Thank you to Ray Robinson and Jeff White for this week's Wavescan program. This is Part 2, of the popular series on Radio Prague International. If you missed Part 1, the script is available at:
Jeff: Last week, Ray Robinson began a 2-part series on the history of Radio Prague International, a station I was able to visit when I was in Prague at the end of August for the HFCC meeting.
So now, here is part 2, picking up the story right after the end of World War II. Ray?
Ray: Thanks, Jeff.
If you were listening last week, you’ll remember that Radio Prague had been forced to shut down most of their international broadcasts on shortwave during the war by the Nazi occupiers. Only two hours per day to North America were allowed to continue in the Czech language, and those were heavily censored.
After the war, the international service on shortwave resumed, and it was able to operate with relative freedom for a few years. But then in 1948, the communists took control of the country through a coup d’état, and Czechoslovak Radio was nationalized.
The communist government built two large transmitter sites in the eastern Slovakian region. Work at the Velke Kostolany station in Slovakia began in 1949, and that station was on the air for nearly half a century until it closed in October 1997. Another large shortwave station was constructed near Rimavska Sobota in Slovakia in 1956. This station originally contained several 100 kW transmitters, although it was rebuilt in 1982 with four new 250 kW Russian transmitters.
Meanwhile, the Podebrody shortwave transmitter site near Prague remained in operation until 1996. A new shortwave transmitter site at Litomysl, also near Prague, was inaugurated in 1956 with the first of seven 100 kW transmitters, two of which remained on the air until 2011.
The 1970’s saw a boom in short-wave broadcasting by Radio Prague.
That one was recorded on 6055 kHz in 1973. Programs in ten languages were broadcast 37 hours a day, and this continued until the end of the communist regime in 1989.
A favorite program of many shortwave listeners was the Wednesday DX program hosted by Oldřich
Číp, who later became the founder of the High Frequency Coordination Conference under the auspices of the International Telecommunications Union, itself an agency of the United Nations. And Oldřich
Číp’s son, Vladislav is still the secretary of the organization to this day.
As I said last week, through what was known as the ‘Velvet Revolution’ in November and December 1989, the communist regime fell, but by 1992, Slovak calls for more autonomy effectively blocked the daily functioning of the federal government. So, on January 1, 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were peacefully established as two independent states. And at that time, the broadcast organization of Czechoslovak Radio was also split between the two countries. In Prague, it was renamed, simply, Czech Radio.
Eventually, Czechia closed its remaining shortwave site at Litomysl in 2011, due mainly to the cost and difficulty of maintaining the equipment and the lack of experienced engineers able to do so. But, they continued to produce programming in six languages – English, German, French, Spanish, Czech and Russian – primarily for distribution via satellite and the Internet.
But, they didn’t give up on shortwave. They instead contracted first for their programming to be relayed on shortwave via a site in Yerevan, Armenia, just across the border from eastern Turkey. Here’s their broadcast on August 31, 2016, exactly 80 years after the launch of Radio Prague on shortwave in 1936.
Radio Prague via Yerevan, Armenia on 9985 kHz on Wednesday August 31, 2016.
When that site closed in 2018, as I’m sure you know, Radio Prague moved some of their program relays to the shortwave transmitters of WRMI in Okeechobee, Florida.
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| Entrance to Czech Radio Today |
You can now hear Radio Prague in English via WRMI:
• from 01-03 hours UTC on 9455 kHz to North America, and on 7780 kHz to Central America;
• from 03-0330 on 9955 to South America;
• from 06-0630 Mon & Tue only on 15770 to Europe;
• from 12-1230 on 9955 to South America;
• from 23-2330 Mon-Fri only on 9395 to North America;
• and from 2330-midnight UTC on 5850 to North America.
Radio Prague’s French and Spanish programming can also be heard via WRMI on other times and frequencies.
All languages are also on the Astra 3B satellite to Europe. English programming is streamed online at english.radio.cz, and is also available for offline listening wherever you get your podcasts.
So, in summary, Czechia has been heard on shortwave for over 100 years, since 1923, and Radio Prague specifically on shortwave for nearly 90 years, since 1936. During that time, seven different shortwave sites have been used:
• three near Prague at Kbely, Podebrody, and Litomysl
• two in Slovakia at Velke Kostolany and Rimavska Sobota,
• one in Yerevan, Armenia, and
• finally via WRMI in Florida.
We here at Wavescan honor them for their long and storied broadcast history on both medium wave and shortwave.
Back to you, Jeff.
