Magyar Rádió (MR, ''The Hungarian Radio Corporation'', also known internationally as ''Radio Budapest'') is

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

's publicly funded radio broadcasting organisation. It is also the country's official

international broadcasting International broadcasting, in a limited extent, began during World War I, when German and British stations broadcast press communiqués using Morse code. With the severing of Germany's undersea cables, the wireless telegraph station in Nauen was ...

station.

Domestic networks

With its headquarters in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

and several regional offices around the country, MR is responsible for public service broadcasting throughout the

Hungarian Republic Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croati ...

. 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

Named after

Lajos Kossuth Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva (, hu, udvardi és kossuthfalvi Kossuth Lajos, sk, Ľudovít Košút, anglicised as Louis Kossuth; 19 September 1802 – 20 March 1894) was a Hungarian nobleman, lawyer, journalist, polit ...

, the channel is the official radio station of

. It is the flagship channel of the Hungarian Radio. Created in 1925, the station nowadays has over 3 million listeners per day. It primarily broadcasts news, including interviews, discussions, reports and other speech-based programmes.

Petőfi Rádió

Named after the poet

Sándor Petőfi Sándor Petőfi ( []; né Petrovics; sk, Alexander Petrovič; sr, Александар Петровић; 1 January 1823 – most likely 31 July 1849) was a Hungarian poet of Serbian origin and liberal revolutionary. He is considered Hungary' ...

, the station is aimed at the younger generation and broadcasts

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former descri ...

Bartók Rádió

Named after the composer

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hu ...

, 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 Rádió

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

Parlamenti Adások

Parliamentarian broadcasts.

Dankó Rádió

Named after Pista Dankó, this radio station airs regional content throughout Hungary, plays folk music and broadcasts

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its ...

shows. It is available round the clock on the internet and FM. Also it broadcasts via

mediumwave Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the dayt ...

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 Kossuth Rádió (formerly known as ''MR1-Kossuth Rádió'', ''Radio Budapest'' and ''Budapest I.'') is the national radio station of Hungary. It was established in 1925 as Budapest I. and named after Lajos Kossuth, a Hungarian national hero, in 19 ...

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

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-centred 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

, 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. On December 22, 2012, All regional public service radio programs were cancelled and regional studios closed permanently. On June 30, 2011, Magyar Radio closed its Radio Theatre Office and dismissed all dramaturgy staff. Digital Radio Broadcasting (DAB+) experiments, that carried all public service stations, and were never licensed commercially, was terminated on September 5, 2020.

In popular culture

In 1974, Locomotiv GT's Locomotiv GT (Dunhill Records 811) was released with a

bumper sticker A bumper sticker is an adhesive label or sticker with a message, intended to be attached to the bumper of an automobile and to be read by the occupants of other vehicles—although they are often stuck onto other objects. Most bumper stickers ar ...

with the slogan "Radio Budapest Loves You!"

References

External links

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Kossuth Rádió Online

Petőfi Rádió Online

Bartók Rádió Online

Magyar Rádió Streaming
{{DEFAULTSORT:Magyar Radio Eastern Bloc mass media Radio stations in Hungary International broadcasters European Broadcasting Union members Hungarian-language radio stations Multilingual broadcasters Radio stations established in 1925 2015 disestablishments in Hungary Government-owned companies of Hungary MTVA (Hungary) Publicly funded broadcasters 1925 establishments in Hungary