RADIO REVIEW : ‘Calling Moscow’ Show Opens Lines . . . but <i> Glasnost</i> It Wasn’t

Americans from around the country chatted away with Muscovites on Friday’s premiere of “Calling Moscow,” a new radio satellite phone-in program linking the U.S.A. to the U.S.S.R. and produced by KPBS-FM (89.5) in San Diego.

They called from Ohio, from Minnesota, from Tennessee, Kentucky and California. A man in Montreal even dialed up.

Callers, who could listen to the program on any of 15 public radio stations that carried the program, were connected through KPBS and National Public Radio satellite services to a panel of Soviet guests in a Radio Moscow studio. The topic was “Women in the Soviet Union.” The questions were mostly thoughtful.

Tom, a divorced Los Angeles resident who is “very active” in raising his son, asked whether women in the Soviet Union are granted child custody over men as a matter of course.

Alvin, from San Diego, asked what the attitude of women in the Soviet Union is toward abortion and whether it is the same controversial subject there as here.

Ronald, a Springfield, Ohio, graduate student, asked what the incidence of women as primary wage earners is and whether men whose wives are the chief wage earners feel inadequate.

Charles, a Gatlinburg, Tenn., resident who visited the Soviet Union last year, asked the panelists about the potential benefits of professional exchange programs.

Dorothy, an Alhambra, Calif., retirement home resident, asked whether the Soviet Union has retirement homes and whether the elderly are encouraged to live in them or at home.

Helen, from Los Angeles, wanted to know whether this country’s “trend” of younger women marrying older men has caught on deep in the heart of the Soviet Union.

And so it went.

The Soviet guests, two women and a man, who were up at 2 a.m. in Moscow for the 3 p.m. (PST) show, replied politely and sometimes humorously. The first installment of this hour program, which will be broadcast monthly, proved to be more of an ice breaker than a window on the U.S.S.R.

Just as the first few minutes were plagued with radio transmission difficulties, the discussions had their own problems. They tended to be brief and stilted.

But information was exchanged.

Soviet biochemist Yelena Petushkova observed that abortions are legal in Russia and there’s little discussion--no controversy. She noted that physicians did occasionally “tell their premonitions” over abortions to patients.

Soviet host Pavel Kuznetsov said an abortion is a serious matter. He would leave the decision to his wife.

At this point, it would have been interesting to hear people talk about why an abortion is a serious matter, what physicians’ and women’s concerns are and whether there is a right-to-life movement.

Marina Prutkina, a 31-year-old expert on international relations at the Moscow Zoo, acknowledged that “most people would not like” to go to Soviet retirement homes. The panelists said most of the elderly live with their children.

What wasn’t discussed was the difference between retirement and nursing homes. Neither the Soviet host, Kuznetsov, nor KPBS’ Doug Waldo steered the conversation into areas that could have revealed more about life in the Soviet Union for U.S. listeners.

Nevertheless, “Calling Moscow” made for fascinating radio. There was a tension in the program that seemed borne out of a desire not to tread on anyone’s toes.

But as Amy Barnett, of KMXT-FM (100.1) in Kodiac, Alaska, said: “It was just kind of neat, the idea of having people all over this country talking with people in Moscow.”

Indeed it was.