TV Herald broadcasting weekly to Czech-American community

The name Herald TV comes from the newspaper Hlasatel, known in English as the Czechoslovak Daily Herald. The paper was founded 1891 and is apparently the oldest Czech daily in the world. John Honner worked at Hlasatel before launching Herald TV last year. On the line from Chicago he explains why.

"I began the TV because I want to keep the Czech Bohemian and Moravian culture in the United States alive. We really keep the traditions. We broadcast about the Czech-American community and their activities, many non-profit organisations like American Sokol stuff and Czechoslovak Genealogy. And many other organisations."

TV Herald is broadcast in the Chicago area every Sunday, but can be seen around the world in very decent quality and at any time on the internet. But wherever you are, you don't have to speak Czech to enjoy it.

John Honner says Czech-American TV Herald works with several other media organisations, including a radio station you may have heard of.

"We co-operate with a few local TV stations in the Czech Republic, and we co-operate especially well with your station, Radio Prague. We promote Radio Prague on our broadcasts."

TV Herald has been going since May. What has been the reaction of viewers to this unique station?

"The reaction is nice, people like it. We get a lot of emails and phone calls. People really enjoy the broadcasts, especially at Christmas time when we broadcast traditional Czech Christmas songs, like koledy [carols]."

What's next for John Honner and TV Herald?

"We want to broadcast twice a week, and for longer. Because I have a lot of video material which I want to show to the Czech-American community in the United States."

You can watch TV Herald in the Chicago area or on the internet at www.catvherald.com