Avri Gilad, one of the biggest stars to emerge from Galei Tzahal, said this morning (Thursday) that he understands the process of closing the military radio station.
""I worked at Galei Tzahal for 43 years, I met my wife at Galei Tzahal, everything I am is Galei Tzahal. Every new commander who comes in, in the introductory conversation I would tell him: One day someone will come who wants to close Galei Tzahal, and the masses will not go up to the barricades because we lost them a long time ago.".
""Do something to re-mobilize your audience. It can't be that your real audience, IDF soldiers, doesn't listen to you anymore. It can't be that you pretend to be the defender of democracy, when nowhere in the world, the army has no role in defending democracy, it is not a democratic body," Gilad said in an interview with 103FM.
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He added: "Years ago, I felt for a long time that Galei Tzahal was losing its real electorate, and it was becoming a current affairs station - that's simply not the game.".
He recalled that he also knew another radio station. "When I came to Galei Tzahal somewhere in the era when dinosaurs roamed Jaffa, there was maybe one current affairs program - everything was programs by excellent DJs who present music, talk, make people happy and funny, deal with culture and not through gossip - doing radio like they used to.
""There are much deeper processes here. Galei Tzahal stopped raising radio stars, and started raising only journalists. And on Gilgaletz today, announcers are not allowed to say any personal words, only "We heard and we will hear,"" Gilad claimed. "Do you remember what radio used to look like? Do you remember Eli Israeli and Dori Ben Ze'ev, people who, by the power of their personalities, held hours of broadcast time and you had to hear it?".
This reality changed at the military station. "It was converted into more and more current affairs that is a fast and very rewarding drug. The listeners stay, but it is a drug that makes you a junkie and eventually kills you.
""Gale Izahal never had a mandate to set an agenda. There were times of record listening, but that's where the big problem began," he said. "When it was established by Ben-Gurion, it was not intended to create a political agenda for the State of Israel. The fact that it thrived is great, but this greatness leads to its closure, it backfired on it.".
