“We use glass elements for all studios, particularly for partitions. I want to make the television transparent, open so that it would carry only the truth”, the head of the RAI TV channel in Prykarpattia Andriy Rusynyak tells about the construction of a new TV studio in Ivano-Frankivsk.
He exercises daily control over the construction. The rough work, he says, is already completed. There are yet some rooms to be finished, as well as connecting lighting and furnishing.
“Now we are at the stage of connecting wiring for plasma screens and lighting. The details are being discussed with our engineers and directors. They have equipped the sound-room, renovated the dressing rooms for the staff to store their clothes. Everything is being done for their convenience,” Andriy Rusynyak told the National Union of Journalists.
The war has certainly slowed down the work and there is a great lack of funds to purchase the necessary equipment.
“Everything depends on the funds. We cannot lose the people who work for the company. My first priority is to keep stability. It is better to do it slower but surely. And then stability would enable the creative team to think in a different way”, he adds.
However, the head of the TV company did not abandon the ambitious and, as he says, somewhat “adventurous” project. He hopes they will start the next season in the new, modern premises, not worse than the metropolitan TV studios.
“We believed we would build television”
Andriy Rusinyak founded RAI TV channel in Burshtyn in the early 1990s, when many small TV companies emerged in the rayon centres. “They built television as best they could,” says Andriy.
Over time, broadcasting expanded, the television tower was erected, and four rayons around Burshtyn had already access to television.
“We started with a small team, about 6 – 7 people. But everyone believed that we would build a television”, says Andriy Rusinyak.
Receiving the license for broadcasting on the T2 digital network contributed to the process of uniting the small TV channels operating in the nearby rayons. But various forms of ownership hindered the process. Finally, two major TV channels came to the foreground: the oblast council-owned Halychyna and RAI. “We had correspondents, offices and studios in Kolomyia, Kalush, Ivano-Frankivsk and Burshtyn. But since the TV channel was regional, it was obvious that we had to be present in Ivano-Frankivsk, too. To start with, we established a small studio in the oblast centre, more like a production studio”, said the head of the TV company.
Further development became the main point. The fact that Andriy Rusynyak had lived and worked in the United States for several years, was an advantage, because, as he says, he brought a lot of ideas for media development.
RAI TV and Radio Company also had 6 radio stations in the region. It was time to get a broadcasting license in Ivano-Frankivsk as well. “The idea was to create a radio station around Frankivsk and in the regional centre, so that information could go from rayons to Frankivsk, and from Frankivsk to rayons. This could provide a frantic informational benefit, because as I thought we could cover the whole region, “Andriy Rusynyak comments.
Modern studio and regional school for TV people
Before the war, the RAI rented a room in Ivano-Frankivsk, where the Power of Speech project was being filmed. There were some inconveniences, because the studio worked just once a week, but we had to spend on paying the rent.
“It occurred to me that we needed to launch something big, powerful, modern. We bought the premises, and although we haven’t paid all the money yet, it’s under way. There will be a location for a radio studio, because in Burshtyn we cannot invite the guests from the regional centre. We would also be able to record programs here and go on the air,” Mr Andriy shares his plans.
In addition, he says, students will be able to do internships in the studio, as the TV and radio company has established ties with two universities in the region.
“There are rooms for talk shows and a large newsroom where you can host about 18 people, the trainees are among them. We will also have an opportunity to invite students for internships course. There will be a news studio with two locations. The project “Delicious Stories” will have a kitchen and relevant equipment. All this is being done at a high level. I understand that this is a small part of an adventurous project, because it requires huge money and it is unknown how to earn it. The war pushed us back at least a year ago.
But I want to make everything modern, like in the capital city, so to speak. This is an expensive business, especially difficult in war. But we have been on the market for 30 years. And I believe that, as it was before, we will build everything step by step, “says Andriy Rusinyak.
He says that his goal is not only to open a modern studio, but also to create a kind of a regional school for TV people now that the war has erased the boundaries between the metropolitan and regional journalism that existed earlier.
“Happened to stay overnight at the studio”
With the start of the war on February 24, the first thing the RAI TV channel did was launching live streaming of the national TV channel RADA. Anyway, it was inappropriate to broadcast local information and entertainment programs, and the editorial office did not have reliable information about what was happening.
“I called the representative of the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine and put forward the proposal. Soon other TV channels followed the suit. Who knows, maybe this was the impetus for the launch of the Unified Telemarathon. I was constantly communicating with the team, trying to calm everyone down. Our new studio is located on the ground floor, so as soon as the air alarm sounded, all the workers went down to this room, as it were, their own bomb shelter. Wt have set up a temporary studio there and installed streamers. Anyway, if suddenly something had “flown” into one of the premises, the television could have died down”, – recalls Andriy Rusinyak.
He says there was a fear that someone from the outside would join the TV channel. After all, on the third day of the war, the RAI website was “put down” due to a large-scale DDoS attack.
“We reformatted at all data, stopped broadcasting music on the radio. People followed the air alarms through our radio stations. While we were rebuilding and rearranging everything, we had to spend the night at the TV studio,” Andriy Rusinyak remarks.
He adds that the new realities require a more flexible attitude to the work of TV and radio companies in Ukraine. After all, now everything is very bureaucratic.
“We need to have clear view of bans on what TV and radio companies are not allowed to do. As to the rest, TV channels should have the opportunity to work creatively. That it will be fair and correct “, – sums up the head of TV company.
