Radio informs us and transforms us, through entertainment, information and audience participation. Having a radio means you are never alone – you always have a friend in the radio.
The United Nations General Assembly selected 13 February – the day when in 1946 the United Nations radio was launched – as the World Radio Day. Radio has been constantly adjusting and today offers new forms of mutual cooperation between radio and listeners. On this occasion in 2017 UNESCO wrote: "Radio informs us and transforms us, through entertainment, information and audience participation. Having a radio means you are never alone – you always have a friend in the radio."
A quarter of a century ago and more
In 1946 all 3 radio broadcasting institutions in Slovenia broadcast 8,919 hours of radio program. The development in the past 45 years was not completely uniform: after a slowdown in the late 1960s to mid-1970s, in 1991 Slovenia had 22 radio broadcasting institutions, whose broadcasting time increased by tenfold (to 88,304 hours).
In the year 2015, for which the latest data are available, there were 86 radio programs (some of them part of radio networks), 34 of them had a special importance status. Radio broadcasting institutions transmitted 539,213 hours of program in 2015, of which 493,450 hours or about 92% was various types of contents or almost six times more than when Slovenia won independence (i.e. in 1991); the rest were advertising, promotion and similar.
Music first
As regards individual types of radio program (excluding advertising and promotion) in Slovenia in 2015, far the most of it, i.e. more than 68% was music, mostly light and popular music (89%), followed by other music (9%) and serious music (2%).
Entertainment program accounted for 11%, speech program (including informative program, culture, science, education, acted program and radio dramas) for 18% and sport for just over 1% of total program.
Listening to online radio
Radio broadcasting institutions offer additional services, in 2015 most frequently a website (52 of them) and traffic information (42 of them). In 2014 regular Internet users aged 16–74 years were asked if they listen to online radio and the following answers were collected: 42% of regular Internet users said yes (in the EU the share of 40% or more was recorded in Slovenia, Greece, Sweden and the Netherlands). In the age group 16–24 years the share was 57%, in the age group 55–74 years it was 25%. Almost 30% of total Slovenian population aged 16–74 listened to online radio.
Ida Repovž Grabnar, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia
Radio informs us and transforms us, through entertainment, information and audience participation. Having a radio means you are never alone – you always have a friend in the radio.
