Under the Radar: Tracking Western Radio Listeners in the Soviet Union has been published by the Central European University Press and they have included it in their "Opening the Future Program" so that it can be made available free to a wide distribution. Here is the CEU Press's description of the unique program:
Opening the Future at CEU Press is a cost-effective way for libraries to increase their digital collections on the history, politics and culture of Central and Eastern Europe and the former communist countries. Subscribing libraries get unlimited multi-user access to curated packages of backlist books, with perpetual access after three years. The Press uses membership funds solely to produce new frontlist titles like these in OA format. All OA titles are available via Project MUSE, OAPEN, and the ORL (titles 6-9 above are still in the upload process with some of those platforms but will beavailable very soon).
The full list of OA titles funded by our generous member library subscribers can be found at ceup.openingthefuture.net/forthcoming, and the backlist packages to which libraries may subscribe can be found here:ceup.openingthefuture.net/packages."
The book can also be downloaded free at the CEU website using the following link: https://ceupress.com/book/under-radar.
The hard copy will be available for purchase later this month at the usual sites.
From the Publisher,
Western democracy is currently under attack by a resurgent Russia, weaponizing new technologies and social media. How to respond? During the Cold War, the West fought off similar Soviet propaganda assaults with shortwave radio broadcasts. Founded in 1949, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast uncensored information to the Soviet republics in their own languages. About one-third of Soviet urban adults listened to Western radio. The broadcasts played a key role in ending the Cold War and eroding the communist empire.
R. Eugene Parta was for many years the director of Soviet Area Audience Research at RFE/RL, charged among others with gathering listener feedback. In this book he relates a remarkable Cold War operation to assess the impact of Western radio broadcasts on Soviet listeners by using a novel survey research approach. Given the impossibility of interviewing Soviet citizens in their own country, it pioneered audacious interview methods in order to fly under the radar and talk to Soviets traveling abroad, ultimately creating a database of 51,000 interviews which offered unparalleled insights into the media habits and mindset of the Soviet public. By recounting how the “impossible” mission was carried out, Under the Radar also shows how the lessons of the past can help counter the threat from a once and current adversary.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Why a History of Audience Research at Radio Liberty?
Prelude: My Road to Radio Liberty (amabile)
First Movement (1965–1970): Early Years of Audience Research at Radio Liberty (andante)
Second Movement (1970–1980): First Steps in Audience Interviewing (accelerato)
Third Movement (1981–1985): Audience Research Breaks New Ground (sforzando)
Fourth Movement (1986–1990): Perestroika Changes the Game (fuocoso)
Fifth Movement (1991–1994): The Post-Soviet Transition (vittorioso, capriccioso, lamentoso)
Postlude: The Road Ahead (coda)
Appendix 1: Charts and Graphs referenced in text
Appendix 2: Vignettes: Max Ralis, Ross Johnson, James Critchlow, Morrill Cody, James Buckley, Ralph Walter, Helmut Aigner, Christopher Geleklidis, Steen Sauerberg, Copenhagen interviewer, Viktor Nekrasov, Andrei Sinyavsky, Victor Grayevsky, Irina Alberti
Appendix 3: Methodologies. MIT Simulation. Contribution of Ithiel de Sola Pool
Appendix 4: Excerpts from BALEs (Broadcast Area Listener Reports), Agorametrie conflict themes, an example of a mark-sense questionaire
Appendix 5: Thumbnail sketches of SAAOR/MOR Staffers
Bibliography
