RIGA - There's no use denying it. For whatever reason, the British seem to have a strange fascination with Riga. Tourists flock to the Old Town in droves, so much so that on any given Saturday night one can hear almost as much English as Latvian echoing through the winding cobblestone lanes. And now English has been elevated to a new status in the city as a recent radio phenomenon has lifted it off the streets and onto the local airwaves. Pipeline Radio, a UK based AM radio station, has started broadcasting a weekly program in Riga.
Going out on Sundays from 8 to 10 p.m. at 945Khz (find it around the middle of the AM dial), the English-hosted show plays mostly indie and classic rock, but has a wide enough variety of music to please most listeners. In the April 1 show, for example, one could hear Tracy Chapman, followed by a Finnish punk band, and then a song from Van Halen.
Whatever the formula, it's working. A survey conducted by Latvian media research company TNS found that the show has a whopping 120,000 listeners in Riga. Pipeline is hoping that they will be able to expand this success into the rest of Latvia and the other Baltic states, and wants to broadcast in Estonia and Lithuania by August.
Though it sounds like it could be a haven for expats fed up with the europop that dominates the FM band, the program is actually geared toward Latvian listeners, and has a very clear aim of building up business and cultural ties between Latvia and the rest of Europe.
Tom Mackenzie, the managing director of the program and the opening DJ of the Latvia show, told The Baltic Times that the station's goals are to "promote the Latvian business area abroad and promote European businesses in Latvia."
That might seem like an unusually altruistic concept for a radio station, but there's nothing all that usual about Pipeline Radio.
The outfit originally formed in mid-1995 as an offshoot of the famous offshore pirate station Radio Caroline, which operated mostly in international waters off the coast of southern England, and has now been around for more than 40 years. During its lifetime Radio Caroline has survived raids by English and Dutch authorities and the loss of three ships, and meanwhile became revolutionary in the history of radio, paving the way for a number of other offshore "pirate" radio stations to take hold. It even influenced such radio heavyweights as BBC.
"Radio Caroline broke just about every broadcasting law that Britain had, but they really popularized mainstream radio in the U.K. We were born out of that dream," Mackenzie said.
Pipeline radio went legal in 2000 and decided to regionalize its services. A 1996 test broadcast in Riga did so well that the team became convinced that listeners in Latvia were waiting for a program like theirs to take hold.
Mackenzie emphasized that they would really like to help the community. He said that the show would even be willing to offer free advertising to "good organizations with very little money." This attitude is pervasive in the station. The company's mission statement reads, "We are strongly committed to the communities we serve. Public service is an important part of what we do every day."
The program promotes Europe in Latvia by showcasing local British bands on the show, and gears their advertising to helping build ties between the English and Latvian business communities. They do this by, for example, advertising U.K. based business strategy and accounting services.
From the Latvian side, Mackenzie said that they are in the process of negotiating with a variety of Latvian businesses, as well as with the nation's tourism board. They also try to promote Latvian hit band "Brainstorm" in the U.K.
"Many people in the U.K. don't even know where Latvia is," Mackenzie said, adding that this is a fact the radio program hopes to change.
The station is also working on setting up a web service, so listeners in the U.K. and all over Europe will soon have access to the show. Mackenzie explained that they were already on the verge of doing this, but a recent change in web broadcasting laws has forced them to push back their plans so that they can re-examine the service.
Another quirk is that the show also airs in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The station hopes that this will help build ties even across the Atlantic.
Mackenzie implored people not to be put off by the fact that they broadcast on AM radio. "I realize that it's not the most fashionable thing to be on AM, but it still has a lot to offer. You can get a signal a lot further and do it for less money," he said.
This doesn't seem to be an issue for most Latvian listeners, as the surveys show, and now Mackenzie wants to turn to the show's big audience for help. As the station is in the process of change, they are asking listeners to give as much feedback as possible.
"We're looking for people to come forward with ideas. We're very approachable," Mackenzie said. "It is okay if people write in their native language. We can get it translated ourselves."
