For the past 75 years, Czech Radio has been a source of news, music, sports, and culture for the Czech people. On February 22, 1998, Czech Radio’s Aleš Procházka was commentating on the ice-hockey final at the Winter Olympics in Nagano when Petr Svoboda scored the winning goal against Russia, bringing the Czech team gold.
Czech Radio’s beginnings date back to 1925 when it was taken under the wing of the Post and Telegraphs Ministry after getting into financial difficulties. In the 1930s, broadcasting was not just being used as a “bond among nations”, as Nazi Germany launched a vicious propaganda campaign against Czechoslovakia.
The 1950s saw Czechoslovak Radio become highly politicised and broadcasts were subjected to political censorship. The period of the reforms of the 1960s was a golden age in Czechoslovak Radio, and a time of growing openness to the world. Louis Armstrong visited Prague in 1965 and his performance is preserved in the radio archives.
The role of Czechoslovak Radio during the Prague Spring and the Soviet invasion of August 1968 is well known. The radio managed to carry on broadcasting secretly for some time after the invasion. In 1989, Czechoslovak Radio did not play a particularly active role in the events of the Velvet Revolution, but once it was clear that the communist regime was collapsing, it did become more involved.
Today, Czech Radio continues to thrive as a public-service broadcaster, aspiring to continue in the work of breaking down psychological walls.