Ukraine's Navy, despite difficulties, forges ahead with media center (01/28/96)

Ukraine's Navy, despite difficulties, forges ahead with media center

by Khristina Lew

SEVASTOPIL - Wooden planks covering a muddy ditch serve as the walkway to the former dormitory on top of the hill, now home to the Ukrainian Navy's television and radio center, Breeze.

Inside, a dimly lit hallway lined with boxes and rolls of carpeting connects rooms in various stages of reconstruction. A makeshift studio is decorated with furniture donated by the Ivano-Frankivske City Council. In the corner stands a Photon TV donated by the Kyiv City Council.

Local Sevastopil firms donated the insulation that will soundproof the walls of Breeze's radio station. Zaporizhzhia contributed funds for the purchase of a $10,000 transmitter. Not to he outdone, Uman kicked in for the studio's lighting.

With Kyiv unable to match its naval officers' salaries to that of the Russian Black Sea Fleet's officers, it is no wonder that the Ukrainian Navy's media center looks for handouts to rebuild its dilapidated premises and import technology from the West. "We're following the Ukrainian tradition of 'toloka,' when an entire village helps a new neighbor raise his barn," explained Cmdr. Myroslaw Mamchak, head of Breeze.

Radio Breeze was licensed to broadcast over FM airwaves in June of 1994 for tour hours a week. In November of that year it launched its first show and has since expanded programming to 10 hours a week.

Its format is a mix of news and music, both Western and Ukrainian. Radio Breeze's 19-year-old disc jockey Gregorv Segiyev is purveyor of tens of bootlegged cassettes featuring dance music, bands currently popular in the West and traditional Ukrainian "sharavary" melodies. The station's biggest competitor is Radio Roks out of Moscow.

"We are trying to capture young listeners." Cmdr. Mamchak said of the station's format. Radio Breeze also broadcasts a program of Ukrainian culture one hour a week, and looking to expand to the Crimean Tatar audience with the creation of a Crimean Tatar program.

Broadcasting news from a Ukrainian perspective is a difficult task in a predominantly Russian city - of Sevastopil's 410,000 residents, only one-quarter are ethnic Ukrainian. As a result, 70 percent of Radio Breeze's programming is in the Russian language, the remainder in Ukrainian.

The station employs 40 people, one-third of whom are Navy personnel. Many of Breeze's employees are ethnic Russian. The pragmatic commander brushes this fact aside. ''We ask our people, are you for a state or not? Nationality is not an issue. We are building an independent state."

Breeze Television, mandated by Ukraine's Ministry of Defense to disseminate information about the creation of the Ukrainian Navy and the general political situation surrounding the division of the Black Sea Fleet, is licensed to air on Sevastopil's Channel 44 for eight hours a week.

With the construction of its new television studio near completion, Breeze Television will begin broadcasting out of the media center; currently Breeze Television programs are carried on Ukrainian Television's Channel 2 in the Crimea for two hours a week and on the Crimean Republican Channel for one hour a week.

Nationally, Breeze broadcasts are carried by Ukrainian Television's Channel, the weekly news program "Pislya Mova," and regional stations in Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivske, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovske and Lviv.

Cmdr. Mamchak comments wryly that broadcasting the "truth" about the division of the Black Sea Fleet is difficult in a Russian-saturated television market. "Russian station don't always tell the truth, and Sevastopil TV and Radio are fond of running interviews with BSF seamen calling Ukrainian Navy personnel 'nationalists, Banderites and Mazepivtsi.' "

Breeze has been accused of anti-Russian propaganda, which Cmdr. Mamchak, a native of Sniatyn, Ivano-Frankivske region, vehemently denies. "We don't agitate for officers to join the Ukrainian Navy. Each officer must make his own decision We don't push for the Black Sea Fleet to leave Sevastopil, but personally, if it were up to me, I'd lease Sevastopil to Russia for three days and then kick them out. As long as the Black Sea Fleet remains in this city, there will be conflicts between Ukrainian and Russian seamen."

Cmdr. Mamchak was one or the first officers of the Black Sea Fleet to pledge allegiance to Ukraine. He recalls the circumstances that led to the creation of the Ukrainian Navy: "We had information from Moscow that Yeltsin was going to declare the Black Sea Fleet Russian. In the 11th hour, People's Deputy Stepan Khmara, with 27 of us officers, traveled to Kravchuk's dacha with a decree we had written declaring the creation of a Ukrainian Navy. Kravchuk signed it, and on April 6, 1992, the Ukrainian Navy was conceived. The next day Yeltsin declared the Black Sea Fleet Russian."

The commander is determined to air Ukraine's spin on the division of the Black Sea Fleet despite financial constraints and anti-Ukrainian competition. "One aspect of building a Ukrainian fleet is letting people l know what kind of potential the Ukrainian Navy has. Our country has been plundered. It's time to show people who's stealing from whom," he said.

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