Archive: History | Czech Radio history Czech Radio history
Prague students bring the past to life for the radio’s 90th birthday
It is exactly 90 years since the very first regular radio broadcasts in
Czechoslovakia began on 18 May 1923. These were humble beginnings, starting
in a borrowed scouts’ tent on the edge of Prague. But within just a few
years, radio became central to the lives of millions of Czechoslovaks and
over the decades the archives here in the Czech Radio headquarters have
become an Aladdin’s Cave of sound, a living audio source for anyone
wanting to research into twentieth century Czechoslovak history. For our
90th birthday, we joined forces with a group of journalism students in
Prague to bring some of these voices from the past back to life. More
Join us on Saturday in celebrating our 90th birthday
This weekend we’ll be celebrating 90 years since the first regular radio
broadcasts in Czechoslovakia, and we’ll be bringing you a special
programme. David Vaughan has been working with a group of Prague journalism
students, to discover some of the forgotten gems hidden in the radio
archive. He tells us more about Saturday’s special programme.
More
Radio Prague goes back on air
For a few weeks just after the fall of communism, Radio Prague went silent.
Its days as a tool in the Cold War were over. After huge staff cuts, and
with the old communist managers gone, Radio Prague went back on air early
in 1990. A new era began for the English Section, and with so many sweeping
social and economic changes under way, there was plenty to report about. More
Czech Radio commemorates 1968 invasion
A remembrance ceremony on Tuesday marked the 44th anniversary of the
beginning of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The first
days of the invasion were closely tied to the Czech Radio building in front
of which bloody clashes took place and at least 15 civilians were killed. More
Radio Prague and the Cold War in Africa
In the last years of the Cold War, Radio Prague’s English department was
many times bigger than it is today and divided into several sections,
devoted to different parts of the world. One of the most important was the
Afro-Asian service. Africa was an important Cold War battleground and Radio
Prague’s Afro-Asian service was not just telling the people of Africa
about Czechoslovakia. It also covered events within Africa itself,
following closely the Soviet political line. At one time the department was
receiving tens of thousands of listeners’ letters every year. More
The Cold War on the streets of Belfast
In the 1970s the Cold War was fought on many fronts. One of them was
Northern Ireland, where the tension and violence that raged throughout the
decade also became part of the propaganda war between East and West. At the
time, Czechoslovak Radio’s correspondent in London was Karel Kvapil, who
had entered the radio after the wave of sackings following the 1968
Soviet-led invasion, and later went on to become its last communist era
general director. In 1977 Kvapil travelled to Belfast, to report on the
Troubles. For part of his programme he spoke with women on a housing estate
in a mainly Catholic area of the city: More
1969: Radio Prague goes back to the bad old days
In the course of 1969 and 1970 Czechoslovak Radio was transformed back into
what it had been in the 1950s, a tool of hard line propaganda. In the
process, over 700 radio staff were forced to leave their jobs. Those who
stayed found their freedom of expression severely curtailed. To give an
idea of the extent to which things had changed by August 1969 - the first
anniversary of the Soviet led invasion – I will start with a short
extract from Radio Prague’s broadcasts back in 1968, as the tanks rolled
into the city. At the time the radio was playing a crucial role in keeping
the world informed of what was really happening – including reports of
violent incidents as the invading troops opened fire on civilians: More
The abnormality of normalization
On the airwaves, 1968 ended very much as it had begun. For New Year’s
Eve, Czechoslovak Radio chose the same format as the year before, with the
light-hearted musical cabaret of the Semafor Theatre. But behind the
scenes, the Soviet-led occupation in August had changed everything. The
Soviets were only too pleased for the radio to give the impression of
normality. A gradual, almost imperceptible drift back to hard-line
communism was beginning. The process came to be known cynically as
“normalization”, a word that was first used by Alexander Dubček
himself on August 27 1968. He had just returned from his forced five-day
stay in Moscow, where he had been bullied into accepting the presence of
foreign troops. More
Playing cat-and-mouse with the Soviets to keep on air
In the days immediately after the Soviet invasion in August 1968, staff at
Czechoslovak Radio played a cat-and-mouse game with the occupying forces.
For the first couple of days, they managed to continue broadcasting
directly from the radio headquarters, despite the presence of tanks
outside. More
August 21 1968 on the airwaves
In the course of 1968 the Soviet Union made it increasingly clear that it
disapproved strongly of the Prague Spring reforms. Yet, despite mounting
tensions with Moscow, the Soviet led invasion on the night from August
20-21 1968, came as a huge shock. Today we are going to hear some of the
broadcasts from that fateful day. We start with Radio Moscow, with an
official Soviet version of events. More
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