UCC to investigate after student radio station broadcast hours of Russian music for second time

Cork's Ukrainian community raised concerns a lot of the music was by artists who supported the invasion of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s government, and expressed concern Russian interference was to blame for the repeat occurrence.

University College Cork is investigating complaints its student radio station broadcast hours of Russian music for a second time in just over a week.

UCC 98.3FM apologised last week after Russian-language music was played throughout the night and into the morning, describing the incident as a mistake.

The Irish Examiner has been contacted by members of Cork's Ukrainian community who said Russian music had again been playing for hours exactly a week later, remaining on air into Tuesday morning.

They raised concerns a lot of the music was by artists who supported the invasion of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s government, and expressed concern Russian interference was to blame for the repeat occurrence.

The latest complaint has prompted an investigation by UCC.

Following last week's incident, station manager Ray Burke denied suggestions the songs played were “Russian propaganda music” but were rather predominantly mainstream Russian-language pop.

He explained late on Monday night last week, “a student volunteer made an error while attempting to open our playout software, ZaraRadio.

“They inadvertently entered 'Zara playlist' into a separate music application, which brought up a song called Nedolyubila by the Russian pop singer Zara.

“The application then continued automatically selecting similar tracks throughout the night. This was entirely accidental, not a deliberate programming decision,” he said, adding they had acknowledged the mistake and apologised for any distress caused.

Mr Burke said at the time the station had three part-time staff and about 100 student volunteers, half of whom are new to the station each year, and though they provide training, “mistakes can occasionally happen”.

He said they were reviewing end-of-programme procedures and would “reinforce these with our volunteers to prevent a recurrence". 

Mr Burke did not respond to a request for comment on the latest complaint.

A spokesperson for UCC said it could “confirm a complaint has been received regarding content broadcast on UCC FM”.

They added: “UCC will not be commenting further while this complaint is being reviewed."