Dennis DJ uses radio program to tell stories of war 4,900 miles away

DENNIS — Anne Levine is an unlikely ally to Ukrainians 4,900 miles away fighting for their lives against the Russian army.

The 61-year-old DJ with WOMR has found a way to tell the stories of Ukrainians thrust into the hellhole of battle. And she is doing it one story at a time, one week at a time, shining a light on the bravery of what some ordinary citizens are doing to save their country from the unprovoked attack.

Among the people she has interviewed are an emergency room doctor, a soldier who lost his eyesight fighting in Mariupol, a general manager of Kraina FM in Ukraine, a travel blogger, and a social influencer.

This is a story about the power radio and of a people who have joined forces to fight off the Russians.. Levine's stories have shown the strength and resilience of so many ordinary citizens doing what they can with what they have where they are, for the survival of their country.

It’s about the power and global reach of radio, and the decision by Pacifica Network executives to make her show free to all listeners.

And it’s about the effect her show has had; donations have come in to support soldiers on the front lines, and people caring for children and animals left behind.

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Levine has been a WOMR DJ for 15 years. An article in the New Yorker in March motivated her to reach out to her peers at Kraina FM, a radio station with a reach across Ukraine and several neighboring countries. Prior to Feb. 24, the station transmitted mainly pop, rock and top-40 music all in the Ukrainian language. The station went “underground” after Feb. 24, transmitting from various undisclosed locations to avoid Russian detection.

“It hit me that radio people took this powerful medium and turned it into something the army can use,” Levine said.

She reached out to Kraina FM and said she wanted to help.

It wasn’t easy.

It took days to make contact with Kraina FM’s General Manager Bogdan Bolkhovetsky. He and Programming Director Roman Davydov were hiding in an undisclosed location. There were, and continue to be language and time zone considerations. Levine relied on Ukrainians to feed her contact information, then set up interviews. Kraina FM brought in two voice actors to reenact scripts for Levine.

"I’ve been feeling my way along the walls,” Levine said. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

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But Ursula Ruedenberg, manager of the Pacifica Affiliate Network, discovered Levine’s show and sent her a Facebook message. Pacifica is a nonprofit dedicated to grassroots community radio. After one Zoom meeting, Ruedenberg was impressed enough to agree to edit Levine’s shows and post them on the affiliate’s network, which has more than 200 member stations. Then she decided to make the posts password free to any station that wanted to run them.

“I was looking for a way to provide good content about Ukraine,” Ruedenberg said. “She (Levine) did the legwork. That was pretty hard. We’re always looking for media connections to report responsibly.”

Ruedenberg said Levine’s show is a template for what her network would want in other parts of the world where conflicts are ongoing. She mentioned Russia’s participation in Syria’s civil war and conflicts in Africa.

"It’s hard to cover because we don’t have media partners there,” she said.

Kraina FM was perfectly situated, established, had “boots” on the ground, and millions of listeners.

WOMR Station Manager John Braden said there is power in radio. While electricity and transmitters can be shut down or bombed, there is a simplicity to radio. While power to the internet can be turned off, radio remains.

People don't have to have a computer or electricity to listen to radio as long as they have transistor radios and batteries. They can listen in bomb shelters and basements.

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WOMR operates on 6,000 watts and reaches listeners on most of the Cape and South Shore. The Pacifica Network with its 220 member stations has about 86.5 million listeners, according to a 2019 survey, Ruedenberg said.

Kraina FM is broadcast in 24 Ukrainian cities, with reach into neighboring Poland, Moldova, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia, though Russia has stopped broadcasts in Eastern Ukraine and Russia.

Levine’s first show was an interview with Kraina’s Bolkhovetsky, who rebranded the station as Ukraine’s Radio of National Resistance after the Russian invasion. He offered the station as a vehicle for military listeners to call in and request items they needed, such as socks, binoculars, printers, or laptops.

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Children's story programs are aired in the early evenings and weekends. The station also had psychologists give advice on how to handle stress and trauma. Everything was geared to helping the people of Ukraine survive the war, Levine said.

She interviewed Dr. Stanislav Onyshchuk, chief at a volunteer surgical hospital, and a Ukrainian soldier who was held by Russian forces in Mariupol. He received no treatment for a broken leg and loss of sight until he escaped.

She talked with Ukrainian television star and vlogger Anton Ptushkin.

One of her most visceral interviews was with social influencer Nastya Mishouska who talked about the siege of Mariupol, and Russia’s deportation of her uncle and family. She is caring for children in an orphanage and goes from pharmacy to pharmacy trying to get any available medicine.

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Radio broadcaster Volodymyr Anfimov spoke about how Ukraine’s celebrity figures are laying down their instruments and taking up arms at the front.

“Ukraine Under Siege: Russia’s Unforgiveable War” is a new five-minute segment detailing the latest news regarding Russian military movements as well as losses. Monday’s show broadcast the number of Russian aircraft, missiles and helicopters lost since the war began. It reported on the billions in euros that Russia earned from sales of its fuel. The nation has also stolen 500 tons of grain, prompting warnings about a famine on a global scale, according to the show.

People are doing what they can with what they have, Levine said. From growing potatoes to fixing cars, feeding children to taking in stray animals, everyone is on board with resisting Russia’s advances.

Levine thinks her work is more important than ever. Every day the war drags on, fatigue sets in and listeners start to feel less urgency. As a result, broadcasting to western audiences is so important, she said.

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Levine's shows have raised money for hospitals and orphanages. They’ve been able to get money to soldiers on the front lines, something nongovernmental agencies cannot do.

Samaritan’s Purse has stockpiles worth millions they’ve raised sitting in a warehouse in Lviv, Levine said. "A whole field hospital is empty because they can’t give it to soldiers,” she said.

Ptushkin has turned his focus to western audiences because of what he calls Russia’s brainwashing. “The western audience can change something,” he told Levine.

Levine’s show can be heard at https://ukraine242.com/.

Contact Denise Coffey at dcoffey@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter: @DeniseCoffeyCCT.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod radio DJ connects with Ukrainians at war via airwaves