Anglo-Polish Radio (also known as Radio ORLA and ORLA.fm) is an on-demand bilingual audio content producer for Polish and English-speaking audiences in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, formerly a broadcast radio station. The station was based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and also broadcast to listeners in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. Bilingual journalist George Matlock, the son of two Poles, is Radio ORLA's founder. Since 18 May 2015, the station has been exclusively available as a podcast publisher. In 2020 ORLA.fm moved to a new website '
ORLAfm.Media
'' in preparation for its relaunch with new content from 1 February 2022.

History

As a radio station

ORLA.fm was launched on 18 May 2006 by George Matlock, a journalist since 1990, after the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

's decision to close many

European language Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total European population of 744 million as of 2018, some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language. Within Indo-European, the three largest phyla are Rom ...

radio services in December of the previous year. The launch date was chosen to mark the birthdate of the Polish

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

. Matlock had organised a memorial service in London for the Pope's death in 2004. "Orla" in the station name is the Polish word for eagle, Poland's national symbol. Initially broadcasting exclusively online to an audience of 60,000, ORLA.fm was a community-based radio station which also accepts advertising and covered major Polish community events. The station's first studio was in Haven Green, right next to Ealing Broadway rail station and housed in the same building as the publication Polski Goniec, with whom the station had a short-lived collaboration. The radio station aired more English-language music than Polish. The station adopted a music rotation system, airing music from the last 50 years. In January, for instance, music that had charted in January of previous years would be played, and the same for each month of the year.

Chill-out Chill-out (shortened as chill; also typeset as chillout or chill out) is a loosely defined form of popular music characterized by slow tempos and relaxed moods. The definition of "chill-out music" has evolved throughout the decades, and generally ...

and

alternative music Alternative music may refer to the following types of music: *Alternative rock *Alternative pop *Alternative R&B *Neo soul, sometimes known as alternative soul *Alternative reggaeton *Alternative hip hop *Alternative dance *Alternative metal *Chris ...

also frequently received airtime. Initially, 60% of output was in Polish and 40% was in English. The station has interviewed Polish Presidents ( Kwasniewski, Kaczynski and Komorowski) as well as the last Polish president-in-exile,

Ryszard Kaczorowski Ryszard Kaczorowski, GCMG (; 26 November 1919 – 10 April 2010) was a Polish statesman. From 1989 to 1990, he served as the last President of Poland- in-exile. He succeeded Kazimierz Sabbat, and resigned his post following Poland's regaini ...

. The station co-produced a 4-part bi-lingual biography of Prince

Michal Kleofas Oginski Michal (; he, מיכל , gr, Μιχάλ) was, according to the first Books of Samuel, Book of Samuel, a princess of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), United Kingdom of Israel; the younger daughter of Saul, King Saul, she was the fir ...

, reportedly the composer of the

Polish national anthem ( " Dąbrowski's Mazurka"), in English officially known by its incipit Poland Is Not Yet Lost, is the national anthem of the Republic of Poland. The original lyrics were written by Józef Wybicki in Reggio Emilia, in Northern Italy, be ...

. The narrator was a direct descendant of Oginski, Iwo Zaluski. Other cultural features have included a radio play about Frederik Chopin on his last tour, a visit to Britain, with musical performances by

Peter Katin Peter Roy Katin ( ) (14 November 193019 March 2015) was a British classical pianist and teacher. Biography Katin was born in London; his father was sign-painter Jerrold Katin (who was born in Lithuania) and mother Gertrude. Katin was educated ...

and others on the very same two pianos which Chopin performed on in the UK. Radio ORLA.fm has been a partner of

Hayes FM Hayes FM (91.8 FM) is a community-focused local radio station based in Hayes, West London, England. Audience The target audience is people living and working within a three-mile radius of Hayes in the south of the London Borough of Hillingdo ...

91.8 in

west London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: North London ...

since September 2007, when Hayes launched, and provided Hayes with the weekly English-language cultural show ''London Bridge'', hosted by presenter George Matlock and "Fine" Art Skupienski. A recent addition has been a Briton, Kingsley, who offers his take on Poles. ''London Bridge'' ceased to broadcast in 2014, although podcasts of many of the shows are in the process of being rolled out on the station's on-demand platform. In January 2010, Radio ORLA.fm moved to a studio at the

Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College West London College, legally known as the Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College is a large further and higher education college in West London, England, formed in 2002 by the merger between Ealing Tertiary College and Hammersmith and West ...

, where it trained media students aged 16–18 years for a BTEC in radio reporting and production work. In January 2012, ORLA.fm launched an iPhone app and in October 2013 an Android app. In October 2013, ORLA.fm launched a marketing and content alliance with London-based Polish newspaper Nowy Czas. ORLA Bus for Maps

Shift to on-demand

In 2014, a strategic review of the station by its founder concluded that listeners were mostly drawn to the station by its unique content, such as interviews and news reports, and that there was a saturation of music radio stations competing with on-demand music vendors such as

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

and other content providers like

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. The decision was taken to relaunch as an on-demand content provider, dropping music and live broadcasts. Since the strategic review, ORLA.fm has focused on on-demand podcasts and its website is HTML5-compliant, ensuring content can be easily streamed or downloaded from any browser on devices like smartphones and tablets.

Milestones

* ORLA.fm was the first Polish radio station to broadcast in FM solely to London when it partnered with Hayes 91.8 FM in September 2007. Until then, the only British-Polish programming on FM had been

BBC Coventry & Warwickshire BBC CWR (Coventry & Warwickshire Radio) is the BBC's local radio station serving Coventry and Warwickshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Priory Place in Coventry city centre. According to RAJAR, t ...

's one-hour a week show in the

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

since 1990 (which ended in 2012). The short-lived Radio Supermowa in London was the first to broadcast a show on

DAB DAB, dab, dabs, or dabbing may refer to: Dictionaries * ''Dictionary of American Biography'', published under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies * ''Dictionary of Australian Biography'', published since 1949 Places * Dąb, ...

for six months in 2005. * ORLA.fm was the only radio station in Great Britain to ever interview long-serving Polish Ambassador

Barbara Tuge-Erecinska Barbara may refer to: People * Barbara (given name) * Barbara (painter) (1915–2002), pseudonym of Olga Biglieri, Italian futurist painter * Barbara (singer) (1930–1997), French singer * Barbara Popović (born 2000), also known mononymously as ...

, on a visit to the ORLA.fm Ealing Broadway studios in spring 2009. * ORLA.fm's first honorary patron was named in 2010 after the Smolensk air crash to be Lady Karolina Kaczorowski, the recent widow of the last Polish president-in-exile Ryszard Kaczorowski. Lady Karolina has maintained the association ever since.

References

External links