Happy 2020 to Radio Prague International listeners the world over!
As the year draws to a close all of us here at the English department of Radio Prague International would like to thank our devoted listeners the world over for their dedication to the station, for being with us and taking the time to drop us a line or write an email to share your views about what you found particularly interesting and what you’d like to hear more of on Radio Prague International.
In this special edition of Mailbox I’d like to quote from a few of your letters and emails and reveal a little of what’s in the pipeline for 2020.
2019 was packed with important developments and here at RPI we did our best to keep you informed and in the picture as well as occasionally trying to raise a smile over some of what’s been happening.
Hans Verner Lollike from Denmark wrote “I think nobody could have foreseen what happened and how fast it happened –and it was all peaceful except for Romania.“
Shin Makino from Japan wrote: Today’s topic was very helpful for me to know about the Velvet Revolution and the changes in politics and society after that.
Many of you appreciate our Sunday Music Show.
Hideyuiki Kobayashi from Japan wrote to say he listens to Sunday Music show with great pleasure and looks forward to every new show. Well, I hope it will please you to hear that we will focus on Czech classical music in a new music series with the start of the new year.
Mikio Kohara from Japan wrote: I see you have changed your name to RPI.
Indeed we did, fairly quietly without any pomp and ceremony, so not many of you even noticed. The reason is we wanted Radio Prague to be recognized as an international station at first glance – since we found that some people in this country think it is a service for the Anglo-American community in Prague.
To quote from a few more letters from regular listeners:
Tim Watson from the US wrote „ Lately I‘ve been listening to Radio Prague via the WRMI shortwave relay, but this morning I listened to the podcast before heading off to work.“
Bill Hvoyda– another radio hobbyist in the United States said „Thanks for helping to keep the radio hobby alive!“
Joseph Howse from Canada wrote: Thank you for the fascinating historical program about Czech and Slovak airmen serving in the RAF in WWII.
You may be glad to hear that we are going to focus more on podcasts in the coming year – In Their Own Words (history) and My Prague are available at the present time and others will be coming soon. So do tell us what you would be interested in.
Andrew Yoder from US wrote – I am 52, married with 2 children. Have been listening to shortwave radio since 1981. I listen to short wave radio a lot but I don’t listen to many podcasts. Could you send me a QSL?
It is on its way Andrew, and for all those of you still collecting them -we will soon have a new series of QSLs showing radio transmitters.
You may also be interested to learn that we are preparing a new literature series next year called The Czech books you must read! Each part will have its own video teaser. So don’t miss them.
Catherine Kraina from Australia wrote to say thank you for the useful information we bring:
“Good roundup of the news & culture. The daily email is great. Radio Prague helped me get Czech citizenship. True story. In the daily email there was a link to this story, which alerted me to a one year window to apply for citizenship. There was, and is, discrimination against those who fled the communists and their children, and the one year window allowed them to regain or apply for citizenship. The window was about to close, so I filled out the forms and flew to Sydney to get the process started at the Czech consulate. It took a long time, but I now have a lovely Czech passport. There is currently legislation going through the Czech Parliament to change things for people like me, but without the Radio Prague story, I wouldn’t have known about the possibility to apply.”
Richard Nowak from Florida also had praise for Radio Prague International saying: The program was informative and educational. Radio Prague is a great station and a beacon of news and culture from Central Europe.
Radio Prague International has a growing number of Facebook fans – we recently crossed the 10,000 followers mark – thank you for following us on Facebook and to name just a few dedicated followers:
Judita Majcher, Andrzej Kuśmierczyk, Ulf Brodin, Paul Daddy, Bird Castle, HM Dxer,
Ernest Poley, Katherine Chandler, Chuck Korda, and many more…
So thank you to all those of you following us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We appreciate your feedback.
And finally wishes for a happy New Year from one of our most devoted listeners: Jayanta Chakrabarty from India who sent Christmas and New Year wishes in Czech and wrote:
Thank you for that and for all the Christmas and New Year’s greetings that have been pouring in from around the world via email, Facebook and snail mail. We too wish you a happy New Year wherever you may be and thank you for your interest in Radio Prague International.
If there’s anything you miss on Radio Prague International or would like to find out more about do let us know. The address is [email protected] or write by snail mail to Radio Prague International, Vinohradská 12, 120 99, Prague, Czech Republic.
You can also follow us on Facebook ,Twitter and YouTube. Many thanks again for listening to Radio Prague International and for getting in touch. Happy New Year 2020!
