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The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra (Symfonický orchestr Českého rozhlasu) has presented its program for the upcoming season. The opening premium concert will pay tribute to those affected by the coronavirus pandemic through symbolic compositions. Collaborations with a multitude of leading international musicians are planned throughout the season. Aside from performances in the Czech Republic, the orchestra will also be performing in Japan, Warsaw, Vienna and Dresden.

After more than a hundred years, the historical bell chime at Prague’s Loreto Church is getting a new melody. The song, a Baroque Hymn, will be played on the 27-bell carillon for the first time on Wednesday evening, at six o’clock.

Czech Radio is on Monday marking the 97th anniversary of the station’s launch, as Czechoslovak Radio, on 18 March 1923. Usually the station holds an open day on this occasion. However that is not possible this year for public health reasons so instead Czech Radio has produced a virtual gallery and interactive video showing visitors around the station: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xm_rN7JpgA.

Two clouds hang over commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of the Prague Uprising against Nazi rule at the end of the Second World War. The first is an “invisible enemy” – the novel coronavirus – which has scuppered grand plans to honour those who fought to liberate the Czech capital. The second is the allegation of a plot to assassinate two Prague district mayors: one who tore down a statue to a Soviet marshal who Russia considers a hero; and one who erecting a statute to a Red Army general who Russia considers a traitor.

In 2011, UNESCO proclaimed February 13 as World Radio Day. It is a celebration of radio as a powerful medium and its role in serving diverse communities of listeners worldwide and promoting their interests. To mark the occasion several partner radio stations held a debate on diversity and how it is reflected in their work. The debate was hosted by Radio Canada International and involved journalists from SWI Swiss.info, Radio Poland, Radio Romania International and Radio Prague International.

Czech interest in African American culture goes back to the 19th century. When Antonín Dvořák spent three years in the United States in the 1890s he explored African American and Native American musical traditions, seeing parallels with the Czech experience of living under Austrian domination. In the Czechoslovakia of the 1920s and 30s, interest in American jazz spread rapidly and Native American culture was romanticised in the so-called “tramping” movement. After the war communist Czechoslovakia was quick to point to discrimination and segregation

In this programme, the eighth in our series mapping this country’s history through the radio archives, we start with the dramatic events of the last days of the war in Prague. The radio played a major role in the Prague Uprising, and through the archives we can map how the city liberated itself from the German occupiers. In the two years that follow, the radio archives give us a picture of a Czechoslovakia returning to some kind of normality, but in February 1948 everything changes. We tell the story as it was heard on the airwaves.

Gingerbread, roasted chestnuts, Christmas carols and mulled wine; few people miss out on a visit to their local Christmas market during the holiday season and some even travel abroad to savour that special atmosphere in their favourite European city. Check-out the main Christmas market in Prague and those elsewhere in Europe where Radio Prague International has media partners.

A group of historians, educators and archivists – including from Czech Radio – has rolled out a digital app designed to stimulate students’ interest in using primary sources. The overall aim of the HistoryLab project is to develop students’ historical literary and critical thinking, and help teachers craft interactive, multimedia lesson plans.

The Czech Radio archives give us a rich and nuanced picture of the months leading up to the Munich Agreement of September 1938 that resulted in Nazi Germany annexing huge areas of Czechoslovakia. So many recordings survive that we can reconstruct the events leading up to Munich almost day by day. They include insights from many different angles, not least the perspective of the German-speakers of Czechoslovakia, those who supported, but also those who opposed Hitler. The archives offer a sober warning of how easily a democratic state can be shattered