Did you know that the words "Here's Radio Sofia!" were transmitted on shortwaves five years before the world heard of VOA and a year after the BBC overseas broadcasts began? This happened in 1936. Petar Uvaliev was one of the first radio hosts of the foreign-language program of BNR, then "Radio Sofia" - in Italian. Half-hour broadcasts in English, German, French, as well as Bulgarian for the compatriots around the world, followed.

The successor of the national radio's broadcasts abroad - the "Radio Bulgaria" program - keeps the memory of that time when it broadcast programs in 12 languages 53 hours a day and according to a study by BBC, Radio Bulgaria held first place in terms of listenership in the Balkans, the archives of "Trud" Daily from June 3, 1996, stored in the reference office of the BNR, show.

From there we also learn what our more experienced colleagues at Radio Bulgaria remember, namely that presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers were very willing to give interviews for the BNR programs for foreign countries and those interviews were subsequently used by the programs aimed at the Bulgarian audience - "Horizont" and "Hristo Botev". For example, François Mitterrand’s interview was first broadcast in the French-language program of Radio Bulgaria in 1976 when he was leader of the Socialist Party, and later, in 1994, as president. Federal Chancellors Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt, Willy Brandt - as chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, were interviewed for the German-language broadcasts, while Franz Josef Strauss gave his last interview to Radio Bulgaria a month before he passed away. James Baker, Lord Carrington and Prince Philip, were among the most famous interviewees for the shows in English, while Aldo Moro and Lamberto Dini - in the Italian broadcasts. The voice of Fidel Castro could also be heard by the audience of the Spanish-language broadcasts.

At the dawn of the democratic transition in this country, Bulgarian politicians who spoke foreign languages were also frequent guests to Radio Bulgaria's broadcasts, "Trud" of June 3, 1996, reads. Georgi Pirinski, Filip Bokov, Rumen Gechev, Filip Dimitrov spoke in English, Zhelyu Zhelev - in French, Stefan Savov and Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha - in Spanish. Elena Poptodorova participated in the broadcasts of Radio Bulgaria in English, French and Italian.

The reality today is different, but Radio Bulgaria continues to create online programs and other digital content in 10 foreign languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Greek, Serbian, Albanian and Romanian), as well as in Bulgarian - for Bulgarians around the world. Our program in Turkish is broadcast on air in some regions of the country for people whose mother tongue is Turkish.

Compiled by: Krasimir Martinov

Photo:predavatel.com