The Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) clandestine broadcasts from Greece were initially via two or three mobile units close to the Bulgarian border. In Spring 1950, the Greek government gave CIA approval for the construction of a permanent communications installation near Athens for psychological warfare broadcasting -- the installation for transmitting and monitoring gained the cryptonym WEMCA, with a broadcasting operation of up to nine language units known as PYREX. In addition to clandestine radio broadcasts, the PYREX site would also be used in balloon/propaganda leaflet operations against Albania and Bulgaria.
One example of the clandestine broadcasts from PYREX is that for Ukraine: Novaya Ukraina(New Ukraine). The objective of the clandestine radio project with the cryptonym RANTER were listed in a July 21, 1953 project outline: utilization of broadcast time available on the KUBARK (CIA) radio installation PYREX at Athens, Greece, for the broadcast of a series of programs to be directed to:
· Soviet officialdom,
· Soviet military forces stationed in the Ukraine,
· The indigenous civilian population of the Ukraine,
· Underground movement,
· Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
The tasks of the project were to:
· Furnish evidence of outside sympathy and understanding for the Ukrainian peoples.
· Intensify anti-regime disaffection by encouraging resentment, bitterness, and distrust of the Soviet regime and its personalities.
· Maintain national consciousness among the Ukrainians and urge them to maintain pride in the individuality and heritage of their culture.
· Create dissatisfaction among Ukrainian military personnel within the Soviet armed forces stationed in Ukraine.
· Create and intensify dissatisfaction among the Ukrainian civil authorities to the Soviet regime. The submitting division gave the following as why the black broadcasts were necessary: This project is based upon the need to make a more significant propaganda impact on this strategic target audience. At present, the only PBPRIME (United States, i.e., Voice of America) and KUBARK (CIA) propaganda efforts directed to the target area consist of Voice of America broadcasts and the Radio Liberation effort to the Kiev area in the Russian language.
The July 1953 project outline also listed the method of preparing the broadcasts:
· Scripts and tapes to be prepared by a CIA covert operation in New York City: Prolog Research and Publishing Association, Inc (CIA Cryptonyms QRTENURE and AETENURE)
· It is proposed that programs in the Ukrainian language be produced and recorded on magnetic tape in New York and flown to Athens for broadcast by personnel attached to PYREX. It is realized that programming from this distance is not as efficient and timely as it would be if located nearer the transmitter. However, this is the only means at present whereby immediate advantage can be taken of the PYREX facility. When future operation conditions permit the programming to be prepared closer to the transmitter site, this project's program activities will be transferred accordingly. At first three tapes a week for fifteen minutes each broadcast time will be prepared. With the increase in script output and availability of air time, the broadcasts can be expanded.
There were many difficulties in getting programs on the air. The first broadcast of radio Novaya Ukraina was made on September 25, 1955, with one 15-minute transmission daily. This later was increased to two scheduled broadcasts daily, which used two transmitter hours per day or 60 hours per month.
Full details of CIA’s clandestine broadcasting to Ukraine and other countries from Greece can be found here:
· Bulgaria (Chapter 4),
· Romania (Chapter 4),
· Albania (Chapter 5),
· Ukraine (Chapter 7), and
· The Soviet Union, in Russian and some Caucasus languages (Chapter 8).
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