Mailbox
This week in Mailbox: Radio Prague’s annual contest; important message for Andrew Bultas; the Czech-born tennis legend Martina Navrátilová; reception reports from Australia and New Zealand; earthquakes in the Czech Republic. Listeners quoted: Andrew Bultas, Mostofa Kamal, Bob Boundy, Sanusi Isah, Li Ming.
Hello and welcome to Mailbox, the programme for your views and comments. Every first Sunday of a month we traditionally announce the winners of our monthly competition but as May ended only yesterday, we’ve postponed that until next week.
You will have noticed that our recent quiz questions have concerned outstanding Czech sporting personalities. They are meant to give you inspiration for our annual contest which this year also relates to Czech sportspeople. All you need to do is write a few lines to answer the following question:
Which Czech sportsperson or team has particularly impressed you?
Write and tell us what you know about them and why you admire them. The author of the best entry will win a week-long stay for two in the Czech Republic and there will also be valuable prizes for the runners up. Your answers need to reach us by June 13th, 2008 at Radio Prague, Vinohradská 12, 12099 Prague 2, Czech Republic or via e-mail at [email protected]
The best entries will be read on the air on June 29 on Radio Prague and will be displayed on our website www.radio.cz
The main prize is sponsored by OREA HOTELS, one of the Czech Republic’s major hotel chains.
“I am very interested to find out more about Martina Navrátilová. At present time what does she do? I want to hear an intervew with her on Radio Prague and invite her to visit Bangladesh.”
We already spoke about Martina in Mailbox in March. That was shortly after she had regained Czech citizenship. Radio Prague did broadcast an interview with the Czech-born tennis legend – it is still available on our website at http://www.radio.cz/en/article/78718 To keep up-to-date with Martina’s activities around the world it is probably best to visit her official website.
Now, we have an important message for Mr Andrew Bultas who has repeatedly complained about not receiving our e-mail news bulletins.
“I have not been receiving the e-mails of Radio.cz since May 9, 2008. Is there any reason that you have stopped e-mailing the daily programs to me?”
As a matter of fact we haven’t stopped sending them but your e-mail account stopped accepting them. We simply cannot get through to you. All e-mails to you sent from various addresses have bounced back with the explanation that your account is blocked for abuse.
In the meantime, I would like to thank everyone who has sent in their views on the “Blob” or planned new National Library building in Prague. The response from our listeners has largely been negative so far. So if you do like the futuristic design and would you like to see the building erected in Prague – do let us know and we will air your comments in one of our programmes-to-come.
Your reception reports from our May 18th special programme have been keeping our assistants busy as dozens of QSL cards are posted every day to different parts of the world. Bob Boundy from New Zealand would like to know this:
“At the end of Mailbox on May 25 you mentioned some countries from which listeners had sent reports for the special 85-year anniversary QSL cards. You did not mention Australia or New Zealand so I am wondering if you got my report and others from down under? Reception is not good here once again and thank goodness I have the computer to rely on.”
I’m afraid we have only received one reception report from Australia so far. But otherwise around twenty reception reports reach us from Australia and New Zealand every month.
And finally, two e-mails on a related topic reached us recently. The first one from Sanusi Isah from Nigeria:
“How many people are confirmed dead or missing following the recent earthquakes in Sichuan province and what is the total figure of casualties?”
And Li Ming from China sent in this:
“Well, perhaps you know, China is one of the world's most quake-prone countries, so I wonder what about the Czech Republic. Has any earthquake ever happened in the Czech Republic? Thank you for your response!”
As Radio Prague is concerned primarily with events in the Czech Republic, we are in a better position to answer the second question. For the first one it would be best to follow international news organisations that have reporters on the ground in China.
The Czech Republic is fortunate to be located in a geologically fairly stable area. We do have weak earthquakes from time to time, particularly in the Northwest of the country where there are also numerous thermal springs which are evidence of seismic activity. Records have been kept since the 16th century, and the strongest earthquake so far has reached 4.8 degrees on the Richter scale.
And one last thing: many listeners have written in asking when David Vaughan’s series From the Archives will be back. Well, you can look forward to hearing the first installment in the new series next Thursday.
Thanks for listening today and please tune in again next week when we announce the winners of our monthly quiz as well as a new competition question for June. In the meantime, all your comments are welcomed at [email protected] or Radio Prague, 12099 Prague. Good-bye.
