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On the 49th anniversary of the Soviet invasion, then Czechoslovak Radio chief Karel Lanský recalls that fateful time.

Czech Radio’s Prague headquarters was very much the focal point for the Prague uprising against Nazi rule at the end of WWII. And today’s top state personalities assembled on Friday outside the radio building to pay homage to the hundreds who fell at the barricades in Prague and in scattered skirmishes across the country.

Czech leaders marked the 72nd anniversary of the Prague Uprising at the Czech Radio building on Friday, a focal point of the uprising in which Czechs took up arms against the Nazis. The radio station itself became a beacon for resistance when the call went out in a broadcast for the rising to start and for citizens to come and help defend the radio building against German attempts to retake it. Among those attending Friday’s memorial event were the heads of both Czech house of parliament, Milan Štěch and Jan Hamáček, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, and Prague Mayor Adriana Krnáčová.

Czech Radio has just launched Zhasni!, or Turn the Lights Out!, the station’s first dedicated podcast series. The move is aimed at boosting Czech listeners’ usage of podcasts, a delivery system particularly popular in the US via which subscribers automatically receive audio files – including, of course, radio shows – on their smartphones or other devices. To find out more about this drive I spoke to Edita Kudláčová and Robert Candra from Czech Radio’s Creative Hub group. My first question: What is Zhasni! and how did it come about?

February 13 is World Radio Day recognizing the importance of radio as a media source, providing essential information and analysis. As a public broadcaster, Czech Radio plays a key role in covering the domestic scene (while Radio Prague broadcasts about the Czech Republic abroad).

While most of us can only dream about attending a World Cup or Olympic Games, David Koubek got to experience both as Czech Radio’s correspondent in Brazil. In his two and a half years in Rio de Janeiro, Koubek also got to travel to many other parts of South America and met all kinds of interesting people, including – he told me after his recent return to Prague – a German “Bohemian” community proud of their Czech roots. But when we spoke, I first asked the Czech Radio man how he had managed to cover the 2014 World Cup, given the sheer vastness of

The District Court for Prague 2 has given 10 month conditional sentences to three people, former culture minister Jiří Balvín, former deputy head of Czech Radio Michal Koliandr, and businessman Jan Hnilička, suspected of corruption in connection with the attempted sale of a chateau in Přerov nad Labem belonging to Czech Radio. In addition, each has also been order to pay a 240,000 crown fine.

The ruling reverses an earlier decision from April last year, in which the three were found not guilty based on insufficient evidence. Monday’s decision is not final; two of three defendants have already appealed, the Czech News Agency reported. As a consequence of the case, the planned tender on the sale of the chateau was cancelled by the broadcaster. The region of Central Bohemia expressed an interest in obtaining the property last year.

In this very last edition of Mailbox on Radio Prague we quote for one last time from your answers to the Mystery Czech quiz which has run for 12 years and featured 150 notable personalities of Czech origin.

Czech Radio has produced a photograph of the US ambassador to Prague, Andrew Shapiro, attending this year’s Czechoslovak Independence Day celebrations at Prague Castle, following President Zeman’s claim that he was one of the few diplomats who stayed away from the event. Mr. Shapiro’s presence at the ceremony in Prague Castle’s Vladislav Hall was also confirmed by the German Ambassador to Prague Arndt Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven who sat next to him at the event. Relations between the president and US ambassador have been strained since the spring of 2015 when Ambassador Shapiro criticized the Czech head of state for attending V-Day celebrations in Moscow while other EU leaders boycotted the event in protest over Russia’s interference in Ukraine.

Monday, October 3, marks the 90th anniversary of Europe’s first live coverage of a sporting event: a football match between Slavia Prague and Hungaria Budapest in 1926. Radiožurnál’s Josef Laufer, who went on to become a broadcasting legend, provided live commentary of the match, a stroke of luck for the reporter after the original candidate to call the match failed to show up. Radiožurnál edged the BBC by several months in its live broadcast of a sporting event, Czech Radio said.