Latvijas Radio (shortened LR; literally "Latvia's Radio") is

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

's national public-service

radio broadcasting Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

network. It began broadcasting on 1 November 1925, and has its headquarters in the Latvian capital,

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the ...

. Latvijas Radio broadcasts six different channels in the

FM band The FM broadcast band is a range of radio frequencies used for FM broadcasting by radio stations. The range of frequencies used differs between different parts of the world. In Europe and Africa (defined as International Telecommunication Union ( ...

as well as via the internet: Latvijas Radio 1, Latvijas Radio 2, Latvijas Radio 3 – Klasika, Latvijas Radio 4 – Doma laukums, Latvijas Radio 5 – Pieci.lv, and Latvijas Radio 6 – Radio NABA.

History

Latvijas Radio is a national cultural institution, fostering

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine t ...

, and organizing a radio

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

as well as children's vocal groups. The organization's

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

ic archives contain approximately 200,000 sound recordings. Latvijas Radio became a member of the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the C ...

(EBU) on 1 January 1993. From the restoration of Latvia's independence in 1991 to 31 December 1992, it was a member of the

International Radio and Television Organisation The International Radio and Television Organisation (official name in French: Organisation Internationale de Radiodiffusion et de Télévision or OIRT (before 1960 International Broadcasting Organization (IBO), official name in French: ''Organi ...

(OIRT). Since 2013, it has collaborated with

Latvijas Televīzija Latvijas Televīzija (''Latvian Television'', LTV) is the state-owned public service television broadcaster in Latvia. LTV operates two channels, LTV1 in Latvian and LTV7 (previously called LTV2) in Latvian with selected programming in Russia ...

(Latvian Television) as part of the

Public Broadcasting of Latvia Public Broadcasting of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas sabiedriskais medijs, lit=Latvian Public Media – LSM) is a publicly funded radio and television organization operated by both of Latvia's public broadcasters – Latvian Television and Radio Latvi ...

news platform and online streaming service. The broadcaster has been fully funded by the state budget since 1 January 2021, when, after years of debate, it and television broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija exited the

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

market. Latvijas Radio (as ''Radio Riga'') also broadcast programming in Swedish from 1960 to 1995.

Radio stations

Latvijas Radio 1 (LR1)

LR1 is Latvia's main national radio station, presenting news, talk, current affairs programmes and analysis of economics, Latvian politics and culture, as well as programmes for children. The station's first broadcast was made on 1 November 1925. Slogan: ''Latvijas radio 1 – vienmēr pirmais'' ("Always first").

Latvijas Radio 2 (LR2)

LR2, originally conceived as a youth station, today specializes in the broadcasting of Latvian-language pop and country music. Slogan: ''Dziesmas dzimtajā valodā'' ("Songs in our native language").

Latvijas Radio 3 – Klasika (LR3)

LR3 is the only station in Latvia broadcasting classical music and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

. Latvijas Radio's membership of the

(EBU) means that the station's output includes relays of international concerts and other

live broadcast A live broadcast, also called a live transmission, generally refers to various types of media that are broadcast without a significant delay. The most common seen media example of the live transmission is a news program or a news broadcasting. ...

s. Slogan: ''Mode mainās – klasika paliek'' ("Fashions change – the classics remain").

Latvijas Radio 4 – Doma laukums (LR4)

LR4 broadcasts in

minority languages A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) and ...

, chiefly in

Russian language Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European language family. It is one of four living E ...

, with programmes serving Latvia's Russian-speaking community. Slogan: ''Jūsu telpa, jūsu laiks'', ''Ваше пространство и ваше время'' ("Your space, your time").

Latvijas Radio 5 – Pieci.lv (LR5)

LR5 is Latvijas Radio's newest station, playing youth-oriented music from Latvia and other countries. “Pieci” in Latvian means “Five” and “Pieci.lv” could be translated as “Five.lv”

Latvijas Radio 6 – Radio NABA (LR6)

Free-format radio produced in association with the

University of Latvia University of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Universitāte, shortened ''LU'') is a state-run university located in Riga, Latvia established in 1919. The ''QS World University Rankings'' places the university between 801st and 1000th globally, seventh ...

. At first, Radio NABA was a radio station produced by University of Latvia with help from Latvijas Radio (until March 2014. - the fifth channel on Latvijas Radio). When Pieci.lv formed in 2014, some programmes from Radio NABA continued to broadcast on Pieci.lv, but from February 2015 Radio NABA continued as a full-time radio station as Latvijas Radio sixth channel.

Station logos

Latvijas Radio 1 Logo.png, Latvijas Radio 1 Latvijas Radio 2 Logo.png, Latvijas Radio 2 Latvijas Radio 3 Klasika Logo.png, Latvijas Radio 3 – Klasika Latvijas Radio 4 Doma laukums Logo.png, Latvijas Radio 4 – Doma laukums Latvijas Radio 5 Pieci.lv Logo.png, Latvijas Radio 5 – Pieci.lv Latvijas Radio 6 Naba Logo.png, Latvijas Radio 6 – NABA

References

External links

* {{coord, 56, 57, 00, N, 24, 06, 21, E, region:LV_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Radio in Latvia Publicly funded broadcasters European Broadcasting Union members Eastern Bloc mass media Multilingual broadcasters 1925 establishments in Latvia Radio stations established in 1925 State media