What you can hear on the radio

What you can hear on the radio

And in our radio library

 

Reportage

What happened and where? Who was there and what is the atmosphere like? What will the participants in the event tell us about it?

The history of reporting in Brno goes back deep into the radio’s past. Whether it was the Brno-based reports Na šachtě (On the shaft) from the Kukla mine in the Rosice-Oslavany Coal Mining District or later countless sports reports by Lev Vašíček, this genre was very popular from the very beginning of broadcasting.

Historical milestones of the nation, sports matches, folk festivals. As one of the basic radio genres, reportage boasts an almost all-embracing scope.

 

 

Reading, dramatization, radio play and fairy tale

You can be scared, kept in suspense and amused. Radio dramatizations can take you to other times, worlds and human stories. Those who in their childhood were accompanied by a radio fairy tale on Sundays or in the evening before bed know that the most beautiful princess is the one on the radio.

Reading, dramatization, radio plays and fairy tales have been with us practically since the very beginning of broadcasting.

 

 

Documentary

Contemporary and historical topics, a wide range of themes from art to modern technologies, events and personalities, all described as objectively as possible and composed into a programme that is intended to inform the audience in cooperation with experts.

The radio documentary is and has always been the flagship of Czech Radio’s production.

 

 

Music programmes

There would be no radio without music. Music can serve as a building block of other radio genres or as a planned interstitial element. Do you like brass music, folklore, rock or perhaps jazz? Radio offers all of them and much more.

Tracks and songs are compiled into thematic features that target specific groups of listeners.

 

 

Interview

Attractive guests and especially their stories and views of the world have always drawn in radio listeners.

The dialogue between the host and the guest or guests can be structured and edited or broadcasted live, this is where the diversity of the interview as a genre lies. Nowadays, just as before, you can also choose from a varied supply of interviews with personalities from a wide range of disciplines and fields, including science, art and public life.

 

Photo captions

1. Participants in a report from the Kukla mine. Director Antonín Slavík, ing. Hradečný, Eda Cenek and Antonín Drábek, May 1930; Moravian Museum – Department of History
2. Antonie Košnerová, member of the Provincial Theatre (Zemské divadlo). She worked on the radio, among other things, as a "fairy-tale grandmother", 1920s‒1930s; Moravian Museum – Department of History
3. Josef Bezdíček recording the play Cristobal Colón by František Kožík, 1934; Czech Radio Archive
4. Jazz band RJ in the large studio in Nová Street, 1920s; Moravian Museum – Department of History
5.  Lev Vašíček recording an interview with Louis Chiron, 19 July 1964; Brno City Museum Collections

 

 

 

Foley (Sound effects) artists

 

Imagine listening to a radio play. Great story, excellent dialogues of the actors. But what can increase the tension, help make the audience weep with emotion and generally complete the atmosphere? It is music and sound effects. And it is the sound effects that are the subject of the Foley art.

Radio work is specific in this respect. And the sound carries the plot of the story. The image is missing, so it needs to be replaced.

In the past, sound effects were reproduced by propmen. In modern times, there are huge databases of sounds, but the work of sound effects artists is still irreplaceable, because only the sounds recorded "live" make an authentic impression.

It is far beyond doubt that Foley art is inventive work, one that requires a sense of rhythm and a good deal of imagination.

See how inventive the sound effects artists were during the period of the First Czechoslovak Republic.

 

 

 

Do you want to become a Foley artist for a while? On the hanger behind you, various props are arranged, and on the other side the smocks, an essential fashion accessory for every sound effects artist. Let your imagination run wild and feel free to use them to record in our interactive corner. Try recording a truly authentic radio piece.

 

Photo captions

1. Stream; Czech Radio Archive
2. Train ride; Czech Radio Archive
3. Driving a heavy wagon (hay wagon); Czech Radio Archive
4. Mowing rye; Czech Radio Archive
5. Wind and storm; Czech Radio Archive
6. Footsteps in rain and mud; Czech Radio Archive
7. Wind and rain; Czech Radio Archive
8. Crackling fire; Czech Radio Archive
9. Train whistle; Czech Radio Archive
10. Roaring lion; Czech Radio Archive

 

 

 

Špilberk Castle and radio

 

Towering over the city since the second half of the 13th century, the castle with its glorious but also tragic history has always attracted not only tourists, but also creative personalities from various artistic fields. The same was the case with the new medium – radio.

The topic of Špilberk Castle and its history probably appeared on the air for the first time in 1929, when the former director of the Moravian Provincial Archives, Dr. Bertolt Bretholz, spoke on the German broadcast. Three years later, a report by Dalibor Chalupa was aired directly from Brno castle.

In the interwar period, the "Špilberk" broadcast was mainly dominated by topics dealing with the Italian Carbonari, namely the most famous among them, Silvio Pellico. These circumstances arose from the establishment of the Museum of Italian Patriots, initiated by the Brno branch of the Dante Alighieri cultural association. In 1937, Rajmund Habřina’s original radio play "Silvio Pellico, vězeň špilberský” (Silvio Pellico, the prisoner from Špilberk), directed by the legendary Josef Bezdíček, premiered on the Brno Radio. The following year, it was even broadcast in Esperanto.

The oldest surviving radio recording comes from the summer of 1941, when the complete reconstruction and adaptation of Špilberk Castle for the purposes of the German Wehrmacht was finished.

Brno City Museum took over the management of the castle in 1960. Four years later, a luxurious castle wine bar was made available to the general public in the representative premises of the former canteen for non-commissioned officers, where visitors could listen to Moravian folk music, also broadcast on the radio.

The fateful year of 1968 is remembered in the memoirs by the leading Brno historian and museum employee, Mrs. Milena Flodrová.

A general reconstruction of Špilberk Castle has been in progress since the 1980s. The editors of the Brno Studio still continuously report on the new findings and the transformation of the castle in the last thirty years.

 

Photo captions

1. The so-called prison cell of Silvio Pellico in the exposition of the Museum of Italian Patriots at Špilberk, 1920s; Private collections
2. General view of Špilberk castle after rebuilding for the German Wehrmacht, 1941, Brno City Museum Collections
3. Record jacket of gramophone record with recording of a performance of dulcimer music from the Castle Wine Bar at Špilberk, 1970; Private collections
4. View of the eastern wing of Špilberk during the reconstruction of the so-called Royal Chapel, 20^th century; Brno City Museum Collections