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August 31st marks the 70th anniversary of Czechoslovak Radio's first regular broadcasts on shortwave from Czechoslovakia. The first in 1936 took place on a Monday. Seventy years later, the foreign broadcast departments at Czech Radio operate as Czech Radio 7 - Radio Prague. The station broadcasts in six languages on shortwave, via the internet, and on satellite. At a press conference on the occasion of the anniversary, Radio Prague's director Miroslav Krupicka pointed out that the station's strengths were based on both quality reporting from the Czech Republic, as well as on technological innovations such as pod-casting. Listeners from Europe and the US were also able to recently attend a special event in Prague marking the anniversary.

August 31st is a very special day for Radio Prague. Exactly 70 years ago, in 1936, Radio Prague made its first ever broadcast in English. But radio is not only about interviews and reports. The main reason we are here, are you, the listeners, in the case of Radio Prague scattered all around the globe.

If we delve into the Czech Radio archives, we find recordings in English going right back to Radio Prague's beginnings 70 years ago. Some of the extracts we are going to feature in this programme have not been aired for well over half a century. They capture some of the most interesting and dramatic moments in our history.

This Thursday is Radio Prague's 70th birthday. On August 31, the first ever programme in English was broadcast from Prague and the date is considered the birth of the international shortwave service in Czechoslovakia. On that occasion we spoke to Radio Prague's editor-in-chief Gerald Schubert who stresses that in 2006, Radio Prague is much more than a shortwave radio station.

Radio Prague made its first ever broadcast 70 years ago, on August 31, 1936. Ahead of Thursday's anniversary I visited our original transmission centre in Podebrady, central Bohemia, in the company of Czech Radio's shortwave expert Oldrich Cip. In the second half of this two-part report, he and I discuss - among other things - the beginnings of Radio Prague, Communist-era radio jamming and the future of short-wave broadcasting.

This coming Thursday, August 31, is the 70th anniversary of Radio Prague's first ever broadcast. Ahead of the big day, I decided to pay a visit to the place our first programme was broadcast from in 1936; Radio Prague's original transmission centre is a very interesting building just outside the central Bohemian town of Podebrady, and is now home to a golf club. My guide was Oldrich Cip, Czech Radio's shortwave expert.

Thirty-eight years ago on August 21, 1968, Czechoslovak citizens woke up to find that the country had been invaded by Warsaw Pact forces. It was the beginning of the end of the so-called Prague Spring, a period of reform communism ushered in by Alexander Dubcek, who is known for wanting to create "socialism with a human face." Yet this experiment involving freedom of the press and the opportunity to travel abroad was not looked upon kindly by the Communist Party leadership in Moscow, nor by the leadership in neighbouring socialist states. The solution

This week in Mailbox: Marathons in the Czech Republic; rent control; Science in the Streets project; RP on shortwave and the mysterious presenter Petr Skala; a look back at the annual listeners' competition. Listerners quoted: Teodor Shepertycki, Canada; Mark Coviello, Chris Krug, Mary Lou Krenek, US; Mukesh N. Tekwani, India; James Garvin, Northern Ireland.

The International Service of Czech Radio celebrate its seventieth birthday later this summer. Kristy Ironside sat down with Director Mirek Krupicka to talk about station's evolution and what the future holds for Radio Prague, as well as about the anniversary.

The appeal "Volame vsechny Cechy" - calling all Czechs - is probably the best known recording in Czech Radio's archive. A radio announcer calls on Czechs to rise up against the German occupation. The date is the 5th May 1945, in the dying days of the war, and the broadcast marked the beginning of the Prague Uprising. In three days of fighting, over three thousand Czechs lost their lives, before the Red Army finally entered the city. Much of the fighting took place right here, in the radio building in Vinohradska Street. This Friday, as every year,