Radio Krakow

The highlight of our visit to Poland, to date, has been our tour of Radio Kraków. The radio station is a public radio station which gains funding through city taxes. Radio Kraków broadcasts music, news, and public interest programs and is the third most listened to radio station in the city. We met with the CEO of the radio station, two journalists, and various other individuals, in order to gain a better understanding of the inner workings of the company. Having never been inside a radio station before, this was a particularly interesting visit for me. We were greater warmly by our gracious hosts (despite our tardiness) and given a full tour of the facilities. Our guides were not only humorous, but knowledgeable of the station and happy to teach us about what goes in to making a radio broadcast. My favorite part of the tour was being inside the production room and watching a live broadcast happening just feet away. We learned a great deal about the timing of broadcasts, the content, and what it takes to be a good radio personality. Those who actually perform on the radio walked us through linguistic exercised they perform in order to loosen up, taught us about how they determine what content to include in the air, and pointed out the importance of precise timing when reading the news. As the put it, "five seconds of silence is an eternity on the radio", so it is extremely important to plan their timing well in order to fill a certain block of time without going over or falling short. This seems like an extremely difficult task.

I enjoyed our radio station visit immensely and learned a tremendous amount. I was glad to see how enthusiastic or hosts were about their jobs and sharing their experience with us. Our visit to Radio Kraków will certainly be a memorable moment from our trip!