Radio Miami International (WRMI) is working with Shortwaves for Freedom to transmit news to Russia and Ukraine during the war.
OKEECHOBEE, FL — When the commercial shortwave radio station Radio Miami International — which operates under the call letters WRMI — got its start in 1989, its primary focus was helping Cuban exile groups in Miami legally transmit programming to their homeland.
Since then, the station has broadcast news during all sorts of trying times — the Gulf War, hurricanes, earthquakes, other natural disasters.
Now, 30 years later, at a time when Instagram, TikTok and other social media platforms rule when it comes to communication, WRMI finds itself in a unique position during Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Working with several organizations and government groups, the station is broadcasting news programming to both Russians and Ukrainians who have access to shortwave radios.
"We've been through all sorts of crises. This is one of the biggest," said Jeff White, the station's general manager.
When the station launched three decades ago, Radio Miami International worked with Cuban exiles and Latin American groups to find existing shortwave stations where they could buy airtime to broadcast shows.
This was difficult, as most stations were owned by the U.S. government or religious organizations, White said. "We did that for a few years but saw the need to put our own facility on the air."
WRMI obtained a license through the Federal Communications Commission and opened its own small station in what is now Hialeah with just one transmitter and one antenna, transmitting to Cuba and all of Latin America. Eventually, they worked with other organizations to broadcast shows and expanded their programming.
The station had difficulty selling commercial airtime to businesses, though they tried targeting multi-national companies like Eastern Airlines and Pan American Airways, White said. Because they were broadcasting via shortwave radio frequencies, there was no data available to quantify their audience for marketing and advertising teams with these companies.
Instead, the station sold blocks of airtime to organizations with their own programming – political groups, religious organizations, some cultural programs.
In 2013, they learned of a commercial station — the largest in the Western hemisphere – that suddenly became available in Okeechobee.
It was operated by Family Radio, a California-based Christian radio network led by Rev. Harold Camping, who prophesized the Rapture in 2011. When the world didn't end, the group found itself facing financial difficulties, according to the Denver Post. Family Radio sold its station after Camping died in 2013.
"It's a very interesting story about the end of the world that didn't end," White said.
For WRMI, the new facility was a massive step up with 14 1,000-watt transmitters and 23 antennae "broadcasting to all over the world," he said, all from 1-square-mile leased from a South Florida cattle ranch.
From there, programming expanded even further, offering shows in "all sorts of languages" — a combination of political, religious and cultural shows — all over the world, he said.
Much of the station's programming comes from U.S. and other foreign government-owned radio stations buying airtime to transmit programs, primarily in English, though some are in Spanish and other languages. Over the years, the station has worked with groups like Radio Slovakia International, Radio Prague International, Radio Tirana, Radio Japan, Radio Taiwan and Argentine Foreign Radio.
WRMI also previously broadcast Radio Ukraine International in English, White said. "But a couple of years ago, we lost touch with them."
When the Ukraine war started at the end of February, he reached out to RUI about broadcasting their English-language programs again. Within days of their renewed relationship, though, the foreign language services arm of Ukrainian radio suddenly stopped.
"We assumed there was no one left to produce (the shows), and they had other important things to be doing because of the invasion," White said.
And as Ukrainian radio stations are bombed and go off the air, WRMI has found a way to broadcast Ukrainian language programming.
These programs are being uploaded to a website based in Germany and "we're beaming their own government radio programming back to Ukraine," he said.
White added, "With everything going on, it's basically 24-hour news at this time. I don't speak Ukrainian, but I can understand enough of it to know that it's news day in and day out."
Then, last week, he received a call from Dr. Kim Elliott, his friend who previously worked with Voice of America as its audience research officer.
Now, he's part of a group called Shortwaves for Freedom, a group finding the funds and airtime needed to transmit programming to places in Eastern Europe. Specifically, they were looking for a way to broadcast a half-hour, daily program, "Flash Point Ukraine," which is currently focused on sharing news about the country's invasion and the ongoing war.
In recent years, many shortwave radio stations have focused more on their internet and satellite offerings, rather than shortwave broadcasts, White said. This includes shows like "Flash Point Ukraine," which was previously only available to listeners via the internet.
"Which, of course, fewer and fewer people in Ukraine have access to, nowadays," he said.
Over the past week, Shortwaves for Freedom has also raised the funds needed to broadcast programming from Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. In the past, both transmitted shows to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
They also phased out shortwave broadcasts in recent years but saw the need for it again during the current war, White said.
WRMI just started broadcasting their programming in Russian to Russia for two hours a day, seven days a week. While the station has transmitted religious and scientific programs to Russia in the past, this is its first time offering political shows and news.
"Basically, the only thing they get is the government line in Russia," he said. "And internet stations have all been shut down. People in Russia, a lot of them don't have any idea what's going on in Ukraine and the atrocities going on."
Older Russians might remember Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, which he hopes they still trust as a news source.
"We're sending believable information to them," he said. "Hopefully, more and more (Russians) are being convinced of what's really happening."
While internet and satellite radio have been more prevalent in recent years, he expects that "there are a lot of people that still have a lot of old Soviet-made shortwave receivers in their closet in Russian, Ukraine and Eastern Europe."
This current conflict in Ukraine shows how invaluable shortwave radio still is, he added. "We're often called crisis radio. In a crisis, you can turn to shortwave radio and find out what's happen. Though the technology is thought of as old technology, there are a lot of very modern, inexpensive shortwave receivers being built."
It's especially important — and popular — in countries like Cuba and Russia, "where media is government controlled and they have to get real information from outside sources," White said.
While he's not surprised by the role WRMI is playing during the Ukraine war, he's glad that the station is able to offer a platform to those seeking information in that region.
"No one knew two weeks, three weeks ago the magnitude it was going to really get to in Ukraine," he said. "I'm just glad we're able to do something to, hopefully, contribute to the information vacuum that has occurred as a result of this." (patch.com)
