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75YEARS OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING The beginnings … The beginnings of international broadcasting were the result of the political situation in Europe before the Second World War. Nazi Germany had begun broadcasting beyond its borders in 1933 and the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Enemy propaganda began coming in to Czechoslovakia from all sides on the radio waves. These activities were being monitored by Eduard Beneš’ Foreign Ministry, which in 1934 pointed out the “need to establish a shortwave station for purposes of international propaganda that states like Germany, Hungary, Italy and the USSR would understand”. In the course of that year, the Minister of Communications declared in Parliament that a shortwave station for the promotion of the Czechoslovak Republic abroad would be built in Poděbrady. The state, which was also Nazi propaganda Poděbrady – studio desk the primary shareholder in the Radiojournal company, set aside 3.5 million crowns for this purpose. Assembly of the shortwave transmitters and antennae began at the Poděbrady broadcasting station, called Rádiovka, began in 1935. Trial broadcasts were launched in July of 1936, and regular broadcasting abroad began on August 31, 1936, at 10 o’clock in the morning. The broadcast started off with a speech in English by the technical director of Czechoslovak Radio, Eduard Svoboda. This date is regarded as the launch of our international broadcast. Several frequencies were used to broadcast to Europe and America. The programme consisted of recorded music, interspersed with short, live transmissions to announce the upcoming programmes, which included news, letters, and later lectures as well. Non-musical programmes were Eduard Svoboda broadcast in Czech /Slovak, German, French, English and occasionally in Poděbrady – broadcasting Rusyn. building The Radiojournal company’s foreign broadcasts were handled by the so- called shortwave department, the head of which was the experienced radio journalist and musician Bohuslav Tvrdý. There were about 8 people working in the department who handled primarily the multilingual moderation and contact with listeners. One of the announcers, Helena Kronská, recalls: “I joined the shortwave department in 1936. At first I was dealing only with letters, but soon I was needed to fill in for other colleagues of mine and became an announcer. We announced the programme, then there was the news, and then a technician played a recording from a ‘blatnerphone’. We had to be able to announce the programmes in all of the languages. Letters Czech Radio in the 1930s came from all over the world. I wrote answers and kept a list of listeners. Shortwave I brought reports to the technical director Eduard Svoboda, who took a programme, 1938 lively interest in where and how well the broadcasts could be heard.“ The number of responses from Europe and even overseas grew, as did the range of broadcasts. By the end of 1936 the station had received 4,000 letters, and a year later, 14,000. The number of broadcasts peaked at the time of the Munich Agreement, in the autumn of 1938, when where was about 20 hours of shortwave transmissions a day. Most of the programme still consisted of music, interspersed with reports and commentaries in the main broadcasting languages, to which Italian, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, and Romanian were added. After the German occupation in 1939, the shortwave transmission was cancelled with the exception of programmes in Czech, which conformed to the ideological needs of the radio’s German management. Letters from listeners, 1936 Radiojournal weekly, January 1937 Post-war history … The international broadcast began to develop again after the war. The number of languages grew, the programme got a fixed structure and arts features appeared to complement news. In April of 1948, Czechoslovak Radio was nationalised and all of its sections came under the direct influence of the Communist Party. The international broadcast became an important ideological tool for the ruling party and expanded massively. It was used to influence left-leaning people in Western Europe and more and more to support national liberation movements in South America (Spanish, Portuguese) and Africa (Arabic, Swahili). Tremendous sums of money were spent on promotion, and clubs of Radio Prague listeners were formed all over the world. In 1959 the production Náš rozhlas weekly, volume exceeded 30 hours a day and by the end of the 1960s the number of International broadcasting January 1947 responses exceeded an unbelievable 100 000 letters annually. In addition studio S23, 1960s to the regular Italian broadcasts a so-called Italian B broadcast was on air in the 50s and 60s. This was run by a group of Italian communists with the aim of influencing public opinion in Italy. The broadcast was kept secret so that its source could not be discovered. From the post-war years onwards there was a so-called monitor – listening post service within the international service that produced survey tables from the broadcasts of foreign radios. This service remained until 1989. In 1972 the Radio Prague Interprogramme was launched. This was a music relay, interrupted every 15 minutes with multilingual reports. From the end of the 1970s the Interprogramme was also transmitted within Czechoslovakia on FM and enjoyed a fair amount of popularity due to the foreign music it broadcast. The Interprogramme ended in 1990. Following November of 1989, the international service underwent a purge, SW transmitters in Litomyšl as did the entire radio; the most discredited employees and agents of the communist secret police were dismissed. Radio Prague returned to its ori- Radio Prague club in Cuba, 1965 ginal mission – to provide unbiased information on events in Czechoslo- vakia – and also to its pre-war interval signal, taken from Antonín Dvořá- k’s New World Symphony. There was a significant reorganisation and only a fifth of the 300 employees remained. Broadcasts in Italian and Arabic were cancelled; the languages that remained were Czech/Slovak, English, German, French and Spanish. In the year 2000, Russian was added. Since 1992 the international service has been a part of Czech Radio, with its finances covered by the state. In 1996 the station began using its current logo and the name Czech Radio 7 – Radio Prague. At the beginning of 2011, shortwave broadcasting was terminated. The six-language broadcast is aired on the internet via www.radio.cz, by satellite, and over nearly thirty partner radio stations around the world an in Prague on the frequency ČRo Regina, 92.6 FM, and Radio France Internationale, 99.3 FM. The Prague Protests in front of the Czech broadcasts are intended for foreigners and visitors to the Czech Republic. Radio, November 21, 1989 In addition to news reports, Radio Prague also operates the website www. krajane.net for Czechs abroad and their descendants. Radio Prague Monitor klub diploma, 1970s Colleagues of yesteryear … Bohuslav Tvrdý Arnošt Lustig Conductor and experienced radio producer. Writer and journalist, worked in He was appointed to head the shortwave Czechoslovak Radio from 1948 in the department of the Radiojournal company political, musical and literary-drama in 1936 and held that position until 1939. programme. Worked in the international After WWII, director of Czechoslovak Radio service between 1955–1958. Emigrated in České Budějovice, died in 1946 in a tragic to the USA in 1968 and returned in the car accident. 90s. Božena Danešová Bedřich Utitz Announcer in the shortwave department Journalist, publicist, translator. Worked in between 1936–1939. Her career ended the international service from 1954 as a on March 15, 1939, when she was journalist, editor-in-chief and head of the physically removed from the studio German section. Emigrated to Germany by the Nazis. Married composer Václav in 1968 and worked as a journalist and Trojan and did not return to the radio. chairman of the publishing company Index. Currently lives in Prague. Helena Kronská Richard Seemann Announcer in the shortwave department Worked in the international service from between 1936–1939. Married a German 1951 to 1970 as a journalist and head reporter of Czechoslovak Radio who was of the Austrian broadcast and assistant expelled after the war and went with him editor-in-chief. Participated in the anti- to Bavaria. occupation broadcast in 1968. Returned to Czechoslovak Radio in 1990 and served as head of the international service in 1992. Zdeňka Walló František Černý Began in radio in 1934, the second Worked in the international service from permanent female announcer of 1958 until 1970 as a journalist, primarily Radiojournal. Announcer in the in the German broadcast, and was forced shortwave department between 1936– to leave in 1970. Czech ambassador to 1939. Being of Jewish origin, she lost her Germany in the 1990s. job and was murdered in a concentration camp. Ivan Jelínek Jiří Hanák Poet, publicist and journalist from Brno, Journalist in the international service worked in the shortwave department between 1961 and 1967, later moved to in 1938-1939, after which time he Reportér magazine, which was halted in emigrated. Emigrated again in 1948 and 1969. Commentator for the daily Právo live in the USA and UK, spent most of his since the 90s. life in the Czechoslovak department of the BBC. Bedřich Geminder Olga Szántová Communist official and journalist. After Journalist in the American service in the being dismissed from running the 1960s, active participant in the Prague international division of the Communist Spring, forced to leave the radio after Party’s Central Committee, he was appointed to head the international August of ‘68. Was one of few to be able service on November 15, 1951. He to return to her position as a journalist in retained that position until the next the 1990s. month, when he was arrested and sentenced to execution in 1952 in the same trail as Rudolf Slánský.