Czech Radio Launches New Jazz Online Radio

Czech Radio Jazz is a new website that gathers all jazz content from various Czech Radio stations at one specific site. Its aim is to provide current news especially for the demanding taste of jazz music audience for whom the existing jazz programmes offer is not sufficient. Besides the current news, visitors of the website can find also tips for jazz concerts, interesting events and jazz records, regular competitions and also the archive of all Czech Radio jazz programmes. In terms of organisation, the project is guaranteed by the Czech Radio 3 – Vltava editors.

The webpage is also accompanied by the “Euro Jazz”, a webcast that is comparable, from the perspective of the listeners, to the quality international jazz internet radios. However, it is not a separate radio station, the project is rather launched and managed by the Czech Radio 3 – Vltava.

As the title suggests, the Euro Jazz will be broadcasting mainly European jazz (60% of its broadcasting time). “This is mainly due to our efforts to be distinctive. The American be-bop and swing are being broadcasted on the internet by thousands of radios from all over the world, moreover, we are playing this music also on our station Czech Radio 3 – Vltava. There is a new generation of jazz musicians growing up in the Czech Republic and this generation is distinguished by its respect to tradition but also its interest in the jazz scenes in Poland, France or Norway, ie. countries that are the contemporary jazz powers. The European jazz represents a phenomenon that is not possible to neglect and, thus, the public service broadcaster should devote it the appropriate space,” says Petr Vidomus, music journalist and the editor of the new website. From the point of the music scheme, the contemporary jazz production is stressed, nevertheless, the thematic blocks will satisfy the expectations of the fans of older genres such as swing and hard-bop as well. Despite its title the Czech and American jazz will be presented too.

It is possible to listen to Euro Jazz 24 hours a day with the proper device connected to Internet. Besides the Czech Radio webpages, it is possible to tune to Euro Jazz via the signposts of internet radios, such as play.cz. Stream broadcasts in WMA, AAC, MP3 and OGG formats in various bitrate variants. The highest sound quality can be achieved by OGG at the 256 kbps bitrate. It is also possible to make use of the application for iPhone and for mobile phones with the operation system Android. Information on the broadcasted song are shown during the listening of all formats except for WMA in the Winamp player, within a short time span this service will be accessible in other players too.

For the launch of jazz.rozhlas.cz, the editorial and technical reserves of Czech Radio 3 – Vltava were applied thanks to which the financial budget was rather low in comparison with similar projects. “It is simple: we would like to make the best of the great facilities provided by such institution as Czech Radio. We have an incredible number of archive jazz recordings at our disposal, professional editors and also useful contacts. The project does not bring any further costs in terms of fees for the externs. The costs are, therefore, connected mainly to licences for the broadcasting software,” clarifies Vidomus.

The new website will be supported by spots on most of the Czech Radio stations.

For further information, please, contact:
Marcela Hájková, PR and Marketing Manager Czech Radio 3 – Vltava, marcela.hajkova@rozhlas.cz, phone: +420 221 552 636.

Mgr. Rene Zavoral
Communications and External Relations Director
Czech Radio
Phone. +420 221 551 310