Name : Maarten Reesink Time : 14:00 - 16:00 (Paradiso Hall) Subject: Tactical Media As Tools For Survival Date : Saturday 20 January 1996 |
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Drink B'92!
It remains intriguing to see how the private and the public still seems to have so many different meanings when it concerns television. While in western countries we tend to see public channels as the ones in which at least a minimum of cultural quality (whatever that may mean) is guaranteed, in the former Eastern European countries it still seems to be the other way around. This holds true for the former Yugoslavia as well, although the situation there is even more complicated by the war. Take for example B'92, the independent radio station in the Serbian capital Belgrad. Started on 15 may 1989 as an anti-nationalist, subcultural radio station, it was acknowledged during the first six months of its existence. When it turned out to be too anti-government, it was officially banned from the waves. But it was silenced. In fact, it went on as a semi-pirate station ever since, and has preserved its independent status over the years, developing its own critique on the war. This independence turned out to be the key point of its success. It didn't make the station very popular with the regime nor with all of its various critics, but large parts of the population of the city loved it. Today, B'92 broadcasts 24 hours a day, And its journalistic products are the most quoted within the country as well as by foreign correspondents. But B'92 is not only a radio-station anymore. On the contrary. After its initial success on the air, it started a publishing house. Then it started to make its own television productions. Afterwards, B'92 started to produce films. Then of course, they got their own label for music CDs. Its first single release turned out to be a big hit: it was to become the peace hymn for Belgrad. B'92 even organised mass demonstrations and humanitarian actions against the war. And now it is also active on the Internet. B'92 is a curious phenomenon, in the sense that it has grown into a multimedia mogul if only on a more or less local level. " But" as Sasa Mirkovic, producer from B'92 explains, "you have to go into other media as well, if you want to survive. I mean, you just can't go on for years as a semi-pirate criticising the government." A radio station, expanding willy-nilly into ...? "Drink B'92 witbier!" the glamorous promotion videoclip shouts out loud. Is this a joke- or what? "Don't be afraid, B'92 is always with you" is its last sentence. So it's no joke. Maarten Reesink (maarten@acsi.nl) |
