Czech Radio Organizes the 39th Prix Bohemia Radio Festival

In addition to selecting winning radio and audio works, the festival will also award the prestigious Thalia Prize for the best performance in a radio play, induct a radio personality into the Radio Hall of Fame and allocate Student Awards, as decided by the special student jury. The Honorary President will once again be renowned actor Igor Bareš.

"This year too, visitors to the Prix Bohemia Radio Festival, which has gained prestige among radio and audio enthusiasts over the course of its existence, will enjoy four days of listening to the best of Czech and foreign radio production. I believe that this year's festival will once again enable listeners and creators to gain inspiration and information about current trends in radio production. The listening days will be accompanied by a variety of events, including concerts, debates and live broadcasting sessions of Czech Radio programmes. Personally, I would recommend attending the performance The Last of the Soviets, adapted from the book by Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexijević, or the special programme of Czech Radio station Radiožurnál Sport, which will introduce you to the secrets of sports commentary," said René Zavoral, Director General of Czech Radio.

The four-day Prix Bohemia Radio competition festival will present all the final entries in the Documentary category on Monday, the News Report category on Tuesday, the Drama category on Wednesday and the Podcast category on Thursday. The works advancing to the main competition were selected by expert juries in each respective category. Furthermore, the festival is returning to an earlier tradition this year by reinstating an independent student jury, which will designate a Student Award in all categories.

Public listening sessions of the competing works will be complemented by a rich accompanying programme. On Monday, reporters from the Czech Radio Radiožurnál Sport station Petr Kadeřábek, František Kuna and Tomáš Minarčík will provide festival goers with insight into the work of a sports radio reporter and outline the fundamental differences between radio and television commentary. Attendees will even be able to try their hand at this interesting work.

On Tuesday, the news server of Czech Radio iROZHLAS will present its informational project Ověřovna!, or The Verifier, which explains and verifies disinformation, half-truths and distorted facts. The end of the second day of the festival will be enlivened by the theater performance The Last of the Soviets – a tragicomic probe into the Russian soul, based on the book Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich and staged at the Moravian Theatre in Olomouc by Dlouhá Theatre from Prague. Music lovers can then attend the Czech Radio Jazz - 100 Years of Jazz concert, featuring Aid Kid & The Augmented Jazz Ensemble with an electronic remix of Czech Radio Big Band recordings combined with six top jazz players.

On the festival’s third day, visitors can look forward to a debate between experts about the documentary genre in podcast production. Attendees will learn what topics interest society most, how to target your audience and how to promote and distribute content. Wednesday will also feature the popular Podcast Session and Radio Wave Live Session, featuring a new podcast called VHS: Hard to Erase or the show Kompot. This popular event at the Jazz Tibet Club will also include special musical performances by Viah and TMA.

On the last day of the festival, the Czech Radio Junior station has prepared a theatrical performance How (Not) to Do Radio for the youngest visitors. They can look forward to radio fun at full speed directed by the presenters of Morning ReStart Jirka Kohout and Petr Ševčík, who have an interative program ready full of competitions, musical quizzes, songs, sound magic and fairy tale surprises. Thursday's programme will also include a presentation of the book Rozhlasto, published on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Czech Radio, which illustrates 100 years of radio via unique photographs, posters and documents from the Czech Radio Archive.

The Czech Radio Foundation will also be involved in this year's accompanying programme of the Prix Bohemia Radio Festival. It’s popular Café POTME (Café by Dark) will once again set up shop at Horní náměstí (Upper Square) in Olomouc where it will be available for the duration of the festival for visitors to enjoy coffee and other popular drinks prepared by the visually-impaired staff. Visitors will be able to linger in the café and listen to successful Czech Radio programs, including the Digital Writer, a combined Al and literary project.

During the opening ceremony on Monday 16 October, René Zavoral, Director General of Czech Radio, will induct another significant radio personality into the Hall of Fame and Ondřej Kepka, President of the Actors' Association, will present the prestigious Thalia Award for the best performance in a radio play.

A detailed programme of this year's Prix Bohemia Radio and further information about the festival are available on the Prix Bohemia Radio website.

The festival can be attended free of charge after prior accreditation via the form available on the festival website.