Hungarian minority programmes on 1188 kHz: Nemzetiségi Adások from Marcali

What you hear

Hungary's public radio sets aside one frequency for the country's recognised minorities, and the day on 1188 kHz is a timetable of languages. According to the catalogue the service runs from 06:00 to 18:00 UTC and goes through Croatian from 06:00, German from 08:00, Serbian from 12:00, Romanian from 14:00 and Slovak from 16:00, with a Ukrainian programme on Fridays at 11:00 and a Rusyn one on Tuesdays. Each block is produced by a separate editorial team, often in the regional studio nearest to the community it serves, with its own news, music and jingles. The programmes are about life in Hungary seen from each minority, and the music ranges from German brass to Serbian folk to Croatian tamburica.

For a listener this is a station to visit by the clock: tune in at the top of a block and the language tells you where you are in the day. Outside the listed hours the frequency is silent from this transmitter.

Who transmits and why

The transmitter is at Marcali, in south-western Hungary near Lake Balaton, and the catalogue lists 300 kW. The site is in the right place: the Croatian, German, Serbian and Slovene communities of Hungary live mostly in the south and west of the country, and from Marcali a daytime ground wave covers them, with Slovak, Romanian and Rusyn audiences in the north and east reached more weakly. The service is run by the same public broadcaster that puts Kossuth Rádió on 540 kHz from Solt, described in its own article, and the two transmitters together are what remains of Hungary's national medium-wave network.

Why keep a 300 kW transmitter for programmes of an hour or two per language? Because the minorities are scattered across villages where an FM network would be expensive, and because minority broadcasting is a legal obligation of the public broadcaster. Medium wave does it with one site.

When and where to listen

This is a daytime schedule, and medium wave carries far only after dark, so for most of the year the station is a regional one: by day 300 kW on 1188 kHz covers Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria and the Vojvodina region of Serbia, and receivers there hear every block well. In winter the sun sets over Marcali before 16:00 UTC, which puts the Slovak block and the end of the day in darkness, and from then until the 18:00 UTC sign-off the signal reaches Germany, Poland, Italy, the Czech Republic and beyond. In summer the whole schedule is in daylight and the reach ends at the neighbours.

1188 kHz is shared across Europe, and from the west another station may be on top after sunset. Receivers in Hungary, Austria, Slovakia and Croatia are the sure choice at any hour; central Europe works on a winter afternoon. The program tunes AM; a narrower filter helps at the edge of the daytime zone.

In ShackDeck

Station catalogue → Medium and long wave → Hungarian minority programmes 1188 kHz. ShackDeck picks a public receiver that hears 1188 kHz, tunes it and sets AM. No receiver, antenna or account of your own is needed; check the clock against the language timetable above before you listen.