In the aftermath of World War I, a referendum awarded much of Slovenian-populated Carinthia to Austria, and for decades afterwards, members of the Slovenian community engaged in a protracted struggle for greater cultural recognition. Even though Austria was required to guarantee full minority rights to its Slovenian population, populist-leaning governments often made the situation difficult for the community. Things were no different in broadcasting, but that did not stop a group of passionate promoters of Slovenian culture from joining forces to create what is now an important radio voice of Slovenian-speaking Carinthians.

Slovenian-language radio was not a new development in southern Austria. The first minority broadcasts date back to the period immediately after World War II, when the country was still occupied by the victorious Allies and Carinthia was a part of the British zone. However the time set aside for the Slovenian language on the state-owned broadcaster ORF remained limited, averaging just 50 minutes a day in the decades that followed.

Many members of the Slovenian community were determined to create something more than that – a radio station of their own that would reflect the aspirations and the concerns of Austria’s largest and oldest minority. The demands gained a new sense of urgency after a right-wing, frequently anti-Slovenian political party took over the local Carinthian government.

But there was a problem: The state-owned ORF had been granted a monopoly in Austria. No radio stations other than those belonging to the official broadcaster were allowed to operate anywhere within the country’s borders. To change the status quo, members of the Slovenian community teamed up with several other organizations and challenged the monopoly in court. Finally, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in their favor, and deemed ORF’s monopoly to be illegal.

In 1998, a nonprofit station named Radio Agora signed on for the first time with its schedule primarily in Slovenian. Sharing air time with another Slovenian-language station, Radio Korotan, Agora was designed to celebrate the cultural diversity of Carinthia and finally gave the Slovenian community a radio voice of its own.

It wasn’t always smooth sailing for the Slovenian broadcaster, however. In an age of austerity, the federal government began to reduce the funding set aside for minority radio. Radio Korotan, best by financial difficulties, ultimately closed its doors, but Radio Agora persevered.
Today, the station has managed to secure stable funding and is often cited as a model minority broadcaster. It shares air time with ORF’s Slovenian service, which has also vastly increased its output. Some of its programs, particularly in the evening, are in German; they help the German speakers get to know their Slovenian-speaking neighbors and their culture. Such multicultural, multilingual ventures are rare on a European scale, and Radio Agora has attracted attention beyond Austria’s borders. Its success has paid off when it was recently allowed to increase its reach to cover southern Styria, another part of Austria with a Slovenian minority.

EU officials frequently describe the future of the continent as “Europe of the Regions” – a place where local and minority cultures are allowed to play a major role. Thanks to a group of intrepid pioneers who dared to challenge the status quo, Radio Agora is putting that vision into practice every day.