Related articles

There is a magic about radio; it preserves moments in time, fragments of conversation from the past, and as long as these fragments are kept in an archive somewhere, they enable us to travel in time. As Radio Prague celebrates its 80th birthday, I shall be taking us through some of the episodes that make up our history. I’ll be helped by Czech Radio’s impressive and extensive archives and by students in my History of Journalism course at Prague’s Anglo-American University.

One of the familiar voices that will forever be associated with Czechoslovak Radio belongs to Miloslav Disman, who worked here between 1930 and 1973, and who changed the style of radio broadcasting in this country, with such informal programmes as Okénko (which you just heard a snippet of), and through a radio children’s ensemble, which bears his name to this day.

Could you be happy without alcohol? Have you ever had sex with a stranger? Would you participate in an uprising against those in power? These are just some of the nearly 150 questions covering a large range of subjects given to people aged 18 to 34 across Europe within a project called Generation What. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union along with national broadcasters, the aim of project is to offer a unique look into the mind-set and realities of life of young Europeans today. For the first time this year, the Czech Republic joined as

A memorial ceremony was held at Czech Radio’s Prague headquarters on Thursday to mark the start of the Prague uprising against years of Nazi oppression at the end of the Second World War. It was a radio broadcast which sparked the rising and the building became the focus for some of the fiercest fighting over the following days in the capital and surrounding countryside.

Czech Radio’s youth and alternative station Radio Wave has just begun broadcasting from a glass-fronted studio right on Vinohradská St. that allows it extremely close contact with the public. What’s more, the futuristic-looking studio will be launched with a free street party on the adjacent Balbínova St. this coming Saturday. As preparations for it were being finalised, I asked Wave’s director of programming, Robert Candra, how the public had been reacting to such proximity to the station’s studio.

March 1st marks the 3rd anniversary of the launch of public broadcaster Czech Radio’s Rádio Junior, aimed at young listeners as well as, for example, elementary schools. Through digital broadcasting the platform is available to listeners across the Czech Republic. Along with programmes for children, Rádio Junior operates a free line where listeners can leave messages or request songs. Schools are also able to contact the station with specific requests.

The Czech Radio Council has elected René Zavoral to head the public broadcaster. Mr Zavoral, who has until now served as deputy head for programming, was chosen from a shortlist of five candidates, receiving seven out of nine votes in the second round of the election. Zavoral, 39, who has worked for the public broadcaster since 2001, said he wanted Czech Radio to be regarded as a reliable media source, which is open to the public. Czech Radio’s previous director, Peter Duhan, resigned from his post in October last year. He was accused of having violated the rules of the Czech Radio’s supervisory council by employing his son Andrej at the radio station.

The Czech Radio station Wave is today celebrating a major landmark; the youth and alternative station has now been delivering challenging music and all manner of arts and lifestyle reports for exactly a decade. To find out about Radio Wave’s big day and future plans, I spoke to its director of programming, Robert Candra. But I first asked him whether Wave’s removal from FM and conversion to an internet station two years after its 2006 launch had felt like a limitation.

As Czech Radio’s correspondent in London, Jiří Hošek is for many of his compatriots one of their main sources of news from Great Britain. When we met recently at the bustling St Pancras train station, our conversation took in everything from listeners’ perceptions of the UK to the challenges of working alone. But I first asked Hošek – who has been in London for three years – what kind of stories his editors in Prague were typically interested in.

Czech Radio’s Plus channel will broadcast a live interview with President Miloš Zeman on Monday. It will be his first such appearance on the public broadcaster since November 2014, when Mr. Zeman used a number of expletives in an episode of an occasional series of interviews. The president rejected a plan to pre-record the shows and subsequently began appearing on a similar slot on a commercial channel. Monday’s interview is due to focus on foreign policy.