Another RFE/RL PSA...

Here is another public service announcement for Radio Free Europe, this time from 1971. Gone are the ominous tones of the 1959 PSA, replaced with a more upbeat attitude. Instead of somber scenes of the Iron Curtain we get an ultra-hip Hungarian DJ - replete with jacket around the shoulders and smoking a cigarette - spinning "On Broadway" by The Drifters. It's not freedom that those in the Communist bloc wanted and needed - it was American pop music. "The 'In' sound from the outside", indeed. This was the era of detente, after all, and the Soviet Union was a nation to be coexisted with, not feared. It wouldn't be labeled the "Evil Empire" by Ronald Reagan for another 16 years. Oh, how naive we were...