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Today we look at the roles of some of those who believed in the Czech branch of socialism, announcers at Radio Prague during the 50s and 60s. We'll find out what inspired them to leave their homes in Canada and the U.S. to make a new start in Prague - to help build socialism in former Czechoslovakia - a very unusual fate.

The late Olga Szantova was for many listeners, for many years, THE voice of Radio Prague. Sunday was the first anniversary of Olga's death, and to mark the occasion I spoke to her daughter, Eva Novakova, who is an MP for the Social Democratic Party. We did get around to discussing Eva's own career, but I first asked her if she ever used to visit Olga here at the station as a young girl.

It's official: one year shy of six decades since the Czech national radio headquarters in Prague came under fire from occupying Nazi forces, - and three and a half decades since the Soviets trained their guns on Ceskoslovensky Rozhlas - the rather uninspiring, functionalist-style building on Vinohradska Street has been named a cultural landmark.

Radio Prague has launched a new web page for Czech ex-pats living abroad. Its aim is to assist communication among the various ex-pat organizations abroad and strengthen links to their homeland. The address is www.krajane.net.

The Association of International Broadcasters convened in the Czech capital this week for its annual summit. Miroslav Krupicka, the director of Radio Prague, was there. He later spoke with Brian Kenety about some of the issues facing the international broadcast industry.

In this week's edition of Mailbox, we introduce a new member of the Radio Prague team and reveal the name of last month's listeners' competition.

The Czech public service radio, Cesky rozhlas has received two awards in the "Media Helping Historical Monuments" competition for journalists. Czech Radio studios in the cities of Ceske Budejovice and Plzen have been awarded for consistent attention paid to monuments in South and West Bohemia. The competition is co-organised by the Syndicate of Journalists under the auspices of Senate Chairman Petr Pithart.

The Lower House of Parliament on Wednesday voted in favour of raising TV and radio license fees to 100 crowns and 45 crowns a month respectively. This fee is to be paid by all households regardless of whether they do or do not own a television and radio receiver. The proposed amendment also envisages less advertising time for public broadcaster Czech TV - a reduction to 0.8 percent from the present 1 percent of overall broadcasting time. The bill was approved by a one vote majority and has been strongly criticized by the opposition. It must now pass through the Senate and then be signed by the president.

In this week's edition of Mailbox, we talk about the latest statistics on the population, weddings, divorces, and abortions, the new summer programme, and our competitions. Listeners quoted: Hans Bachman and Kingsley Otteng.

This is a rather sad Letter from Prague for me to write - it's my last. After five years I'm quitting as a full-time member of staff, to pursue a career with another radio station. It's a period of great change and no small amount of stress as I try to manage the transition from one job to the other. But it's also given me the opportunity to reflect on the times I've had and the changes I've seen since I first walked through the doors of Czech Radio on a warm, spring day in 1999.