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

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

's national public-service

radio broadcasting Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio signal, 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 lan ...

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

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

. 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, dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the liste ...

, and organizing a radio

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

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

phonograph A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration Waveform, waveforms are recorded as correspond ...

ic archives contain approximately 200,000

sound recordings Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, Mechanical system, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of ...

. Latvijas Radio became a member of the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

(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: ''Organ ...

(OIRT). Since 2013, it has collaborated with

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

(Latvian Television) as part of the

Public Broadcasting of Latvia Public Service Media of Latvia ( – LSM) is a publicly funded radio and television organization operated by both of Latvia's public broadcasters – Latvijas Televīzija, Latvian Television and Latvijas Radio, Radio Latvia. LSM provides news, a ...

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 (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

market. The merger of LTV and Latvian Radio into LSM was completed on 2 January 2025. 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. The station broadcasts in Latvian, except for the Latgalian hour-long program Latgale Hour () broadcast every Friday from LR's

Latgale Latgale (; ; ; ; ; ; Belarusian Latin alphabet, Belarusian Latin: ''Łathalija''; ), also known as Latgalia or Latgallia, is one of the Historical Latvian Lands. It is the easternmost region of the country and lies north of the Daugava River. Wh ...

studio. 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 Latvian (, ), also known as Lettish, is an East Baltic language belonging to the Indo-European language family. It is spoken in the Baltic region, and is the language of the Latvians. It is the official language of Latvia as well as one of the ...

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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

. Latvijas Radio's membership of the

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

live broadcast A live broadcasting, also called a live transmission, generally refers to various types of media that are broadcasting 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 is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...

, 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 (, shortened ''LU'') is a public research university located in Riga, Latvia. The university was established in 1919. History The University of Latvia, initially named as the Higher School of Latvia () was founded on Se ...

. 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