Peter Niegel, the general manager of RadioDays Europe, welcomed everybody to the great hall of the Prague Congress Centre, where the 3-day conference hosting over 1300 visitors takes place. After the musical performance from Czech singer Tea Sofia, the hosts Veronika Ruppert and Paul Robinson invited Peter Niegel to the stage: “The conference encourages you to find new audiences and new opportunities, between analogue and digital, between linear and on-demand broadcasting. We have to adapt new technologies to remain relevant.” Niegel also mentioned the 100th anniversary of the public broadcaster Czech Radio, hosts of this year’s conference in Prague.
“We celebrate the 100th anniversary, but for us 100 years is just the beginning,” continued René Zavoral, the Director General of Czech Radio. Above all, he mentioned that he feels very proud and thankful for the opportunity to organize the conference with Peter and his team.
The need to focus on new technologies should not overshadow the solid foundation of the radio industry, we were reminded by Richard Dawkins, president of audio at Bauer Media Group. Among those fundamentals are customer centricity, creativity, trust, community and purpose, cultural enrichment, effectiveness and innovation.
The audience welcomed with a standing ovation a special guest who attended last year’s RDE conference via video from his bunker in Ukraine, Andriy Taranov. The Ukrainian public broadcaster implied that nobody should forget about the horrific war going on in Ukraine. People should read, inform and talk about it, so it doesn’t become forgotten. “We want to be winners, not victims”, he said.
Among other speakers were great radio personalities from all around Europe, such as Edita Kudlacova, Head of Radio for the European Broadcasting Union, Stefan Möller, President of Association of European Radios, Daniela Linzer, Kronehit Programme Director from Austria and Noel Curran, Director General of EBU, who appealed for co-operation between public and private sector.
