Two local radio stations close down in Sumy oblast

The National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting canceled the licenses of two Sumy radio stations. Now there are 10 local stations left in the Sumy oblast.

Larisa Yakubenko, the NCTRB representative in the Sumy oblast, announced this on Facebook.

The stations in question are "Hovoryt Bilopillya" (legal entity – the Bilopillya branch of the district radio "Vyr", Bilopillya city) and "Diva Radio" (legal entity – "Vidikon" LLC, Sumy city).

The radio station appealed to the media regulator themselves, requesting to cancel their licenses, Yakubenko noted.

Radio "Vyr" had to stop broadcasting in early 2022 due to a large debt to the RRT Concern for broadcasting programs. The station was created in 2018 as part of the "Community Radio" project. At the end of 2022, the founder – the Bilopolly City Council – decided to liquidate the legal entity.

"Diva Radio" is one of the oldest radio stations in the oblast. However, with the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, the company's advertising revenues dropped to a minimum.

For that reason, "Vidikon" LLC did not apply for the extension of their radio broadcasting license and decided to cancel it.

Both companies broadcast Ukrainian content exclusively – the share of songs in the Ukrainian language on their air was 100%.