The Bulgarian National Radio celebrates 82 years of existence today. This evening the annual “Sirak Skitnik” award ceremony will take place in the First Studio of the radio.

On January 25, 1935 Tsar Boris III signed a decree which made radio broadcasting in the country state-controlled. In June the same year, the first director of the radio became Panayot Hristov, known as Sirak Skitnik. At the beginning the program of the radio was seven-hour long and there was news twice a day. The first live broadcasting took place in September 1940 during the celebrations of the accession of Southern Dobrudzha to the Kingdom of Bulgaria.

The annual Sirak Skitnik Awards were established in 2001. There are three categories – the big prize, an award for radio journalism and an award for a radio show, multimedia project or a music project of the BNR.