Most people don't realize that these radio services aren't just about having a guy in the booth spin some lps and deliver the news of the day in 40 languages. For many decades, RFE/RL maintained a huge stable of distinguished academics/researchers at its research institute and housed one of the world's most extensive data bases for east european/Soviet affairs, including the largest collection of Soviet samizdat on earth. They released monthly research reports, usually about 65 pages in length, that were top notch, covering virtually every aspect of life in those nations. I'm sure that half of the foreign affairs desk goobers at the NYT, Wash Post, etc subscribed so that they could come off as erudite and in total command of 'issue x' to their readers. I probably have 20 years worth, a number of which are shown below. Red Menace might enjoy seeing these......although they didn't do much on the jazz front.