, and therefore dangerous. Can we trust how others appear to us? Can we know how we appear to others?

Alex and Julia, do you care to respond more to these ideas?

I'm still reacting to a talk show the other day wherein a spokesman for the Poynter Institute, which teaches ethics to journalists, was asked about the use of American flag graphics frames on American TV network and cable news war coverage. I was stunned to hear him sound so blasé about it. He chalked it up to a cultural artifact just plain different from how the British do news.

Jittering Those Barriers Down
Julia Barton - April 8, 2003 - #15

The only thing I know about good cross-cultural work is that you have to listen. Which also means listening with your eyes and watching for visual cues, since you probably won't understand the language or all its idioms completely. It's best if you have someone you really trust who can be your intermediary/interpreter to help you understand what's going on, maybe after the fact. Finally you have to accept that you won't be completely understood, and neither will you understand everything that's going on. You become a bit of a fool, which for me turned out to be a nice break from being a reporter who's supposed to know everything.

What I love about working with radio people, though, is it's not so hard or abstract. We're dealing with the same equipment, in many cases, and those same jitters about going on the air and sounding like a dork. We could talk about our practical, shared problems and quickly break down a lot of barriers.

Radiotochka
Michael Idov - April 8, 2003 - #16

As I was reading the messages on this board, a sudden realization struck me: in my 16 years in the Soviet Union, I don't remember ever listening to the radio there. At least, not consciously (as you probably know, some Soviet apartments came equipped with a peculiar amenity called "radiotochka," basically a built-in wall radio forever tuned to one station; you couldn't turn it off, just minimize the volume). So: who listens?

Julia/Alex, are there any statistics available on the makeup of the Russian radio audience (for instance, is it heavily skewed toward the young or the old or blue-collar workers etc)?

Humming Along
Alex Kleimenov - April 8, 2003 - #18

People here do listen to the radio quite a lot now. In Kiev alone, there are 27 FM stations (and that doesn't include the "extended" FM range below 88 MHz that is also in use here.) There's drive-time, there's radio in the offices, even on mass-transit drivers listen to the radio (and skip stops sometimes.) "Radiotochka" still exists. Well, yours was probably broken because I could always turn mine off (which receives 3 stations--an improved version.) People still listen to it if it's on.

But most radio is music, and there's very little chance you'll run into a show you could actually learn something from.

PBS Revolutionary
Julia Barton - April 8, 2003 - #19

I thought the "radiotochka" -- roughly translated as wire radio, was a cool thing. But then again, I didn't have to wake up to its Orwellian calisthenics/symphonic wake-up call to workers in the Soviet times. Basically, for people who don't know, it's not really radio in the "broadcasting" sense. The signals (the same as State Radio on FM) are carried to apartments through wires that run along with the electricity. It's a sort of pre-cursor to cable TV. Now the system is breaking down because people don't want to pay the pennies a month fee for it, or they break the wires when they renovate apartments.

The "wire radio" audience is definitely older. I visited some commercial stations that had an hour of local time on the state radio network. It must be the PBS revolutionary in me, but I thought they did a better job during this hour than during their regular newscasts. They slowed down, did longer stories, and had guests in the studio who talked about relevant things. I think the main difference was that during this hour, the station KNEW its audience and its needs. The rest of the time, they were just broadcasting for everybody, which always boils down to "for the boss and advertisers," if you know what I mean.

Advertiser Kudzu
Alex Kleimenov - April 9, 2003 - #21

Although Russia doesn't have a system similar to America's public radio, Ukraine does have something slightly comparable.

Public radio here is funded through grants (mainly from George Soros's Renaissance foundation) which makes it independent from both government and commercial interests. Public radio produces news and talk shows that air on commercial stations.

Since grants cannot cover all its needs, Public radio has started looking into placing ads in its shows which brought up the problem any other commercial station faces: advertisers want to be part of the content.

Ukraine's public radio can be found (and heard) at http://www.radio.org.ua

Elaborate Outsider
chelsea merz - April 9, 2003 - #22

Could you two please elaborate on the outsider's sensibility. Alex, what did you think was news when you were in Missouri? And Julia, in the former Soviet Union, what did you consider news or potential radio stories?

Nature and Expectation
Julia Barton - April 9, 2003 - #23

I would say it depends on the nature of the "news" and maybe even more so, the expectations of your editor back in the States. For instance, it was news in Ukraine when an opposition journalist, Georgiy Gongadze, disappeared back in the fall of 2000. And it was news when his headless body was found two months later. I reported on that for NPR. But the larger context--that freedom of the press is fragile to nonexistent in former Soviet states--is not news to anyone there, but it may be to Americans who occasionally hear these places described as "emerging democracies."

The divide is stronger when it comes to feature stories. I've done profiles of rock stars from that part of the world--people with interesting stories to tell who've had a real influence on generations of fans. ... when I play these stories in Russia, the reaction is more, "Wow, those guys are lucky someone is still paying attention to them."

How Do We Look?
helen woodward - April 9, 2003 - #24

I was interested by your discussions about differences in perspectives; since the war I've been comparing the NY times and Guardian uk websites and the difference in coverage is quite staggering, similarly with npr versus bbc. What does this war look like from over there? How are America and the UK viewed by Russian media?

Anti-War, Anti-Frou-Frou
Alex Kleimenov - April 9, 2003 - #25

Since I'm ... in Ukraine, I can't follow Russian war coverage in great detail. Strangely enough, there is even a difference in war coverage by Russian and Ukrainian media. The Russian media have been outright anti-war from the very beginning, mostly along the lines of "we saw Americans bomb our brotherly Slavs in Yugoslavia, we can't let them do whatever they want anymore!" Though a number of analysts and politicians tried to convince the public that Saddam Hussein was still a criminal. But Russia isn't involved in that war. Ukraine, on the other hand, is...

Those are the differences on the editorial level. On the news coverage side, many Russian media have their reporters in countries around Iraq, in Iraq and even with the US troops. Ukrainian media have a much weaker presence there.

Russian TV channels have tried to show quite a balanced picture of the war...Because Russian TV newscasts are much less flashy than TV news in the States, you concentrate on the reporter and pick up a lot from his/her emotional cues (without being distracted by graphics, scrolls, tickers, temps, flags, war coverage theme music, etc.).

The Temniki
Julia Barton - April 14, 2003 - #28

By the way, if you want to learn more about the mechanics of direct government influence on the media, Human Rights Watch just issued an interesting report on Alex's country, Ukraine. Station managers and editors get anonymous faxes dubbed "temniki" outlining how they should cover certain events, and what they should not mention. Everyone knows the faxes come from the Presidential administration, and the pressure to follow the orders has been growing.

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/ukraine0303/Ukraine0303-04.htm#P457_120514

Naughty Newsprint
Alex Kleimenov - April 14, 2003 - #30

The practice of providing the media with guidelines on what they shouldn't and should report and how seems so obvious in the context of the post-Soviet media that some bureaucrats who actually exercise it can't get the idea that what they do is unacceptable.

A little earlier, I mentioned Ukraine's prosecutor general opening a criminal case against several newspapers that, in his view, prevent the president from fulfilling his duties. When asked "in what way do they do it?" a prosecutor's representative said, "They cause emotional distress." I guess that tells a lot.

Radio Landscape Nannette - April 14, 2003 - #31

Anyone, could you please paint a picture of the media landscape there and how it's changed? ... I'm trying to put radio there into a context. I'm curious as to how much of a for-profit celebrity tabloid circus has evolved in the last decade, and how radio fits in.

This is Larissa, a reporter at Radio Premier in Vologda, a night's train ride north of Moscow. Last October, they were celebrating the station's sixth anniversary. Company anniversaries are a big deal in Russia, maybe because private companies haven't been around that long.

Larissa In Vologda
Alex Kleimenov - April 17, 2003 - #35

The following comment came from [correspondent] Larissa Telitsyna in Vologda and I translated it into English. (Alex)

...In Vologda, there's only one city radio [that occupies an entire frequency and is not affiliated with some network]—"Premier". We do 10 newscasts a day and rarely talk about world news or even Russia's news. There's also state-owned regional radio. They do regional and official news. ... There's also "Ekho Moskvy", a Moscow-based independent news-radio, which, according to the latest research, only 1% of the Vologda audience listens to. There are also music stations like "Evropa plus" and "Russian radio." ...

Coverage of "stars" is very popular in Russia and in Vologda, in particular. Rumors, scandals, gossips—that's very interesting. For instance, here on Radio Premier we do showbiz news twice a day. A newscaster just pulls out from the Internet or magazines whatever curious might be happening with our actors and singers and then he puts together a short report. Research has shown people confuse these reports (rumors and gossip) with real news. ...

Agents Changing?
Jay Allison - April 17, 2003 - #37

It's good to know, after all those years of conflict, that both the US and the former USSR are now safe for celebrity journalism.

Alex, in your opening essay you said the big question facing broadcasters was, "what to say and how?" I suppose that question was answered clearly in the Soviet era. Now, besides the pop stuff, is anyone exploring new forms, European-style features, investigative journalism, radio art? Is there a cutting edge, per se? Is someone setting the standard?

Julia, in your teaching, what was the spirit in the stations? Did radio workers see themselves as agents of change? How did they answer the question Alex poses above?

Wanted: Many A Roof
Julia Barton - April 17, 2003 - #38

I'd say the situation at regional stations in Russia is in many ways similar to the U.S.--or maybe how commercial radio was a decade ago before a few corporations started buying up all the de-regulated frequencies. Most people in radio are kids who see themselves as DJs, not news providers. A few have journalistic training. But their freedoms really depend on the ownership of the station. Sometimes the ownership will stand up to local authorities--like a station we visited in Vladivostok, Radio Lemma, which was under armed siege for a few days after hosting an "open microphone" speak-out against the city administration. Others have to find some sort of compromise. Radio Premier, although it was one of the strongest newsrooms we encountered, does air some blocks of news sponsored by the local administration, called "good news."

I think a lot of young journalists would like to be more enterprising, but it's almost suicidal in the regions to take on the powers that be. It's just like in most small towns. Even on the national level, you need a "roof" or protector--and two of the biggest opposition roof-guys, Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky, are now in exile with their media empires in tatters. Our best students all dream of leaving the provinces--to Moscow or abroad...

The Need To See
Alex Kleimenov - April 18, 2003 - #41

Actually, the problem of "what to say and how" lies beyond the propaganda field. Yes, journalists still feel the pressure (from the authorities, but more often--from their news managers) to say specific things about specific subjects, but the real problem comes up when journalists get a freedom of choice.

During our seminars, we were often surprised by what items were included in newscasts and left out. Journalists have difficulty judging newsworthiness for their audience, or so it seems. For instance, in one city we visited, a huge fire broke out. A power plant providing electricity to a large portion of a multi-million city was about to explode. All national news media lead with the story. But the station we came to didn't even send a reporter there. Why? Maybe because they had their airtime filled up with advertisers disguised as "guests", maybe because they figured people don't like local news and will listen to reports from Moscow.

To illustrate "and how" I'll mention another radio station where one minute after a newscast aired we asked the journalists (who had contributed to it and listened to it with us), "What do you remember?" They were really puzzled and couldn't tell what most of the items were about.

Journalists often fail to see their listener in front of them. This results in radio programs that are rarely compelling, engaging and memorable.

Features are difficult to produce and take a lot of time and skills. We never came across really good features while we were traveling. Mostly, journalists were telling us features were too long for their audience to handle. The best examples of features we heard were produced by the Foundation for Independent Radio (who has time, money, skillful journalists to do them and doesn't need to worry about ratings.) FNR makes the shows they produce available to stations across Russia, but we never heard any station using them.

It's difficult to assess innovation on Russian or Ukrainian airwaves. Many radio people here think that innovation consists of a multitude of sound effects and incomprehensible words they use in their shows. There's little innovation in terms of using radio tools to the fullest to make shows relevant for the audience...

I think what we could call "cutting edge" applied to the radio in the former Soviet Union is an attempt to transform it from background noise to a communication tool. Julie gave an example of Kaliningrad where a radio show for women became for many women their best friend because they could always trust it.

Sound Over Substance
Rolf Siverson - April 18, 2003 - #42

I'm interested to know how much of an effect American pop culture has on media and entertainment in Russia/the Ukraine. I know from some of the places I've been, it can be so strong that it really marginalizes local domestic media. German guys listening to Metallica and former Egyptian terrorists who love Bruce Willis movies, that sort of thing. I listened to a major radio station in the heart of Japan, and all of the DJ's were Americans some of whom spoke no Japanese. Has American culture had a similar effect in Eastern Europe? And do you think it is negative?

On a similar note it has been mentioned in earlier posts that Russian media try to make their broadcasts better by adding loud sound effects and unintelligible words. When I listen to the biggest radio station in my area it does exactly the same thing. Loud fast paced drum beats behind every announcement, even news (which I might add is the usual celebrity gossip), and robotic announcers with distorted voices. And it's not just my local pop station, look at the lead in for CNN's war coverage. It's the same thing. I guess what I'm getting at is, do you think this idea of sound over substance is an attempt at emulating American success (or perceived success)? And do you see any danger in this?

Declaring Modernity
Julia Barton - April 18, 2003 - #43

The former Soviet Union has its own highly developed pop culture that goes way back. This is, after all, the original Borsch Belt. Kitschy music, tacky costumes, syrupy lyrics--you can find it all in a 60s-80s era genre called "estrada" that developed independently of American pop, though there were definite influences from abroad, maybe more from France and Italy than America. So the locals have their own traditions to draw upon, and their own star system to gossip about.

As for sound effects, I just think it's something no one can resist in commercial radio. Public radio in many ways defines itself against that trend. When we'd play NPR newscasts for Russians, they thought the lack of music bed made them sound Soviet. So in a sense, yes, they are declaring their modernity by jazzing things up. It's also more fun and easy to insert another "tchooo! zap!" than to do boring old newsgathering.

To Measure And Distribute
jake - April 20, 2003 - #45

You've alluded to this above, but how does other media you encounter there (Russia and/or Ukraine) measure up with radio in terms of successfully offering either significant journalism, creative independent expression, or some genuine truth-telling in any mode? Are there blogs, 'zines, indie film, alternative newsweeklies. Or nyet?

What about radio distribution? Are the national networks distributed by satellite? Were any of the stations you visited using the Internet for actually acquiring audio for broadcast rather than just information? (I imagine broadband is not much of a reality yet)

Who gets to own or buy or start a radio station?

On Owning, Delivering, And Blogging
Alex Kleimenov - April 20, 2003 - #46

Who gets to own a station?--whoever has money and wants to run for president (or help some one out on that treacherous path.) Actually, lots of Americans do own or found stations in Russia and Ukraine. One of the greatest examples is StoryFirst Communications--a US company based in Moscow that founded Radio Maximum (one of the big Russian radio networks) and CTC--Russia's most successful entertainment TV-channel. In St. Petersburg, the top radio station was founded and managed by Americans.

Radio distribution--most networks deliver via satellite, some do separate feeds for various time-zones. Some companies do distribute via the Internet. For instance, two public radio companies in Ukraine distribute all of their programming to affiliates on-line, some stations put it live on the air. I don't think you should presume certain technology is not available in this part of the world--we've seen a few state-of-the-art equipped stations.

Blogs--FNR did a project called Radio Diaries. They distributed MiniDisc recorders to regular people who were recording their diaries over a period of time. The recordings were then edited and made available to stations. Most of them were very interesting. Also, a friend of mine (and Julie's) has her own weblog: http://vkhokhl.blogspot.com

Audiotochka
Julia Barton - April 20, 2003 - #47

As for distribution of radio programs, FNR has set up an Audio Exchange site so that producers and reporters can share their work with each other. It works via a central FTP server. If you can read Russian, you can check out how it works here: http://www.fnr.ru/raen.phtml.

Fading Over The Hurdles
charles maynes - May 2, 2003 - #60

I've been thinking about Alex and Julia's work in Russia and some of the questions on the state of Russian radio. "Is there anything like NPR or anyone producing 'Transomesque' stories?" If not what are the hurdles?

One thing that seems to me in our favor is technology. I don't know what Alex and Julia found in their travels, but in my experience, more and more Russians (particularly young...) DO have access and knowledge to computers, the Internet, and digital audio software mainly because -- much to Bill Gates' and other American computer giants' chagrin-- so much of it is free. For just a couple dollars, Russians can buy a CD with the latest version of Windows, all the audio software you can imagine, FTP programs...in short, most of what you need to file stories from anywhere.

I'd be curious to hear if either of you know what the response has been to the Russian audio exchange site you mentioned? Are people filing? And is anyone downloading the audio to use on programs in Russia or abroad? It seems to me that it should be relatively easy to encourage...or, given the economy there, build incentives...for people to start experimenting.

And if we're talking about the United States, for example, why should English fluency be a requirement? Everyone uses the fade down/voice over for interview cuts, why not invert and do it for narration as well?

Imagine, Innovate, Ignore
Julia Barton - May 3, 2003 - #61

Yes, I agree that a lot of stations in Russia have the technology to start doing more complex stories. It's a question of seeing that as a possibility. The culture of public radio in the U.S. came out of some unusual circumstances and, I would argue, some folks in the right place at the right time (being the 1960s). Now it has 30 years to draw upon. But if you live in a country where you don't hear these kind of stories being done, it's hard to imagine doing them, much less how. The other factor in commercial radio, of course, is that time = money. We often encountered the attitude that if someone wasn't paying for every minute of informational programming then it wasn't worth doing. The sad corollary to that being that if someone WAS paying for it, one could broadcast any kind of crap.

All that said, we saw people at some stations overcoming the hurdles occasionally just by ignoring them. A young man at a Novosibirsk station did entertainment features and was open to all kinds of experimentation--he just did what he felt like and the management, being new to radio too, didn't stop him. Also, producers at FNR do all kinds of innovative stuff with programs they make. ...The only problem is that not many stations air the modules, which are paid for by Western grants.

Native Nanai
Julia Barton - May 6, 2003 - #62

Creative Radio from Russia
Streaming MP3 (64 kbps) | Download MP3 (2.4 mb)

This is the first half of a 12-minute documentary called "Our People" produced by Elena Uporova of the Foundation for Independent Radio. The series is about national minorities in Russia, focusing on native tribes in the Far East. The first 25 seconds is a series intro, then we hear an old Nanai tribesman sing and explain (in Russian) a song he made up about the Amur River. Then Elena introduces him, and he remembers his Russian teachers. Although his grandson doesn't speak Nanai, he's philosophical about it. Elena then talks about how Russian names for the tribal peoples and their own names for themselves differ. The tribal names come up as "errors" on the Russian Microsoft spell-check program. In the last part, she goes out on the street with a list of the tribal names to see if any Russians know what they mean. In a great montage, they make wild guesses--maybe they're words from English, or Japanese, or some kind of anagrams--before someone dismissively guesses that perhaps they're names of small nationalities.

Learning by Imitation
Streaming MP3 (64 kbps) | Download MP3 (.6 mb)

One of our students, Stas Berm at AvtoRadio Novosibirsk, got so inspired by hearing "Our People" that he immediately applied Elena Uporova's keyboard sound effects to a little story of his own, about looking up the Guinness Book of World Records online to find Russian world records.

Call To Colleagues
Julia Barton - May 9, 2003 - #65

...Please e-mail me if you work at a station that might be interested in developing a sister-station relationship with your colleagues abroad. There are many details that would need to be worked out, but I think it's one of the best low-cost ways we can help them and help our listeners learn more about the world. The stations in Russia who'd had some kind of contact with people abroad were so proud of it. And in these days of e-mail and MP3 sound files, it's easier to communicate--we just have to figure out a way around the language barrier.

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