Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 19, 1995 TAG: 9508220001
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NEIL STRAUSS N.Y. TIMES NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
One of a handful of private stations in Sarajevo, Radio Zid caters to the city's youth, sending a nonpartisan mix of alternative-rock and educational programs across the war-torn Bosnian capital.
Radio Zid, founded by a lawyer named Zdravko Grebo, is supported by local and international charities and staffed by volunteers in their late teens and early 20s.
Most of the station workers must cross either a dangerously exposed park (in which the trees have all been cut down for firewood) or a soccer field (which has been converted into a graveyard) on their way to the station. ``People who are working on the radio are real heroes, because most of them risk their lives just to get there,'' Vuletic said.
One of the station's disc jockeys, Karim Zaimovic, who worked on a show broadcasting fake, humorous news reports, was shot in the head. He is in a coma in the hospital. A disc jockey who had a sports show was killed by a shell, another was wounded while riding his bike and a third was shot in the leg.
Despite this deadly deterrence, every week Vuletic walks an hour from his home near the front line in order to play music by the Orb, Sonic Youth, Bjork, Fugazi, Karen Black, Adrian Sherwood and SCH, an underground Sarajevo band that took advantage of the recent cease-fire (two members are in the army) to regroup and record a new CD.
Radio is a dangerous proposition during wartime, but in times of struggle, music can be a vital cultural bond. Radio Zid (the word is Serbo-Croatian for wall) broadcasts 24 hours a day on the FM band, playing anything from jazz to techno to modern classical to Indian bhangra.
When there is no electricity, the station (unlike most others in Sarajevo) has a power generator that allows it to operate for 10 hours a day. Because of a 10 p.m. curfew, disc jockeys who come to the station for late shows must stay there until dawn.
``The people at the station are all familiar with the latest stuff,'' said Paula Gordon, a disc jockey at WFMU in East Orange, N.J., who visited Radio Zid in February. ``Since I first met Srdan in the late '80s, he's known more about new bands than me.''
The radio station also supports Sarajevo's thriving punk and alternative-rock scene. ``Hundreds of new bands have sprung up since the war started,'' Vuletic said. ``It's a paradoxical situation. In these depressive times, everyone wants to expend energy doing something creative.''
This month, Radio Zid released a CD, ``Rock Under the Siege,'' which includes recordings by 13 local bands that performed at a concert the station organized in January.
On the CD, groups like Pessimistic Lines, Bedbug, Beastly Stroke, Down and Protest bash out punk, hardcore and techno music. Not all of their songs are about war; many are filled with the generalized angst common to young rock bands around the world.
Ermin, the 21-year-old bassist in Protest, said: ``The situation we are in - war - doesn't really change our way of looking on all situations. The name of the group says everything. We were protesting when it was peaceful and we are protesting now.''
Working at Radio Zid can have its rewards. Earlier this year, the Bosnian government tried to enlist several members of the station in the army. Whether the draft was based on random selection or something the disc jockeys said on the air, no one is sure.
But in the end, the government decided that the station's disc jockeys counted as journalists, and were therefore exempt from the draft.
For the time being, Radio Zid continues to broadcast unhindered. But equipment is extremely difficult to replace and programmers are always looking for new CD's and cassettes.
For information about donating equipment and music to Radio Zid, get in touch with the New York-Sarajevo Exchange at (212) 465-2532.
by CNB