MN.02.05.1986 Chernobyl on the Radio

We had no idea of what had really happened in the Ukraine at the end of April 1986. I remember that when the news broke, we were celebrating Queen's Day in the Netherlands (April 30th). I tuned into Radio Moscow and Radio Kiev, but they didn't give us much detail. I love the offhand way the announcer in Kiev says "and now sports". The programme also had contact with Pat Gowen, G3IOR a radio amateur in the UK who monitors and contacts Russian amateurs on a regular basis. He confirmed that amateurs in Kiev made no mention of the situation. Pat Gowen passed away in 2017. In other news, the Head of the Russian service of Radio Liberty, Oleg Tumanov turns up in Moscow denouncing the station. It seems he had been a KGB agent - at least according to the book that came out later. Captain Midnight blocks HBO satellite signal in protest at the new rates being charged. It turns out later that this is a satellite engineer based in Florida. NDXE announces a date for buying the transmitter. KVOH has also hit some delays. Len Scott of the English service of Radio Budapest talks about plans to have sponsored programmes on their station. Andy Sennitt rounds off the show with a contribution from the WRTH office in Copenhagen.