The Ivano-Frankivsk radio station “West Pole” works hundreds of kilometers away from the frontline. However, on 24 February 2022, powerful explosions woke up the team of the radio station in the early morning just like the rest of Ukrainians.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was not entirely surprising for the “West Pole” management and staff. Anticipating something like that, since 2021, they have regularly cooperated with the local territorial defense forces and in early 2022 got first aid training.

The location of the “West Pole” office under the TV tower was one of the key risks the radio station faced because the towers were targeted by hostile missiles in many Ukrainian cities. The Ivano-Frankivsk mayor recommended the residents to leave the area around the tower and move to some safer neighborhoods. The “West Pole” team decided to stay and hide in the basement during the air raids not to interrupt the broadcast.

Like many others, “West Pole” faced a sudden shortage of qualified staff. Three employees were mobilized, several more fled for security reasons. As a result, only seven out of ten radio hosts continued working at the radio station. That is why, the management had to abandon the morning show, switch to linear broadcast and focus on live broadcast. The staff shortage was partially compensated when “West Pole” organized a media hub in its editorial office. There, 13 journalists, editors and video editors representing various media from close to the frontline or occupied towns were able to continue working at the same time supporting the “West Pole” team.

In autumn and winter 2022-2023, “West Pole” had to interrupt its broadcast due to Russia’s massive missile attacks damaging energy infrastructure all over Ukraine and causing regular power cuts. Fortunately, the radio station was classified as a critical infrastructure facility, thanks to what regular power supply resumed.

“West Pole” aims to remain a reliable information source for the Ivano-Frankivsk residents and about 150,000 internally displaced Ukrainians staying in the city. In addition, the station supports a wide range of local volunteer initiatives, e.g. raises funds for generators, cars and charging stations for the military. This significantly increases its social media outreach (from 450,000 to almost two million Facebook users over the year) and the number of followers (from 20,000 to 41,000 Facebook followers).

Thus, for more than a year, the Ivano-Frankivsk radio station “West Pole” has been supporting the citizens, internally displaced persons, military, volunteers, etc. However, it also requires considerable support to keep its creative team working and ensure its safety.