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Radio One was my only friend in the world of Ukrainian radio broadcasting for almost two years. Now it’s gone, cruelly killed and replaced by a most horrible nightmare: Alla Pugacheva’s personal Radio Alla.

I discovered Radio One on 99.4 FM sometime in 2007. A Ukrainian radio playing latest arrivals in modern rock such as the Killers, Maximo Park and Kings of Leon, and mixing it with rock classics like Oasis and Guns N Roses and various new Ukrainian bands. Now that was a real find.


By that time, I had almost given up on Ukrainian radio altogether. While there are a great many radio stations, they mostly play bad Ukrainian, Russian pop, Soviet or Western pop and Chanson – a very specific genre which includes songs about one’s criminal past or present, and simplistic Soviet-style restaurant and bar music.


There also was and still is Radio Rocks, but its playlist seems to get worse all the time, and the best you can count on is some ancient rock ballads and Ukrainian and Russian rock often bordering on that same stupid pop.


Therefore Radio One was like a ray of light among all this pop gloom. All my friends with decent music tastes knew about it before long. While its playlist was quite limited – if you listened to it too often, you could almost know it by heart – it was still the best you could find.


Needless to say, I and all its dedicated listeners were simply shocked to find out that Radio One came to an end and will be replaced by the radio of Russian veteran star Alla Pugacheva. According to the format of the station (Russian Radio Alla has been functioning since 2007) every other song played will be hers, and the rest will be given to artists of same era and/or style, which means more Soviet-Russian pop, as if there was not enough of it already.


The appearance of the Alla radio on April 15 was clearly dedicated to Pugacheva’s 60th anniversary which turned into a massive celebration divided between Moscow and Kyiv. Now, I have nothing against Pugacheva – at least the way she was some 30 years ago. But the last 10 years she was doing the same horrible pop as all her Russian colleagues.


And she was making news in ways that had nothing to do with music.15 yearsagoshe married a Bulgarian-born risingstar and thus created Russia’s main celebrity monster, Philipp Kirkorov. Now she’s living with a 32-year-old famous parodist-turned-singer, Maksim Galkin, and constantly teasing media about their possible marriage.


Establishing a radio station in your own name requires a certain amount of vanity and Pugacheva doesn’t lack it. The way she is being made into some kind of a national treasure in Russia I find purely ridiculous, but I don’t really care much for it. What I care about is that she replaced my favorite radio with … well … her own self.


But of course, Pugacheva is not the one to blame for closing of Radio One. The change was made by Ukrainian Media Holding, which owns both Radio One and Alla. While the reasons were never officially explained, they were more than clear. Radio One was not profitable. There were hardly any commercials ever heard on air. And that’s because the tastes of the majority of radio audiences in Ukraine are rather primitive. They like simple stuff such as Serdyuchka, Tina Karol, Enrique Iglesias and of course, Pugacheva.


Radio One kept its official website www.radioone.com.ua, which claims that the station is now broadcasted online. Not at the moment, though. A creeping line at the bottom of the front page informs that online broadcasting will be resumed anytime. But even if it does resume, there are many more and better online stations to listen to. I wouldn’t need Radio One there.


Frankly, I was never too dependent on radio. I have carried a portable player with me since I got my first Sony Walkman at the age of 15, and now my iPod is always at hand to play all my music.


But … iPod requires headphones or speakers; it also requires to be frequently charged. Right now every other mobile phone model has a built-in radio and most cars have at least a radio player. Finally, a common radio set is small and portable and costs from Hr 100. You can easily carry it from room to room or take it with you to a picnic with some extra batteries to keep it going. The only question is – what are you going to listen to on it? For me this question is now very hard to answer – while I’m in Ukraine anyway.