The Business of Radio

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CELEBRATING RADIO | WORLD RADIO DAY 2016 | 31
BROADCASTERS | THE BUSINESS OF RADIO
RFE/RL
KEY CONTACT INFORMATION
NENAD PEJIC
Vice President and Editor-in-Chief
+420.221.121.111
JOANNA LEVISON
Director of Communications
+420.221.121.111
MARTINS ZVANERS
Deputy Director of Communications
+1.202.457.6900
RFE/RL, Inc.
Vinohradska 159a
Prague
CZ-100 00
Czech Republic
+420.221.121.111
INBRIEF
RFE/RL serves as a "surrogate" free media in 23
countries where the free flow of information is either
banned by government authorities or not fully
developed. Our journalists provide what many people in
those countries cannot get locally: uncensored news,
responsible discussion, and open debate.
In times when political turbulence, terrorism and
popular demands for reform dominate headlines,
RFE/RL’s commitment to independent journalism is
more relevant than ever
PROFILE
RFE/RL offers its audiences the
rich, immediate, and interactive
content they seek, using the latest
digital technologies and trusted
broadcast radio to reach people in
some of the most closed and also
some of the least developed
countries on earth. Television and
online media are growing in
importance for RFE/RL’s audiences
in countries such as Russia, and the
countries along Russia’s borders,
and RFE/RL is responding with
new ventures such as its Current
Time and Current Time Asia news
programmes, and new video projects
in Ukraine, Moldova, the Caucasus
and Central Asia. Radio remains the
predominant platform for reaching
our audiences, however, with 17.4
million adults out of a total of 23.6
million tuning in to RFE/RL radio
programmes every week.
SERVICES
Eighteen RFE/RL language services
produce audio programmes for
their audiences, although in some
cases those programmes are
available only via satellite or online.
KEY PROGRAMMES
RFE/RL’s Afghan Service, Radio
Azadi, reaches more than four in
ten Afghan residents each week in
Pashto and Dari, and plays a key
role in Afghanistan’s highly
contested and strategic media
landscape. The Pashto-language
Radio Mashaal has built a
significant audience in Pakistan’s
volatile northwestern tribal areas,
providing a moderate and balanced
alternative in an environment
dominated by extremist messaging,
and engaging women, youth, and
local communities along the border
with Afghanistan.
RFE/RL’s Iran Service, Radio
Farda, has built a reputation among
Iranians for independent reporting
that provides an informed
alternative to scripted state-run
media. The service is using radio as
well as other media to reach
millions of Iranians, despite active
Iranian government efforts to
discourage and punish listenership.
RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani, Belarusan,
Russian, Uzbek, and Turkmen
Services, all have loyal radio
audiences who increasingly access
broadcasts online, despite
government efforts to silence
RFE/RL’s signal.
RFE/RL’s Ukraine Service is
using radio to reach audiences in
the occupied Crimean peninsula
and the eastern Ukrainian
(“Donbass”) war zone, launching
“Radio Krym.Realii” and “Radio
Donbass.Realii” to reach audiences
in these denied areas.
Crimean Tatar, Croatian, Dari,
Georgian, Kyrgyz, Macedonian,
Montenegrin, Pashto, Persian,
Romanian, Russian, Serbian,
Tajik, Turkmen, Ukrainian, Uzbek
Global audience
17.4 million weekly on radio; 5.7
million on TV, 4.5 million on the
Internet; total unduplicated weekly
audience, 23.6 million
Web traffic
RFE/RL websites were visited
nearly 430 million times in
2015. Visitors to and
our 24 other websites viewed
more than 925 million pages of
content in 2015
Our languages
Albanian, Armenian, Avar,
Azerbaijani, Belarusian,
Bosnian, Chechen, Circassian,