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	Radio 021 Vojvodjanskih brigada 17/IV, Novi Sad (+381)21 420-534 radio021@radio021.co.yu

INFORMATION ON RADIO 021

Radio 021 is the first independent electronic media in Novi Sad,the capital of Yugoslav province, Vojvodina. Radio started broadcasting on August 8 th,1997, frequency 92,2 MHz, FM stereo , transmitter 300 W.It can be heard in radius of 40 km around Novi Sad. Private funds are the basic financial sources of radio diffusal enterprise 021.Radio 021 is unique one because its employees are the main holders of the control packet of stocks. There are 50-100 full time, part time workers and free lance contributors. There are  30 journalists, 9  sound editors, and 7 musical contributors.

For the less than three years of work the program has been banned twice. Apart from that, the premises and the equipment have been entirely destroyed  in fire on April 6th, 2000. For just six hours after the fire had started in the building where our premises were it has been successfully managed to start broadcasting again. Program started from temporary premises with minimal equipment. Before long, 95% of the entire program was on the air.

In the beginning of NATO interventions in Yugoslavia the armed policemen deprived radio transmitter which has not been given back to us up to the present moment. Now director and radio have gone to court over their event. Radio 021 was off the air in the period between March 25th and July 26th, 1999.Two days after deprivation of radio transmitter(March 27th , l999) radio site has been established on Internet and today all the relevant local information are presented on it. Radio 021 site can be found on the following address: www.radio021.co.yu.The program has been created on principle of objective and professional informing and it insists on tolerant  communication.

Dominant segments of our program are: informative and political programs, public program of local community and civilian sector and programs of alternative culture. The basic principle of the program are objectiveness and professional informing. The program supports multiethnic and multi-confessional community, processes of integration, the work of NVO and the activities of humanitarian organisations dealing with the problems of refugees and displaced persons.

Polls of the public opinion conducted by the agencies SCAN and HAMMER (in November, l998 and March l999 respectively) show that Radio 021 broadcast is listened to great majority of all those polled. According to information of independent investigators  on the day of radio transmitter deprivation ( March 25th 1999) Radio 021 had more listeners than all radio stations altogether. Five months after radio got on the air again pollers of the agency HAMMER (December, 1999) show that Radio 021 is again radio with the biggest local radio audience in the city. Investigations from May and June ,2000 conducted by Centre for Sociological Investigation on the Faculty of Philosophy, Novi Sad, and agency SCAN show that Radio 021 is undoubtedly the most listened local radio station even beside its decreased audibility. According to the opinion of all those polled Radio 021 is listened to “ because of its objectivness”. All the polls conducted so far show that Radio 021 had the biggest influence on the local public opinion.

Right form the start Radio 021 is a member of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM).

It is founder of Euro- regional net DTM that covers area of Vojvodina,( Yugoslavia),souther Hungary, western Romania, i.e. it covers the courses of the following rivers: the Danube, the Tisa and the Moris (DTM).Two more radio stations are in the net: from Szeged (Hungary) and Temisoare (Romania). Radio 021 is active in “Contact” net togewther with radio stations “Contact” from Pristina and Banja Luka (BIH). It is taking part in “Fresta” net in the project of bringing refugees and displaced persons from former Yugoslavia back. This project is supported by the Commitee for refugees in Denmark. The project is based on treaty for stability of south-east  of Europe. Radio 021 is taking an active part in work of the Conference in Szeged concerning media  in local self-government. More  and more information are forwarded through written and electronic media.

From the very beginning Radio 021 is permanently investing in education of young journalists. Today more than 90% of people employed in Radio 021 are students- journalists younger than twenty five. The education of the fourth generation is in process. These young people had no working experience as journalists before they became engaged with Radio 021 .Investing in young people have had outstanding results in the last three years.

Today almost all editorial places are taken by young journalists that gained enormous experience by following all the relevant political events including that on Kosovo. After coming back on the air in the middle of 1999 considerable effort was invested in starting publication and video production .In order to support alternative culture 10 CDs were recorded with creative work of the still unknown musicians, multimedia creators and radiophone creations of  work of the group of authors from Radio 021.

I LIVE HERE is multimedia creation of Radio 021 that  was awarded special prize  on the International Festival of local TV stations in Kosice (Slovakia).

In the beginning of the year 2000, Radio 021 has been under the reinforced pressures of the regime. There are significant difficulties in the work of radio marketing. Practically speaking there is no market in Serbia. Co-operation  with the state companies is not possible since they are not allowed to advertise in independent media.

On the other hand, Radio 021 comitents are constantly under surveillance of the state services and due to those pressures they give up from co-operation. In that way the possibility of  gathering profit is significantly decreased. In spite of the fact , marketing of Radio 021 achieves profit of around 25% of total budget of the company.

Radio 021 was actively involved in pre-electoral campaign of independent media and NGOs for governmental, presidential, provincial and local elections "It's high time". In our programme, we broadcast messages of NGOs. According to some specialists and media, Radio 021 realised, in association with other local radio stations in the province, the most interesting and successful pre-electoral campaign in Vojvodina and even further, under the name "It is not planned". To make people to come out and vote for democratic changes, we realised very successful and artistically and as an idea very interesting calendar "The first millenium electoral calendar". After October 5-th Radio 021 spontaneously became the leader of electronic media in Vojvodina. At the moment, we are making the network of correspondents in Vojvodina and creating the news which would cover the whole province. We also started the second programme on the languages of minorities.

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