Kyiv, March 1, 2016. Today, military radio “Army FM” started work in testing mode, said Oleksiy Makukhin, Advisor to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, at a press briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. “Now our content is music and news. We started this day with the national anthem at 6 am, and will also finish it with the anthem at 10pm,” said Mr. Makukhin. According to him, the news is broadcast live every hour, they plan to launch the final news release, and in a few weeks, a studio will be ready for producing their own programs. Currently, 10-15 programs have already been scheduled, and some of them will be launched this week. In particular, hit parade of Ukrainian music on weekends, the program “Stop Fake”, “Vazhka dilyanka” (eng. – Heavy plot) about Ukrainian rock music and “ATO songs”, – said Mr. Makukhin. “We plan a music format that was developed with the involvement of experts from the most popular radio stations. It is the so-called “pop rock” format, that is about 50% of foreign music, around 40% of Ukrainian music and 10% of Russian music of some carefully selected singers or Russian-speaking Ukrainian singers,” said Mr. Makukhin.
As of today, you can listen to the radio on the Internet, through the application “Svoeradio”. As Mr. Makukhin explained, it is the largest online platform with license music in Ukraine. “Besides, this is the only online platform which has technical ability to broadcast live, which was very essential for us. As we go on the air with our news,” said Mr. Makukhin. In addition, the platform can be downloaded on any mobile device. Now, military radio “Army FM” expects the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council to provide radio frequencies for broadcasting in ATO zone. In particular, it is planned to launch the military radio in Volnovakha, Artemivsk and Kostyantynivka.
“It is so unique and different because this radio is made by the military and, above all, for the military. That is, the themes and issues are primarily interesting for the military,” explained Mr. Makukhin. The team also considers this radio as the military feedback. In addition, ATO zone lacks Ukrainian content. Therefore, this project is very necessary for the military, and they were very enthusiastic about this idea, according to Mr. Makukhin.
Currently, the “Army FM” team consists of nine persons, the studio is located in the House of Officers in Kyiv. The project is developed by the aid of the private American fund «Spirit of America».