Mailbox
In this week's edition: Responses to Radio Prague's programmes covering the 15th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. Radio Prague's programme structure. Listeners quoted: Janice Pacl Hare, USA; Gilles Letourneau, Canada; Alisdair Cook, Canada; William Flynn, USA.
"Happy 15th Anniversary! Your "Velvet Revolution" made a dream possible for me. I had hoped to visit the country of my ancestors before I died, and the fall of Communism 15 years ago made that possible. My husband and I finally made the trip three years ago and looked for traces of the Pacl family in Mnichovo Hradiste with the help of a college student translator. Next May we are returning to your beautiful country and our roots and are looking forward to heaps of knedliki and zeli and Urquel beer, as well as your luscious pastries! Congratulations on the progress you have made in fifteen short years! I'm sure there have been additional improvements since our last visit."
This letter came from the city of Montreal in Quebec, Canada and was written by Gilles Letourneau. "My name is Gilles and I am a faithful listener to Radio Prague and have been for more than 20 years. I am writing to let you know that I really enjoyed your little series about the end of communism 15 years ago. It really brings back a lot of memories. When I used to listen to Radio Prague back in 1982, '83, '84 etc., back then you were still Czechoslovakia, and Radio Prague was very different from today, state controlled and propaganda driven. I really enjoyed this series and hope to hear much more of it."
Also from Canada but from the province of Alberta, arrived this letter from our listener Alisdair Cook.
"I wake up and listen to your show each morning at 5.15am local time here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, courtesy of the overnight service of the Canadian Broadcasting Company, CBC. I enjoy the show immensely, and you and the team have increased my knowledge of your cities, culture and heritage to the extent that my curiosity is now out of control, and I have to come and spend some time in Prague soaking up the atmosphere this coming year! Thank you, you are truly an ambassador of your country and should be rightfully proud of your efforts."
And another letter of praise has arrived from Mr
"I wanted to drop a quick message to your station to let you know how much I enjoy listening on a regular basis to your service. Radio Prague provides a valuable service to the international audience that is interested in your country and its people. I especially enjoy the friendly and informal presentation of your announcers and my only complaint is that the 28 minutes or so goes by so quickly. Some of your programs are much too short and really deserve more than the 5 minutes or so your schedule allows. I like what you do with your Saturday program - alternating Insight Central Europe with other Radio Prague features depending on which transmission you listen to. Have you considered using the same format on other days of the week - that way you could lengthen certain programs without having to cancel other programs to fit everything in. You are fortunate that you are able to broadcast many English transmissions each day, so why not take advantage of your schedule and broadcast different features in different transmissions like on Saturdays?"
The person who can answer this question best is Radio Prague's editor-in-chief David Vaughan.
"Well, in fact, up until the early 1990s Radio Prague's English Service did broadcast two programmes. They weren't completely different - part of the programme was the same but they were at different times and there were slight changes. In those days, I believe, the English Section had about - if I remember rightly -15 people. Today there is half that number, so obviously it's harder to produce that volume of material. "
"And up to now we've chosen to go for a compact, high quality half-hour rather than trying to expand too much and to try and make too much material and to rush it. Although Insight Central Europe which we broadcast on Saturdays is an exception. The great thing about that is that it's a co-production. That means that although we put a lot of time into it because we're the station that produces the programme, there are lots of contributions from other countries, from other stations, and because we've just received a grant from the Visegrad Fund (that's a body which gives grants in Central Europe) we hope to make that programme even better, or even richer, let's say. "
"But at this stage I don't really see a possibility of producing two completely separate half hours. I must say I have thought of the idea of making a longer programme, more than half an hour, maybe an hour-long programme. Once again we've got the problem that we haven't got the people really to make it. But maybe it would be possible if we also played more music, because I know that some listeners say they would like to hear more music. That perhaps with a bit of clever planning and programming it would be possible. So I would be interested to know what listeners feel about that, whether they think that would be a good idea."
So as Radio Prague's editor-in-chief David Vaughan has just said, you are very welcome to send us your comments and ideas concerning the structure of our broadcasts - as well as the contents, of course.
Because we are nearly out of time today, let me repeat Radio Prague's listeners' competition question for the month of November. Don't forget that your answers have to reach us by November 30th, which is in two days' time.
"One of the most famous polkas, a big hit during the Second World War, which is to this day played and sung in many countries of the world under different names, was composed by a Czech. We'd like to know the name of the composer and the name of the famous polka, in whichever language you prefer."
As I said, your answers should reach us by Tuesday, November 30th at [email protected]. A good old-fashioned letter probably would not arrive in time but here's the address anyway, if you'd like to send us your comments or question, or indeed photos of yourselves and your family or postcards of your city or town, as many of you do. So the address is Radio Prague, English Section, 12099 Prague 2, Czech Republic. Don't forget, there is a CD waiting for the lucky winner of our November competition whose name we will announce next Sunday.
