Magyar Rádió

Hungarian Radio
Type Radio network
Country Hungary
Availability Hungary and neighbouring countries
Headquarters 5-7 Bródy Sándor Str., Budapest, H-1088
Owner Media Service Support and Asset Management Fund (Government of Hungary)
Parent Duna Media Service
Key people
István Jónás (CEO)
Launch date
December 1, 1925
Official website
www.radio.hu
The headquarters of the Hungarian Radio in Budapest

Magyar Rádió (MR, The Hungarian Radio Corporation, also known internationally as Radio Budapest) is Hungary's publicly funded radio broadcasting organization. It is also the country's official international broadcasting station.

MR is managed and primarily funded by the Media Service Support and Asset Management Fund (Hungarian: Médiaszolgáltatás-támogató és Vagyonkezelő Alap, abbreviated MTVA).[1] This government organization, formed in 2011, also manages the public service broadcasters Magyar Televízió and Duna Televízió as well as the Hungarian news agency Magyar Távirati Iroda.[2]

On 1 July 2015, Magyar Rádió as well as the three other public media organizations managed by the MTVA were merged into a single organization called Duna Media Service (Hungarian: Duna Médiaszolgáltató).[3] This organization is the legal successor to Magyar Rádió and is an active member of the European Broadcasting Union.[4][5]

Domestic networks

With its headquarters in Budapest and several regional offices around the country, MR is responsible for public service broadcasting throughout the Hungarian Republic. As well as maintaining nine regional studios, the corporation produces three nationwide Hungarian-language radio channels (Kossuth, Petőfi, and Bartók) covering the full range of public-service radio provision, and a fourth channel (MR4) aimed at the country's linguistic minorities.

Kossuth Rádió

Main article: Kossuth Rádió

Named after Lajos Kossuth, the channel is the official radio station of Hungary. It is the flagship channel of the Hungarian Radio. Created in 1925, the station has over 3 million listeners per day.[6] It primarily broadcasts news, including interviews, discussions, reports and other speech-based programmes.

Petőfi Rádió

Named after the poet Sándor Petőfi, the station is aimed at the younger generation and broadcasts pop music.

Bartók Rádió

Named after the composer Béla Bartók, this is a dedicated classical music station. It hosts high culture talk programmes in addition to orchestral and opera music. Supposedly, only a few thousand people listen to this station and proposals to terminate Rádió Bartók have been made several times, but never enacted.

Nemzetiségi Adások

This radio channel airs programmes in languages of national minorities of Hungary.

Parlamenti Adások

Parliamentarian broadcasts.

Dankó Rádió

This radio station airs regional content throughout Hungary, plays folk music and broadcasts operetta shows. It is available round the clock on the internet and FM. Also it broadcasts via mediumwave on weekdays from 4:30am to 9:05pm and on weekends from 5:00am to 9:05pm. Then the station's frequencies are handed over to Kossuth Rádió for the rest of the night.

History and profile

Ever since its foundation, the Hungarian Radio P.L.C. has been a "citadel" of domestic information, and cultural life. Since December 1, 1925, the institution has had a decisive role in forming the Hungarian public opinion, and general taste.

It is true in spite of the fact that regular television broadcasts were launched in Hungary in 1958. Forty years later, in 1998, the dual media system was formed. Owing to that a regular competition started between the different mass media channels. Since commercial television and radio stations flooded the market primarily with entertainment industry products, the value-centered approach and program structure of the public service radio makes it, if possible, even more important to preserve its culture creating and broadcasting functions.

Hungarian Radio is a partner to the domestic audience and a link with the Hungarians over the borders, a chance for them to retain their national identity. Hungarian Radio could use the slogan often heard in radio commercials: "From clear source only". The buildings and studios of the Radio are located in Budapest, in the block between Bródy Sándor Street and Pollack Mihály Square. There are also two beautiful palaces in this area, one of them was owned earlier by the Eszterházy’s and the other one by the Károlyi family. The construction of Studio No. 6, the big orchestra studio, is linked with Georg von Békésy’s name, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his acoustic researches in 1961.

On July 1, 2007 Radio Budapest cancelled the programming in foreign languages.

The main theatrical director of Magyar Rádió is Otto Solymosi.

In 1974, Locomotiv GT's Locomotiv GT (Dunhill Records 811) was released with the slogan "Radio Budapest Loves You !"

See also

References

  1. "Media Law in Hungary". Center for Media and Communication Studies (CMCS). Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  2. "ABOUT MTVA - MTVA". Media Service Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA). Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  3. "Hungarian public service media companies merge - MTVA". Media Service Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA). Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  4. Polyák, Gábor (2015). "Hungary : New Amendment to the Media Act". IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory. Strasbourg, France: European Audiovisual Observatory (2). Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  5. "EBU - Active Members". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  6. http://www.radio.hu/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=66&Itemid=127

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