Radio 1Radio 1

Radio Stalin went on air on 19 October 1990 from a bomb shelter — the plinth of the demolished Stalin monument at Letná, reopened for an exhibition called the Totalitarian Zone. It was unlicensed, it lasted days, and the authorities took the transmitter away. A petition against the state broadcasting monopoly gathered some thirty thousand signatures, the equipment came back, and the station returned in February 1991 as Radio Ultra before taking a licence and the name Radio 1 that March.

There has never been a playlist: every presenter picks their own hour, and many of them are figures from Czech cultural life rather than radio professionals. Contemporary electronic and guitar music carries the bulk of it, from krautrock-tinged art pop and hazy electronica to wiry post-punk, with Czech bands cut in, while hip hop, jazz, reggae and film music keep permanent slots.