Leading Czech music critic Jiří Černý dies at 87

Leading Czech music critic, writer and journalist Jiří Černý has died at the age of 87. Černý hosted the first Czechoslovak radio hit parade Dvanáct na houpačce (Twelve on a Swing) and was the first editor-in-chief of Rock & Pop magazine. He was a popular Czech Radio music show host playing the Beatles and Karel Kryl for listeners in the thaw preceding the crushing of the Prague Spring. In November 1989, he participated in the founding of the Civic Forum and in December 2011 he hosted a concert in Lucerna as a tribute to the late Czech president Václav Havel. He wrote over a dozen books and post-1989 hosted his own show on Czech Radio’s Vltava channel for over ten years.