What Connects the Finnish YLE Station and Prague?

The surprising role played by YLE Radio's measuring station when Soviet tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia.

Jeff: This week sees the 56th anniversary of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, which started on August 20th, 1968.  As tanks rolled into Prague, concerning changes were noted in the radio broadcasts from that country, and among other places, these were carefully monitored by a small outpost of YLE Radio in Finland.  Here’s Ray Robinson in Los Angeles to tell us more.

Ray: Thanks, Jeff.  There are painful memories to this day in the Czech Republic of the occasion in August 1968 when Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin put an end to what was commonly known as the ‘Prague Spring’ – a period of political liberalization and democratic reforms that had been instituted by Czech President Alexander Dub?ek.  The reforms had begun in the January of that year, and included such things as freedom of speech, freedom of the press for Czech newspapers, radio and TV, freedom of worship, and freedom of travel.

At the height of the Cold War, these reforms were not well received in Moscow, and the result was that a Warsaw Pact force of over 650,000 troops, accompanied by 4,600 tanks, were sent from Russia, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria to occupy the country, equipped with the most sophisticated weapons in the Soviet military catalog at that time.

Back in 2020, an article was published on Finnish Radio YLE’s website titled “What Connects the Finnish YLE Station and Prague?”  The article was written in Finnish, and the English translation from Google was a bit stilted and awkward, so I’ve paraphrased it so we can now bring you the gist of the story.  It involves YLE’s ‘measuring station’ in a quiet, wooded area of Laajasalo Island, Helsinki.  In the same way that Staten Island is part of New York City, so Laajasalo Island forms part of eastern Helsinki.

The measuring station there was essentially a wooden house with sophisticated radio receivers and antennas, whose primary function was to measure the frequency of all Finnish broadcasting stations, and to alert any that might be drifting even slightly from their assigned channels.  It was staffed by a team of experienced radio technicians, most of whom were also shortwave and medium wave DXers, who, once their main responsibilities had been discharged, delighted in being able to use the equipment for other ‘side interests’.

The article states that when Soviet tanks crossed the Czechoslovakian border a little after midnight on the morning of Wednesday, August 21, 1968, in a small wooden building in eastern Helsinki, the handsets were monitored with attentive ears.  The Laajasalo measuring station was on standby, because something strange had been detected in the airwaves.  The previous day there had been signs of unusual transmitter activity and preliminary test transmissions.  Especially in Czechoslovakia's neighbor, Ukraine, it seemed that something was going on.

As events progressed on that Wednesday, no Czech shortwave transmitters could be heard.  Further, it was observed that all Voice of America, BBC and Deutsche Welle programming in Czech was being jammed.  And then, the occupiers' radio station, Radio Vltava, appeared on medium wave.

So in Laajasalo, they listened to the radio war.  The occupation of Czechoslovakia was a major news story around the world, but it was a challenge to obtain reliable information about what was going on inside the country.  Journalist Lieko Zachovalova reported for YLE from Prague.  His struggle to get a telephone report out to the editorial office in Finland has gone down in the history of journalism.

The problem for all foreign correspondents working in Czechoslovakia was that international telephone calls were monitored and sometimes deliberately cut.  For example, Zachovalova's first report had to be relayed to Finland via a Swiss call center, and it didn't make it into the news until day two of the occupation.

At YLE Radio's measuring station in Laajasalo, though, monitoring of Czechoslovakian airwaves worked flawlessly.  Jarmo Sivusaari, the head of the station at the time, recalls that they had the best equipment available.  But, listening to broadcasts inside occupied Czechoslovakia required not only good equipment but also amateur radio skills.

“Broadcasts could be heard well when you knew how to dig them out of the howl of the ether”, says Jorma Laiho, YLE's former technology director, who studied the history of the Laajasalo measuring station.  According to Laiho, a classic disinformation operation was underway.

The occupiers tried their best to prevent Czechoslovak transmissions by destroying or jamming the transmitters.  The central radio studios in Prague were taken over in just a few hours.  And at the same time, the occupiers broadcast their own program, which they tried to disguise as originating locally by broadcasting it on a familiar domestic Czech wavelength.  Laajasalo, however, noticed that the broadcast came from Ukraine.

The Czechoslovaks, on the other hand, established so-called free radio stations, whose transmission frequency and location constantly changed, so that the occupiers were not immediately able to silence them.

“The resistance via radio surprised the occupiers” Laiho says.  For example, on August 25, four days after the invasion, almost 20 free stations were monitored in Laajasalo.

The jamming of free radio stations intensified on August 27.  Väinö Lehtoranta, who worked at the measuring station, guessed that a train carrying jamming transmitters had arrived, enabling the occupiers not only to jam foreign shortwave broadcasts in Czech, but also to jam local medium wave stations as well.  The last ‘free radio’ station went silent two days later.

During the eight-day radio war, the Laajasalo measuring station listened to what the people of Czechoslovakia and the country's reformist leader Alexander Dub?ek had to say.  The messages also interested the Czechoslovak Embassy in Finland and indeed the President of Finland too.

To try to save face, the Soviets said they had been invited into Czechoslovakia by the Czechoslovak Communist Party.  However, that was a lie, and no such invitation had ever been issued.  In Finland, that lie was repeated by Soviet Ambassador Andrei Kovalev, but the Czechoslovak ambassador to Finland, Zdenek Urban, apparently visited the Laajasalo measuring station for himself to hear what was going on in his home country, and he used the information he heard there to refute the Russian claims of the invitation.

Jarmo Sivusaari, who worked at the measuring station, remembers the ambassador's visit.  “He was at the station at least once and listened to the broadcasts for several hours.”  Väinö Lehtoranta, the station's late employee, also wrote about the ambassador's visit.  According to Lehtoranta, Urban's assistant brought beer as a thank you.  It quickly became clear to Urban that Czechoslovakia had not asked for Soviet help.  Soon President Kekkonen of Finland also knew about it.

Travel Report

So why decide to publish an article about all this some 52 years later in 2020?  Well, this was all brought back to light when a historical document was discovered in the archives of YLE Radio.  Jorma Laiho found the document, a Travel Report, which describes a visit to Czechoslovak National Radio three months after the occupation.  The beginning of the nine-page report titled ‘Notes from the trip to Pilsen 27.11.-5.12.1968’ is a normal technical text.

But, then the content changes.  The author relates in detail how the occupiers tried to silence the domestic radio stations and how the Czechoslovakians harassed them.

The travelers apparently met with three Czech sources who are identified in the report solely by their initials - Mr. Z., Mr. M., and Mr. P. - apparently all Czechoslovak radio staff.

They took the Finnish visitors to hidden studios, and to a radio station with the lights turned off, but with transmitters working at full power.  Road signs had been removed everywhere to make things difficult for the Soviet troops.

The report describes how the technicians of the Krasov radio station were marched ominously to the side of an open cable trench and made to stand there.  They thought they were going to be shot, but fortunately that particular situation was resolved through negotiation.

Pilsen radio continued to broadcast messages from the legitimate government, i.e. Dub?ek's reformists.  According to the report, Czechoslovakia's regional radio stations had been allowed to continue to operate, to that point at least, from normal legal studio facilities using legal transmitters.

The travel report tells how the occupying troops were surprised by the impassioned resistance by the ordinary people of Czechoslovakia, and were confused by how reluctant the Czechoslovakian authorities were to cooperate.  According to the report, broadcasting had a central position in leading passive resistance.  "Because the first communications coming through the radio came from people who enjoyed the people's trust, the people took the radio as their 'common' leader," Mr. M. tells his Finnish colleague.

And there the article on the Finnish website ends.  But it is a stark reminder in these days of reliance on webstreaming that in times of trouble, when phone lines can be cut and Internet access blocked, radio can still be a very resilient tool, with a potent voice that cannot easily be snuffed out.  As for Alexander Dub?ek, he was reassigned in 1969 to a lowly position in the Czech Forestry Commission.  The Czechs would have to wait another 20 years until real liberation came in the form of the Velvet Revolution in November 1989.

Back to you, Jeff.

(Ray Robinson/AWR/Wavescan)

What Is Replacing Shortwave?

Screen shot of Dream software showing BBC transmission from Singapore 

A joint effort is necessary to bring the digitization of radio to a successful end

RUXANDRA OBREJA, 05 March 2020

The author is chairman of Digital Radio Mondiale.

Analog shortwave will celebrate about 100 years of existence in 2028 when many hope 5G will have been properly defined, tested and applied, though broadcasting is low on its long list of perceived advantages.

It’s true that shortwave was typically a medium of the Cold War that peaked in 1989 and that afterward its listenership dwindled. Many international broadcasters gave up on it as the post-war transmitters got rustier and the energy bills kept mounting.

Additional story from Radio World at: https://tinyurl.com/w8huaja
(Photo/Radio World via Dr. TK Rao)

Radio Sputnik Delivers Polished Sound

Russian government station ditches stiff "Radio Moscow" style

James Careless, Feb. 4, 2019
WASHINGTON — Back during the height of the Cold War, international shortwave station Radio Moscow broadcast news, views, and programming to the West; all reflecting the views of the Soviet government that funded its operations. (The same was true for Voice of America, which was and is still funded by the United States government.)

Additional story at: https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/radio-sputnik-delivers-polished-sound

Farewell, Firewall

by Kim Elliott
Deep in the massive FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act is a provision to eliminate, in its present form, the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors. The NDAA has been passed by the House and the Senate and is expected to be signed by President Obama. The BBG is the topmost authority of the elements of U.S. government-funded international broadcasting: Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Radio and TV Martí, and the Arabic-language Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa. Together they broadcast in 61 languages.

This BBG’s demise eliminates the “firewall” of a nine-person bipartisan board with fixed and staggered terms, and replaces it with one politically-appointed CEO. This change will have consequences.

Traditionally, people around the world huddled around a shortwave radio to get news from abroad. Increasingly, they watch an international news channel via cable or satellite television, or access a foreign website or social media outlet. Whatever the medium used, the need for a credible alternative to domestic state-controlled media is the main reason international broadcasting has had an audience since the 1930s.

Credibility is the essence of successful international broadcasting. The shortwave frequencies, satellite channels, and online media are full of propaganda, but serious news consumers seek out the news organizations that they trust.

International broadcasting in languages such as Burmese or Hausa has little commercial potential. National governments must step in to provide the funding. The foremost challenge is to ensure that the journalism is independent from the governments that hold the purse strings.
To achieve this, there is no substitute for a multipartisan governing board. Its main function is to appoint the senior managers of the broadcasting organization, so that politicians don’t. This is how “public service” broadcasting corporations throughout the world, e.g. BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, maintain their independence.

When a government is directly involved in the production of news, the results are generally deleterious. The outcome can be as extreme as the lies and distortions of German broadcasts before and during World War II. Or the output can be something like the stultifying commentaries that filled much of Radio Moscow’s schedule during the Cold War. And, as can be observed by watching Russia’s RT or China’s CCTV News on cable TV, propaganda can also be manifest by emphasizing some topics, while downplaying or ignoring others.

I believe I had a role in the creation of the BBG 21 years ago. As an audience research analyst at VOA and a student of international broadcasting, I was concerned about the impact of politically appointed VOA directors on the VOA news service. I wrote about this in “Too Many Voices of America,” Foreign Policy, Winter 1989-90.

I was pleasantly surprised that the article sparked lively discussion. A House of Representatives hearing on the subject took place in 1990. Then a President’s Task Force on U.S. Government International Broadcasting was formed in 1991 and issued a report. This process culminated in the International Broadcasting Act of 1994, which created the BBG. The BBG began its work in 1995.
So, if I was not the father of the BBG, I was at least its crazy uncle.

For the most part, the BBG functioned well as a firewall. Most importantly, directors of VOA and presidents of RFE/RL were no longer appointed by the president, but by the BBG. When a new president was elected, those directors and presidents and their senior managers stayed on. There was no jarring change of the news agenda that the audiences for international broadcasting would notice.
Only an independent news organization can build the credibility needed to attract an audience. Audiences that seek out international broadcasting are seeking an antidote to the state-controlled media in their own countries. More state-controlled media is not the answer.

Nevertheless, among the employees of U.S. government international broadcasting, few tears will be shed for the passing of the BBG. The BBG had to make unpopular but necessary decisions. Veteran personnel with radio skills had to make room for new television and online talent. Language services of the Cold War era signed off while others, especially those serving Muslim nations, rose in priority.
With the new one-person oversight of U.S. international broadcasting, the pendulum that vexed VOA and the other entities before the 1990s begins to swing again. In the old days, some VOA directors were committed journalists, others were policy hawks. The latter imposed priorities on news output which conformed more to the administration’s agenda than to the tenets of journalism. This will eventually happen again with a presidentially appointed CEO.

The revision of the International Broadcasting Act does stipulate a three-year term for the CEO, so that, in theory, provides something of a buffer. There could be short-lived continuity when a new president is elected. When that term expires, a future president could, hypothetically speaking, have an unusual level of interest in the mass media, and might appoint a CEO with a peculiar notion of news.

The legislation also retains standards of journalism, e.g. the news “will be accurate, objective, and comprehensive.” The CEO, however, can interpret what is meant by that. There is no longer the moderating influence of a bipartisan board.

Why should the U.S. government fund a news organization if it cannot influence its content?

1) Only an independent news organization can build the credibility needed to attract an audience. Audiences that seek out international broadcasting are seeking an antidote to the state-controlled media in their own countries. More state-controlled media is not the answer.
2)  Independence enables the balance that builds trust in a news organization. VOA began broadcasting in 1942 with the famous words, “The news may be good or bad, we shall tell you the truth.” To radio listeners in Europe, VOA and BBC reported the many Allied losses early in the war. They were therefore believed when reporting Allied victories later in the war.
3) Well and fully informed audiences are bolstered against disinformation, information, and what we now call the fake news of dictators and terrorists and other international miscreants. These audiences are better equipped to form their own opinions about current events.
4) An unfettered news service supports U.S. interests in the long term. If U.S. policies are wise and virtuous, fully informed audiences, will, in the long term, understand the reasoning behind U.S. international conduct.
5) It speaks well of the United States that it is providing the news service that many people around the world rely on. It will alienate publics abroad if the United States provides a news-like product that is actually propaganda.

With the resumption of the swinging pendulum, it is only a matter of time until a future CEO of U.S. international broadcasting cleans house in its newsrooms. The change of tone will be apparent to audiences abroad. Credibility can be lost in a matter of weeks. It will take decades to restore.
(courtesy of Kim Elliott)

Russia agrees to reopen Cuban spy base

Moscow (AFP) - Russia has provisionally agreed to reopen a major Cold War listening post on Cuba that was used to spy on the United States, a Russian daily reported Wednesday after President Vladimir Putin visited the island last week.

"The agreements were finalized while President Vladimir Putin visited Havana last Friday," the respected daily wrote.

Russia had closed the Lourdes spy base south of Havana on Putin's orders to save money and due to a rapprochement with the United States after the September 11 attacks.

But Moscow has since shown a new interest in Latin America and its Cold War ally Cuba and relations with the West have deteriorated amid the Ukraine crisis.

The base was set up in 1964 after the Cuban missile crisis to spy on the United States. Just 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the US coast, it was the Soviet Union's largest covert military outpost abroad with up to 3,000 staff.

A secret Russian listening station conducts it's activities October 18, 2001 in Lourdes some 18 mile …
It was used to listen in to radio signals including those from submarines and ships and satellite communications.

"All I can say is -- finally!" one Russian source told Kommersant of the reported reopening.

The defense ministry and military high command declined to comment on the report to Kommersant.

Ahead of Putin's visit to Cuba last week as part of a Latin American tour, Russia agreed to write off 90 percent of Cuba's debt dating back to the Soviet era, totaling around $32 billion.

Russia paid Cuba rent of $200 million per year to use the base in the last few years it was open.

A former head of Russia's foreign intelligence service, Vyacheslav Trubnikov, told the newspaper the base would strengthen Russia's international position.

"Lourdes gave the Soviet Union eyes in the whole of the western hemisphere," he said. "For Russia, which is fighting for its lawful rights and place in the international community, it would be no less valuable than for the USSR."

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.
(Yahoo! Nx)

Cold War Legacy a Tourist Attraction in Rural North Dakota

Kane Farabaugh
July 14, 2014 6:08 PM

COOPERSTOWN, NORTH DAKOTA —
The United States plans to shrink the total number of land-based nuclear missiles by 2018 to comply with an arms treaty signed with Russia in 2011.  North Dakota has been a traditional home to many of those land-based missiles.  It is a part of the state’s Cold War legacy that officials - and tourists - embrace.

Among amber waves of grain in a remote part of North Dakota, the fate of millions hinged on the deployment of the lethal object housed below this concrete and metal barrier.

Code-named November-33 during the Cold War, this site was home to an intercontinental ballistic missile with a nuclear-tipped warhead that once waited to launch death and destruction to a destination unknown.

“I think there was kind of a standing joke that North Dakota was actually the third largest power in the world in terms of the nuclear capacity that we had here," said Alvin Jaeger, North Dakota Secretary of State.

Additional story at: http://www.voanews.com/content/cold-war-legacy-a-tourist-atraction-in-rural-north-dakota/1957475.html
(VOA)
(photo: history.nd.gov)

VOA looks at the fall of the Berlin Wall

A radio, television, and Internet series looks back on the 20th anniversary Washington, D.C., November 3, 2009 – The Voice of America (VOA) will broadcast this week a radio, television and Internet series on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Reports from the United States, Germany, Poland, Hungary and Africa will examine how this event on November 9, 1989 set a new course over the last 20 years for the world as we know it.

“Historically, this is a perfect time to look back at events and see how they have shaped our world today,” said VOA Executive Editor Steve Redisch. “The fall of the Berlin Wall is recent enough for us to get eyewitness accounts, yet distant enough so that we can also get impressions from a whole new generation that has grown up in a democratic society.”

Why was the Berlin Wall a symbol of the Cold War? What prompted East German authorities to build it in the first place, and why did it ultimately collapse? What are some of the geopolitical ramifications of that momentous event? What do today’s Berliners remember about the Wall? These and other questions will be answered in a series of reports from VOA senior correspondent Andre de Nesnera in Washington and VOA correspondent Sonja Pace in Berlin.

From Europe, VOA correspondent Peter Fedynsky looks at the Solidarity Movement in 1980s Poland and what 20 years of freedom has meant for workers whose movement helped to bring down the Iron Curtain. Fedynsky also examines the mixed feelings many Hungarians have 20 years after Communism came to an end. While preparing his reports for this series, he was able to interview Hungarian and Polish young people who were born too late to know life under communism.

VOA’s Johannesburg correspondent Scott Bobb will file on how the collapse of the Berlin Wall affected the African continent. Washington-based VOA news writer Mark Snowiss answers the question, would the Wall and communism have collapsed on their own or did it result from U.S. policies?

Special coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall will be available at http://www.voanews.com/
(VOA)