Seen from the box
A Fairy Tale Without Happy Ending?
Once upon a time a few people established the Polish Association of Country Music. In the small town called Mrągowo they organized a country music festival. The history was indeed like in a fairy tale. Poland was behind the Iron Curtain at that time and general Jaruzelski was supposed soon to implement the martial law.
From the first time the Country Picnic was broadcasted by the Polish Television. In these politically bad years there were a few programs at Polish radio stations presenting country music. After the fall of the communism in Poland a good time for country music in media began. There were Korneliusz Pacuda’s, Ewa Dąbrowska’s and Wojciech Cejrowski’s programs in the biggest Polish radio stations. The Television still transmitted the Country Picnic from Mrągowo and also showed an abridgement of the Country Music Association Awards Gala. At local radio stations there was also a lot of programs with country music presented by Halina Romaniszyn, Wojtek Dudkowski, Ula Rząd and others. Televisions and radio stations broadcasted sometimes additional programs with country music, like documentaries of Korneliusz Pacuda about country music from the United States or TV show entitled Country Music Stage presented by Lonstar in the Warsaw Television. At cable or satellite television Polish fans could watch CMT, they were also listening to the CMR radio station broadcasting from England. At that time the first Polish website about country music started. It was edited by Mietek Witkowski and Zygmunt Chojnacki.
The popularity of country music in Poland grew and it seemed that the future could be only better, but…
The evil began when CMT retreated from Europe. It was the first event from a long list of disasters that followed soon. The fairy tale changed into hard reality. Polish editors dealing with country music one after the other lost their programs. Most curious was the case of Korneliusz Pacuda, who in the same time won the Country Music Association Award for the best broadcaster of country music outside the USA and lost his two programs in Polish public radio. After all nearly nothing about country music stayed in Polish radios and televisions. In this way country music at Polish media was reduced almost to the ground zero.
Fortunately the life isn't bearing the emptiness. A night-time program presented by Jerzy Głuszyk turned up at the public radio station. It is at present the only program with country music at Polish public radio stations. Jerzy Głuszyk and I also started running the Country Music Club on the Praga Radio (at present Warsaw Radio). In local radio stations Antek Kreis, Kajetan Berezowski and a few other editors are still keeping their programs. However everything yet is only a mere drop in the bucket. Happily we have got the Internet! Majority of Polish country music artists have got their websites. Also in the Internet the only Polish magazine about country music is appearing. The magazine is entitled Dyliżans (Stagecoach). In the Internet we can listen to country music and watch music videos. So, we aren't losing hope that country music will return wider to public media and the Polish country fairy tale will finally get to a happy ending.
Coachman
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