Active reserve (KGB) officers with a military rank who worked undercover in the Soviet Union. "Trusted contacts" were high placed civilians who collaborated with the KGB without signing any official working agreements, such as directors of personnel departments at various institutions, academics, deans, or writers and actors. Informers were citizens secretly recruited by the KGB, sometimes using forceful recruitment methods, such as blackmail. The precise number of people from various categories remains unknown, but one of the estimates was 11 million "informers" in the Soviet Union, or one out of every eighteen adult citizens The active reserve was established by Yuri Andropov in
KGB-FM the station. The songwriting contest is the brainchild of KGB-FM program director Ron Jacobs, who first held such an event at KHJ (AM) in Los Angeles. The "Homegrown" album series was introduced in response to the cancellation of the popular "Charity Ball" event at San Diego Stadium (now Qualcomm Stadium), a venue for which the station was not granted usage in 1973 after holding it the previous year. Proceeds from sale of the albums were donated to local charities. The contest ran through 1978, yielding seven albums named "Homegrown" through "Homegrown VII" with copyrights from 1973 to 1979. There were