The Polish Radio (PR; Polish: ''Polskie Radio'', PR) is a national public-service

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

broadcasting organization of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, founded in 1925. It is owned by the State Treasury of Poland. On 27 December 2023, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, due to the President's veto on the financing of the company, placed it in liquidation.

History

200px, Aleksander Zelwerowicz and Ludwik Solski on Polskie Radio, 1949">Ludwik_Solski.html" ;"title="Aleksander Zelwerowicz and Ludwik Solski">Aleksander Zelwerowicz and Ludwik Solski on Polskie Radio, 1949 Polskie Radio was founded on 18 August 1925 and began making regular broadcasts from

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

on 18 April 1926. Before the Second World War, Polish Radio operated one national channel – broadcast from 1931 from one of Europe's most powerful longwave transmitters, situated at Raszyn just outside Warsaw and destroyed in 1939 due to invasion of Wehrmacht, German Army – and nine regional stations: *

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

from 15 February 1927 *

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

from 24 April 1927 *

Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...

from 4 December 1927 * Wilno from 15 January 1928 * Lwów from 15 January 1930 *

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

from 2 February 1930 *

Toruń Toruń is a city on the Vistula River in north-central Poland and a World Heritage Sites of Poland, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its population was 196,935 as of December 2021. Previously, it was the capital of the Toruń Voivodeship (1975–199 ...

from 15 January 1935 * Warszawa from 1 March 1937 – known as Warszawa II, the national channel becoming Warszawa I from this date *

Baranowicze Baranavichy or Baranovichi is a city in the Brest Region of western Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Baranavichy District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it has a population of 170,817. ...

from 1 July 1938 A tenth regional station was planned for Łuck, but the outbreak of war meant that it never opened. The

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

led to the destruction of the network in September 1939, with its final broadcast being a performance of Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth. by Władysław Szpilman. Years later, Szpilman played the same piece for the reopening of the station. After the war, Polskie Radio was reconstructed with the assistance of the Soviet

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

, which valued radio as a propaganda medium. It came under the tutelage of the state public broadcasting body ''Komitet do Spraw Radiofonii'' "Polskie Radio" (later "Polskie Radio i Telewizja" – PRT, Polish Radio and Television). This body was dissolved in 1992, Polskie Radio S.A. and

Telewizja Polska Telewizja Polska S.A. (; TVP), also known in English as Polish Television, is a Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster in Poland, founded in 1952. It is the oldest and largest Polish television network. After 2015, when the right-wing po ...

S.A. becoming politically dependent corporations, each of which was admitted to full active membership 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 ...

on 1 January 1993 with the merger of EBU and

OIRT The International Radio and Television Organisation (official name in French: Organisation Internationale de Radiodiffusion et de Télévision or OIRT (before 1960 International Broadcasting Organization (IBO), official name in French: ''Organ ...

Channels

National

* Program 1 (Jedynka – One) – information and

adult contemporary music Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, sou ...

( LW (225 kHz), FM,

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

Internet radio Internet radio, also known as online radio, web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio and IP radio, is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not ...

) * Program 2 (Dwójka – Two) –

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

and cultural (FM, DAB+ and the internet) * Program 3 (Trójka – Three) – rock, alternative,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

, and eclectic (FM, DAB+ and the internet) * Polskie Radio 24 (PR24) – news and spoken-magazines (FM, DAB+ and the internet) * Program 4 (Czwórka – Four) – youth oriented (DAB+ and the internet) * – Polish classical music (DAB+ and the internet) * – children programming during daytime, parents magazines in the evening and

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

music at night (DAB+ and the internet) * – music and information for drivers' (DAB+ and the internet) * – polish music (internet only)

Regional stations

Polskie Radio also operates 17 regional radio stations (operating on FM and DAB+), located in: *

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the List of cities and towns in Poland, tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Biał ...

( Radio Białystok) *

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia. Straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its bank (geography), left-bank tributary, the Brda (river), Brda, the strategic location of Byd ...

( Radio Pomorza i Kujaw) *

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

( Radio Gdańsk) *

( Radio Katowice) *

Kielce Kielce (; ) is a city in south-central Poland and the capital of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. In 2021, it had 192,468 inhabitants. The city is in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), on the banks of the Silnic ...

( Radio Kielce) *

Koszalin Koszalin (; ; , ) is a city in northwestern Poland, in Western Pomerania. It is located south of the Baltic Sea coast, and intersected by the river Dzierżęcinka. Koszalin is also a county-status city and capital of Koszalin County of West Pomera ...

( Radio Koszalin) *

( Radio Kraków) *

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

( Radio Lublin) *

( Radio Łódź) *

Olsztyn Olsztyn ( , ) is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with powiat rights, city with county rights. The population of the city was estimated at 169,793 residents Olsz ...

( Radio Olsztyn) * Opole ( Radio Opole) *

( Radio Poznań) *

Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów is the capital of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship and the county seat, seat of Rzeszów C ...

( Polskie Radio Rzeszów) *

Szczecin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Poland-Germany border, German border, it is a major port, seaport, the la ...

( Radio Szczecin) *

( Polskie Radio RDC) *

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

( Radio Wrocław) *

Zielona Góra Zielona Góra (; ''Green Mountain''; ) is the largest city in Lubusz Voivodeship, located in western Poland, with 140,403 inhabitants (). The region is closely associated with vineyards and holds an annual Zielona Góra Wine Fest, Wine Fest. Zie ...

( Radio Zachód)

City stations

Polskie Radio offers city stations in: * Gorzów Wielkopolski – Radio Gorzów *

– Radio Freee *

– MC Radio *

Słupsk Słupsk (; ; ) is a city with powiat rights located on the Słupia River in the Pomeranian Voivodeship in northern Poland, in the historical region of Pomerania or more specifically in its part known in contemporary Poland as Central Pomerania ...

– Radio Słupsk *

– Radio Szczecin Extra *

– Radio RAM *

– Radio Zielona Góra *

– Radio Łódź Nad Wartą All city stations but Radio Szczecin Extra are being broadcast on FM and in Internet, while Radio Szczecin Extra is available only in Internet and via

Digital-only

Polskie Radio also offers regional digital-only stations (all operating in Internet and DAB+ only) in: *

– Folk Radio (folk music) *

– OFF Radio Kraków (cultural) *

– Radio Wrocław Kultura (cultural) * Opole – Radio Opole 2 *

– Radio Warmii i Mazur *

–

Radio Łódź Extra Radio is the technology of telecommunication, communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...

– Radio Kraków Kultura

International

* Radio Poland (known until January 2007 as Radio Polonia) – external broadcasts in Belarusian, English, German, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian – 1386 AM, HotBird 13, DAB+ (in Poland) and the internet

Music charts

Polskie Radio Trójka has been compiling Polish music charts since 1982 – in an era before there were any commercial sales or airplay rankings – making them a significant record of musical popularity in Poland. Chart archives dating from 1982 are available to the public via the station's website.

"Dwa Teatry" Festival

Since 2001, Polskie Radio, jointly with

, hold the "Dwa Teatry" Festival" ( Polish: ''Two Theaters''), an annual festival showcasing their

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

and radio plays. During the closing ceremony, awards are presented in several categories, recognizing the best productions and acting performances.

Notable people associated with Polskie Radio

Czesław Miłosz Czesław Miłosz ( , , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. He primarily wrote his poetry in Polish language, Polish. Regarded as one of the great poets of the ...

, recipient of the 1980

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

, worked as a literary programmer at Polish Radio Wilno in 1936.

Controversy

A.I generated programming

On 29 October 2024, OFF Radio Krakow released a programme that presented itself as an interview with laureate

Wisława Szymborska Maria Wisława Anna SzymborskaVioletta Szostagazeta.pl, 9 February 2012. ostęp 11 February 2012 (; 2 July 1923 – 1 February 2012) was a Polish people, Polish poet, essayist, translator, and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Liter ...

who had died in 2012 thus her voice being artificially generated; this was not long after its entire editorial team was dismissed. This was met with outrage with audiences voicing support for the dismissed crew as well as the signing of a petition against the move with more than 15,000 names in.

References

External links

Polskie Radio Online

Polskie Radio SA – corporation site

theNews.pl – Polish Radio broadcasts in English

Polish Radio News Portal

Polish Radio News Music and Music Band News
{{coord missing, Masovian Voivodeship 1925 establishments in Poland Eastern Bloc mass media Radio stations established in 1925 Publicly funded broadcasters Polish news websites Companies based in Warsaw Mass media in Warsaw Mokotów