Abstract

Through selected phenomena, the paper examines the role of popular music in the state-owned Czechoslovak Radio in the communist era and later in the first Czech private radio stations after 1989. Special attention is paid to the phenomenon of radio hit parades. These began to be broadcast in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, and their founders were also significant in establishing the format in the context of the private media of the 1990s. The paper considers the development and changes in the role of popular music in radio broadcasting in a broader cultural and political context. 

Short biography

Since 2014 Jan Blüml has been working in the position of Assistant Professor at the Department of Musicology, Faculty of Arts, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic. He is interested in popular music with special emphasis on popular music in former Communist Europe.