Mailbox

Today in Mailbox: The reduction of the number of the English Section’s monthly competition winners; the Žižkov TV tower, SoundCzech, Radio Prague on Facebook. Listeners quoted: S. J. Agboola, Bob Boundy, John, Matt, Tommaso Debenedetti.

Hello and welcome to Mailbox, Radio Prague's weekly programme for your views and comments.

First up we have this letter from S. J. Agboola from Nigeria:

“I and my family are devoted listeners to Radio Prague's broadcasts in English. However, the way the Mystery Person component of Mailbox is being handled now is too discouraging. How can it be that out of ALL of us who got the right answer in the last Mystery Person contest, only ONE person was given a prize instead of the usual four? In fact, the gesture is pregnant with negative meanings.”

As far as we are concerned, the negative meanings are called “budget cuts”. In case you didn’t follow our broadcasts closely in the past few months, Radio Prague faced the prospect of having to close down its shortwave service as a result of a substantial reduction of the station’s budget. The good news is that Radio Prague remains on the air but the bad news is that we need to look for every little opportunity to save money. Besides, reducing the number of winners from four to one each month only brought the English section in line with all the remaining five language departments as our listeners enjoyed special treatment for several years in this respect. It was nice while it lasted but I’m afraid, we need to adapt to a new reality now.

Bob Boundy writes from New Zealand:

“I now have a permanent antenna outside and since listening at 0800 UTC at 9pm our time reception has been excellent. I hope that when your time change takes place, the time and the 7345 frequency will stay the same. I got the first QSL card of the Czech writers and was very impressed with it so I will collect all of them. I use Radio Prague’s website a lot. I’m also glad that Radio Prague is keeping the short wave service going. It has certainly made me and many other listeners down here very happy.”

It made Radio Prague’s staff very happy, too, believe me. I’m afraid we still don’t know whether and how the frequencies will change as of the end of March.

Here is an e-mail from John from the US state of Montana:

Wenceslaus Hollar - 'Dobrá kočka, která nemlsá'

“I just stumbled across your SoundCzech program on the internet and it's really great. How did you know English speakers would enjoy learning Czech phrases from lyrics of songs? That is very clever for certain. Could you explain the title of the song by Lucie from the 21-11-2009 Jan Velinger show titled ‘If you’re afraid, don’t go into the forest’? The song title is: “Dobrá kočka, která nemlsá”. Would that translate as something like 'Good forest Cat'?”

“Dobrá kočka, která nemlsá” translates literally as “a good cat that doesn’t eat on the sly”. It also happens to be the title of an engraving by the 17th-century Czech-born artist Wenceslaus Hollar. It features the head of a cat and a Czech and German inscription: “Dobrá kočka, která nemlsá” and “Das ist Eine Gutte Katz die nicht nascht”. The title has been translated as “A good cat, which never steals,” or “It's a good cat that doesn't steal tidbits” or “A good cat is not greedy”.

Matt writes from the UK:

“Can you help? Has the Žižkov Tower really closed? Is this where you broadcast from? I have been twice to the tower on previous trips to Prague and so wanted to visit again this April from the UK. I was hoping to ask my girlfriend to marry me in the quiet surroundings of the observation tower – is this now impossible?”

The Žižkov TV tower is not where we broadcast from and it has indeed been closed to visitors since mid-January as the company that ran the restaurant and the lookout space ended its operation. No further official information is available at the moment.

Tommaso Debenedetti listens to Radio Prague in Rome, Italy:

“I'm an enthusiast Italian listener of the splendid program Mailbox. I'm a journalist here in Rome and I listen to you every Sunday. Your program is very, very important because it is an intelligent, important space for SW listeners worldwide. I think that Radio Praha SW broadcast is fantastic, the best worldwide, and I want to suggest to you to continue and to increase your SW program, and in general the world service of your great Radio Praha.”

Radio Prague's Facebook pages

Thank you very much for that, we really appreciate encouragement and in fact all listener feedback in these volatile times. We are happy to know that you are out there following our broadcasts.

Also, you may be interested to know that Radio Prague recently launched its own profile on the social networking site Facebook. You can become a fan of Radio Prague and be informed of the day’s feature in your news feed. You will find a link to Radio Prague’s Facebook page on our website www.radio.cz.

And all we have time for now is our regular quiz question:

This month we are asking you to tell us the name of the 10th century Bohemian nobleman, priest, bishop and missionary who traveled around Europe and was killed while trying to spread Christianity in Prussia. He is the Patron saint of Bohemia but also Poland, Hungary and Prussia.

Please send us your answers by the end of February to [email protected] or Radio Prague, 12099 Prague which are also the addresses for your reception reports, questions and comments. Thanks for listening today and until next week, take care.