Czech Radio (, ČRo) is the

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

radio broadcaster of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

operating continuously since 1923. It is the oldest national radio broadcaster in

continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...

and the second-oldest in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

after the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. Czech Radio was established in 1992 by the Czech Radio Act, which sets out the framework for its operation and finance. It acts as the successor to the previous state-owned Czechoslovak Radio which ceased to exist by 1992. The service broadcasts throughout the Czech Republic nationally and locally. Its four national services are Radiožurnál, Dvojka,

Vltava The Vltava ( , ; ) is the longest river in the Czech Republic, a left tributary of the Elbe River. It runs southeast along the Bohemian Forest and then north across Bohemia, through Český Krumlov, České Budějovice, and Prague. It is com ...

and

Plus Plus or PLUS may refer to: Mathematics * Addition * +, the mathematical sign Music * Plus (band), a Japanese pop boy band Albums and EPs * ''+'' (Ed Sheeran album), (pronounced "plus"), 2011 * ''Plus'' (Astrud Gilberto and James Last album), ...

. Czech Radio operates twelve nationwide stations and another fourteen regional stations. All ČRo stations broadcast via internet stream, digital via

DAB+ Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) is a digital radio international standard, standard for broadcasting digital audio radio services in many countries around the world, defined, supported, marketed and promoted by the WorldDAB organisation. T ...

and DVB, and part analog via terrestrial transmitters. It is based in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

in a building in Vinohradská třída.

History

Czechoslovak era

', then ', was established on 18 May 1923, making its first broadcast from a

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom ** Scouts BSA, sect ...

tent in the Kbely district of

, under the name ''Radiojournal''. The premises of the station changed numerous times, firstly moving to the district of Hloubětín, before later using locations in the ''Poštovní nákupny'' building, the ''Orbis'' building and the ''Národní dům na Vinohradech'' building, all in Prague. Since the moves, Czech Radio has been located in Prague in the building Vinohradská 12 since 1933. The first regular announcer of the station, who prepared and presented the news from the daily papers, was Adolf Dobrovolný. He took up the position on 17 January 1924, becoming the station's first professional radio announcer and his position was made permanent on 1 January 1925. He held the position until his death in 1934. A message broadcast on Czech Radio on 5 May 1945 brought about the start of the

Prague uprising The Prague uprising () was a partially successful attempt by the Czech resistance movement to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation in May 1945, during the end of World War II. The preceding six years of occupation had fuelled an ...

. In the same year, regional studios in the cities of

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

České Budějovice České Budějovice (; ) is a city in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 97,000 inhabitants. The city is located in the valley of the Vltava River, at its confluence with the Malše. České Budějovice is the largest ...

Hradec Králové Hradec Králové (; ) is a city of the Czech Republic. It has about 94,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Hradec Králové Region. The historic centre of Hradec Králové is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech R ...

and

Ústí nad Labem Ústí nad Labem (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 91,000 inhabitants and is the capital of the Ústí nad Labem Region. It is a major industrial centre and, besides being an active river port, is an important railway junction. ...

were launched. The station was taken over by Soviet forces, after short fighting with unarmed civilians, in August 1968, in the first day of the Soviet invasion, although broadcasting managed to continue from alternative locations.

Czech era

In 1991, the Czech Radio Group changed its status and became an independent organisation, despite being publicly funded as of 2008. Czech Radio (ČRo) was established by Act of the Czech National Council (No. 484/1991 Coll.) on Czech Radio. On 1 January 1992, Czech Radio was established as a public radio with property transferred from Czechoslovak Radio. The headquarters were setup at Vinohradská 12 in Prague, where the old Czechoslovak Radio was based at. Operation of regional stations in the Czech Republic was also transferred. On 1 January 1993, Czech Radio became a member of the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

(EBU). In 1999, Czech Radio launched an experimental digital radio broadcast in Prague. An envisaged new premises for Czech Radio, a 30-storey building in the district of

Pankrác Pankrác is a neighborhood of Prague, Czech Republic. It is located south of the city centre on the hills of the eastern bank of the Vltava River and is part of the Prague 4 municipal district, situated in the district of Nusle. Bordering distri ...

which took 22 years to build at a cost of 1.35 billion

Czech koruna The koruna, or crown (sign: Kč; code: CZK, ), has been the currency of the Czech Republic since 1993. The koruna is one of the European Union's eight currencies, and the Czech Republic is legally bound to adopt the euro in the future. The ...

, was sold after the construction phrase in 1996 as it was deemed too big for the station's requirements. In 2002,

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...

station stopped broadcasting in the

, with the broadcast rebranded as ''Czech Radio 6'' under the Czech Radio group. In October 2005, digital television broadcasting was launched on

DVB-T DVB-T, short for Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial, is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in Singapore in Fe ...

, with some of the ČRo's circuits being included in the first multiplex. A large expansion of the number of ČRo stations took place in 2005. At that time, the D-dur, Rádio Česko and Leonardo circuits began broadcasting, and in 2006,

ČRo Radio Wave ČRo Radio Wave (in 2006-2008 Czech Radio 4 – Radio Wave) is a digital Public broadcasting, public radio station of the Czech Radio in the Czech Republic. It primarily operates as an online platform for audio consumption, providing a wide range o ...

station was added. Czech Radio launched a new logo in 2013, featuring the letter ''R'' with stripes, at a cost of 2.2 million Czech koruna. The organisation marked 90 years of existence in 2013, celebrating the occasion with a 48-hour broadcast including 90 interviews interspersed with news reports every half-hour. The event, which took place on

Wenceslas Square Wenceslas Square (Czech language, Czech: , colloquially ''Václavák'' ; German language, German: ''Wenzelsplatz'') is one of the main city squares and the centre of the business and cultural communities in the New Town, Prague, New Town of Pr ...

, set a new national record for the longest uninterrupted radio broadcast. In the same year, ČRo 6, ČRo Radio Czech Republic and ČRo Leonardo were cancelled and replaced by the new station ČRo Plus. At the end of 2021, the broadcasting of the stations Radiožurnál, Dvojka and

on the medium and long wave bands was terminated, and thus the broadcasting of Czech Radio via AM was terminated altogether. In 2024, the regional station Český rozhlas Region was renamed Český rozhlas Střední Čechy.

Radio stations

Czech Radio operates 12 national stations and 14 regional stations. All ČRo stations broadcast via internet streaming, most of them digitally via

and DVB, some of them analogue via terrestrial transmitters.

Digital stations

Regional stations

Regional stations broadcast daily from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. (ČRo Brno, Plzeň and Ostrava until 7.30 p.m.) with several breaks. In these breaks, in the evening and at night, the programmes of the Central Bohemian ČRo Střední Čechy are broadcast nationwide.

Former stations

Broadcast of Radio 6, Leonardo, Radio Česko all ended in 2013.

Organization

Finance

The majority of Czech Radio's income comes from radio licence fees, which have been set at CZK 45 per month since 2005. ČRo's annual income from these fees in 2019 amounted to CZK 2.09 billion, or 91% of Czech Radio's total income of CZK 2.29 billion that year. The remaining few percent of the income is made up of revenues from Czech Radio's own business activities, which include, for example, the sale of limited advertising time, sponsorship revenues and licensing of recordings. According to Act No. 231/2001 Coll., on the Operation of Radio and Television Broadcasting and on Amendments to Other Acts, the time reserved for advertising and teleshopping may not exceed 3 minutes per day on each Czech Radio station, and a maximum of 5 minutes per day for local stations. Commercial messages may not be included in news, journalistic and educational programmes, with the exception of cultural and sports broadcasts, if advertising is part of them in terms of the conditions of the broadcasting rights.

Logos

The original logo of Czech Radio was used between 1992 and 1995. Since 1996, the radio has had a logo created by the Men On The Moon agency, which won the Logo of the Year award in 1997. Since 2013, Czech Radio has used the logo designed by Studio Marvil. File:Český rozhlas - logo 1992.jpg, 1992-1995 File:Český rozhlas - logo 1996.svg, 1996-2013 File:CRo-Cesky rozhlas-H-RGB.png, 2013-present

References

Bibliography

* * * Content in this edit is translated from the existing Czech Wikipedia article at :cs:Český rozhlas; see its history for attribution.

External links

*
LyngSat Logo – Czechia
– Logos of Czech Radio stations {{coord, 50, 04, 43, N, 14, 26, 04, E, type:landmark_region:CZ, display=title * Radio stations in the Czech Republic European Broadcasting Union members Publicly funded broadcasters State media Mass media companies established in 1923 Radio stations established in 1923 1923 establishments in Czechoslovakia