What is radio? A window to the world or the most powerful weapon – words – capable of reaching any corner of the planet. Just like a good book, radio awakens the imagination, provokes thinking, reaches out to our minds to leave its imprint there. An instrument for manipulation and control, but also a fount of knowledge and culture.

The prototype of the first ever device for broadcasting and receiving radio signals appeared more than 120 years ago. At the time no one could have known that this invention would develop into one of the most powerful mass media instruments. What is the role of radio in our day, when information is but a click away – this is the question we put to Luchezar Tochev who lectures radio genres at the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication of the St. Klimen tOhridski University in Sofia.

“The difference between then and now is that anything you say in our day has to be brief. Fifty or sixty years ago, people did not have moving images at home. Times were much slower and they could sit down to listen to the radio. Nowadays nobody sits down, when they listen to the radio it is while they are doing something else. I drive and I listen to the radio, I cook and I listen to the radio… That is why the genres of today must be much shorter, more concise. In this sense, from a purely technological point of view, the Internet is useful in that we can hear what we have missed any time we like. Music or information – they are all available as podcasts online any time.”

Is there any danger of the Internet taking the place of radio?

“The same thing was said when television appeared, theatre and stage actors and directors were all horrified when cinema started making its way. But as you can see, we still have theatre, cinema, television and radio, the Internet is just one more channel added to the sources of information we have access to, but it cannot replace the things that have existed before it.”

Whatever heights technology may reach, radio is still a leader in bringing information to places the Internet or other forms of mass media cannot reach. In this respect Radio Bulgaria was a major success in its day, with its broadcasts on shortwave in 11 languages. There were even DXers who suggested that international shortwave broadcasts and online podcasts find a place on the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list.

English version: Milena Dahnova