BERLIN. Dec 31 One of the last symbols of the Cold War will disappear at the stroke of midnight today when as the bells ring out the new year the US radio station RIAS will pass Into history, reports AFP

RIAS was founded by the US forces in February 1946 to boost the morale of the Bertin ers at the end of World War II. and broadcast the message of the victorious US forces to the defeated, war weary popula tion

All news bulletins were sent by telex direct from Washing ton and had to be translated exactly word lor word

But with the collapse of communism, the thawing of the Cold War and the reunifica tion of Germany. RIAS —- radio in the American Sector, or Rundunk Im Amerikanist hen Sektor — is to fade from the airwaves

From January I. 1994 It will be merged with the for mer national West German ra dio station Deutschlandfunk and the old East German cultural station DS Kultur to be reborn as a new national broa dcaster DeutAchiandradio

RIAS Director Helmut-Dru ek said the newxomer on the wavelengths will aim to bring

the two halves of our country closer together Officially we are reunified, but socially we are still wide apart.

Out of the 900 staff only 350 are being taken on by the new station, and Drueck too will start 1994 out of a job

It will be a sad parting of the ways for many Berliners who tracked the momentous events which shook their city in the last 50 years by switch ing the dial to RIAS

The station was dubbed the voice of the free world for a free world and was there at evert twist and turn in the city s fate

Occupied by French British American forces fol lowing the end of the war. West Berlin soon found itself isolated and surrounded by a Soviet-occupied zone, which became East Germany

It was in 1948 49 during the Red Army s blockade of Wester Berlin when RIAS really came into its own As the Soviet forces tried to squeeze the allied forces out of West Berlin, tlie city was deprived of everything Including electric ity

While the allies fed the population via huge airlift. RIAS boosted morale taking to

the streets and broadcasting the news by loudspeaker

RIAS played Its part in the bloody June 17. 1953 uprising In East Berlin and several East German towns telling partlcl pants how widely their protest had spread

And when the Berlin Wall the cruellest symbol of all of the city's divided status — was thrown up overnight In August 1961 by East German. RIAS was on the scene, giving nu merous East Berliners time to dash the few hundred metres (yards) to the West

During the long years of the Cold War. East Germans who

defied the government and tuned Into RIAS were merci lessly tracked down by the East German secret police

So it Is perhaps tlie ultl mate Irony that as the wall fi nally came tumbling down In November 1989. RIAS was on hand to report the historic oc canton. thus recording Its own death knell

A spokesman for Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Anton Pfeifer, paid tribute Thursday to.RIAS role in the history ol Berlin

RIAS made .in enormous contribution to the reunifica non of our count rv he said