Radio Praha International

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Infobox radio tower pictogram
Radio Praha
Station logo
Radio station ( public service )
reception Web radio and satellite
Reception area Czech Republic and neighboring areas (VHF)
Start of transmission August 31, 1936
Managing Director Klára Stejskalová
List of radio stations
Website

Radio Prague International ( German  Radio Prag International ) is the international program of Český rozhlas (ČRo), the public broadcaster of the Czech Republic . The program is produced at the broadcaster's headquarters in the capital Prague . The station, founded in 1936, played an important role in the history of this now historic state as the former foreign service of Czechoslovakia until the end of December 1992. Radio Prague was one of the best known and most traditional international shortwave broadcasters . The program is now only available via satelliteand disseminated online .

program

Radio Prague International produces half-hourly programs, which mainly consist of news and features as well as information of various types and cultures that report on the Czech Republic and, to a lesser extent, the world. There is also a well-known listener mail program. In contrast, music is rarely heard in German-language programs.

Radio Prag International broadcasts programs around the clock alternately in Czech (Radio Praha), German (Radio Prague International), English (Radio Prague International), Spanish (Radio Praga), French (Radio Prague) and Russian (Радио Прага) in the whole world. Before the Velvet Revolution in 1989, which ended communist one-party rule in Czechoslovakia, Radio Prague also broadcast a program in Italian (Radio Praga).

story

Beginnings and World War II

For the first time, the then Czechoslovak Radio broadcast a foreign program on shortwave on August 31, 1936 from the old transmitter building in Poděbrady , which was built in the years 1920-21 as an external center for wireless telegraphy within the state founded in 1918. The international radio program from Prague quickly became known throughout Europe and has been one of the most traditional of its kind for years.

In the years up to 1939, the Prague station was considered an important source of information from Central Europe without propaganda , until the year after the occupation of the so-called rest of Czech Republic by the Wehrmacht , the independence of Slovakia as a vassal state of the German Reich and the establishment of the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia on March 15, 1939, Czechoslovakia was dissolved for the first time. The Prague station therefore came under the control of the National Socialist rulers of the German Reich and the independent international broadcasts on shortwave were interrupted. Unlike in the Reich, the shortwave reception circuits were removed from private radios in the Protectorate - listening to relevant broadcasts from abroad was also made a serious criminal offense.

The radio was the most effective medium in the form of Radio Prague is an active participant in the Czech resistance organized Prague uprising from 5 to 8 May 1945. This against Nazi occupation regime in Bohemia and Moravia -looking uprising began with a transmitted as a pun call the weapons of the resistance fighters as well as the citizens of the city on long and medium wave . The uprising turned in part into a battle for control of the building by the Prague Radio itself ( Battle for the Czech Radio ), with over a hundred people killed on both sides. The broadcasts continued without interruption and the shortwave transmitter , which had actually long since been shut down , was put back into operation. However , the appeal for assistance made by him on May 6th to the Western Allied forces already in the Pilsen area on Czech territory remained unheeded by them due to previous agreements with the Soviet Union .

Cold War

After the end of the Second World War and the Third Reich, as well as the subsequent restoration of Czechoslovakia, shortwave broadcasts for foreign countries were not immediately resumed, as minor damage had to be repaired and other circumstances had to be cleared up beforehand. This time, the Prague broadcaster played a less laudable role in the expulsion of the German population from Prague and the rest of Bohemia and Moravia, once again sending an open appeal to the Czech population to begin expelling the German population from Prague . Various citizens as well as many former resistance fighters followed this call and took an active part in the largely violent expulsion campaigns in the city and the surrounding area before they spread to the whole country.

Since the resignation of President Edvard Beneš and the final communist seizure of power in the spring of 1948 ( February revolution ), Radio Prague has been an important window to the outside world for the new regime in the country and after some time re-established itself among the most important international radio stations on shortwave. The international service has been expanded and a few additional broadcast languages ​​have been added. A special feature, however, was that the listeners were not allowed to be told exactly where the relevant station was or where the relevant program (s) came from, as this, like most other detailed information on the station, was was considered secret until around the mid-1980s.

During the Prague Spring in 1968, Radio Prague reported extensively abroad on the program of the reformers around Alexander Dubček and the events. During the subsequent occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops , Radio Prague identified itself as "Radio Prague ... foreign broadcasting station in occupied Czechoslovakia ..." (in every broadcast language). From the 1960s to the end of the 1980s, Radio Prague was one of the most generous foreign stations - compared to its international audience - in terms of sending confirmations of receipt and souvenirs (e.g. pennants , pictures , slides, etc.).

At the time of the political change in Czechoslovakia as part of the Velvet Revolution in 1989, which ended communist one-party rule in Czechoslovakia, Radio Prague limited its broadcasting operations for a short time and cleared its workforce of employees with communist burdens. After that, broadcasting normalized again quickly and Radio Prague continued its work - with some changes to the usual program - under the new democratic political conditions.

Post-turnaround time

After the second dissolution of Czechoslovakia and the separation into the two states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia on January 1, 1993, the station continued to operate practically without interruption as a now Czech foreign service under the old - and new - name Radio Prague and in some cases continued to use transmission systems for years in Slovakia with. After relays the domestic program on shortwave, Slovakia soon went on the air with its own international program, Radio Slovakia International . During this time, Radio Prague also introduced a new pause sign , a motif from the 1st movement of Antonín Dvořák's 9th Symphony "From the New World".

In 2019 the name of the station was changed to "Radio Prague International" on its 83rd birthday in order to emphasize the international orientation of the station.

reception

Radio Prague's shortwave broadcasts were discontinued on January 31, 2011. For North America only, broadcasts in English and Spanish will be retained on Radio Miami International . Radio 360 has been broadcasting the German program on shortwave again since November 2013 . The programs are currently broadcast via satellite , audio stream , podcast on the website and through program takeovers by third-party broadcasters. An Android app is available for mobile devices . Selected programs in English, German, French and Russian can be received at times via VHF in Prague and in parts of Bohemia .

The sender replies to reception reports with a QSL card .

Earlier transmission systems

Current transmission systems

Trivia

The band Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark (OMD) dedicated the opening track “Radio Prague” to Radio Praha on their album Dazzle Ships from 1983. In this track, the then well-known pause sign of the station (from the communist hymn Kupředu levá ) can be heard.

Web links

supporting documents

  1. Radio Prague becomes Radio Prague international. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .
  2. a b How do I listen to Radio Prague? on the Radion Prague website; Retrieved December 12, 2013.