From Andy Sennitt at RNW Media Network:

Nov 2009 Radio Parague QSL Card. Click to enlarge.

An article on Radio Prague’s website deals with the situation following the Czech government’s decision to reduce the station’s budget, especially with regard to shortwave, which the Director of Radio Prague, Miroslav Krupicka, says accounts for about half the station’s audience reach:

“Radio Prague’s budget for this year has been reduced by 15.0 percent. It is a little bit more than we expected but we have to come to terms with it. It still makes it possible for us to continue shortwave broadcasts. What we have to do is to close one of the two shortwave transmitters that we have in Litomyšl. We will be able to cover basically more or less the same territory we have been covering so far, which means the whole of Europe, North Africa, let’s say the Middle East and parts of North and South America. We won’t be reducing very much the area that we cover so far.”

Those economy measures almost halve the shortwave transmission bill to 7.0 million crowns (US$ 387,000) a year. Dutch-based consultant and former RNW Creative Director Jonathan Marks and the AIB’s Simon Spanswick explain to Radio Prague’s Chris Johnstone why some international broadcasters have dropped shortwave altogether.

• Read Radio Prague article here.