A Good Friend of Music Returns

Last night on my way from the office I heard my old mobile ring. Later when I examined the missed calls I didn't recognize the number! Shortly thereafter I received a text message from a good friend: "Sholokh just came into Baraban looking for you!"

I immediately called her to see if he was still there... Unfortunately not! By this time I had realized that the number I didn't recognized was that of my good friend Serhiy Sholokh, the own and General Director of Radio Kontinent, the only listenable and informative radio station in Ukraine, until it was shut down on March 3, 2004 on the eve of the presidential elections which culminated in the Orange Revolution.

Sholokh himself had a thing for music, after all he had studied at the R.M.Glier Kyiv State Higher Music College, named after Reinhold Glière played Saxaphone and loved jazz. Some of the best jazz could be heard on Radio Continent, including licensed rebroadcasts of BBC's Dinner Jazz.

A few days before Ukrainian Independence Day I received an e-mail from Serhiy. Continent was going back on air, but on a different frequency. He told me this was his gift to Ukraine on its 15th anniversary of Independence.

When I meet him later today after his press conference we will have a lot to talk about. After all the last time I saw him and heard from him was two or three days before he slipped across the Ukrainian-Polish border early on the morning of February 29, 2004. He sent me a text message which read:"Brother I am in Poland and I'm fine!"