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Friday, May 27, 2016

101.4 FM – Radio Ukraine (UR-1) for Crimea


Some 27 months after the illegal occupation and subsequent annexation of Crimea by The Kremlin, it appears Ukraine has finally got around to creating UR-1, a radio station broadcasting from Kherson Oblast into Crimea on 101.4 FM.

Apparently the signal is strong in Krasnoperekopsk and Dzhankoy, but to carry this and TV signals across the entire peninsula a new mast and transmitter will be erected – somewhere in the Genichesk rayon of Kherson – at some point.

Several basic questions are therefore raised.


Why has it taken 2 years to bring into being a Ukrainian radio station intended to broadcast specifically into Crimea – and even today, the day after its launch, a radio station that does not have the transmission ability to cover the entire peninsula?

When will the new transmission tower and equipment be erected to cover the entirety of the peninsula?

How long before 101.4 FM is blocked or the signal significantly disrupted by the Russians?

How long will it take for the Ukrainian authorities to then licence another frequency for the Russians to then have to block or significantly disrupt that frequency too (ad infinitum)?  And so it (theoretically) goes on – and on.

There will be those asking whether Ukraine should have been blocking (or attempting to block) the previously licenced frequencies of now “occupation radio stations” in Crimea currently de facto operating outside of its broadcasting legislation, yet within its internationally recognised borders.  What gains, if any, would there be in doing so?


Would it have been better – even if meaning further delays – in erecting the broadcasting infrastructure capable of covering the entire peninsula prior to going “on air”?

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