UK: 24-hour Polish radio station has started in London, designed to entertain the hundreds of thousands of Poles now living in the English capital

Record ID: 598754

  • Title: UK: 24-hour Polish radio station has started in London, designed to entertain the hundreds of thousands of Poles now living in the English capital
  • Date: 14th November 2007
  • Summary: COMPUTER SCREEN IN STUDIO FADERS IN STUDIO KIERVZAL IN STUDIO PRL24 LOGO
  • Embargoed: 29th November 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVAAFCZS99137HVK8IQ8MTWWCDQE
  • Story Text: The hundreds of thousands of Poles living and working in London, now have an opportunity to listen to a radio station designed especially for them, 24 hours a day.
    Polskie Radio Londyn caters specifically to the large Polish community in London and is the first Polish radio station in Britain to broadcast over the air as well as on the Internet, the station says.
    The new radio station, available since last month on London's digital network and since 2006 online (www.prl24.net), is part of a business run by Poles based in Britain which also includes a magazine in Polish.
    Presenter and programme director Arthur Kiervzal says, his job is to keep his Polish listeners informed and entertained.
    "The show I am making is called "The World is Laughing".
    I travel around the world from country to country; usually I go to European countries looking for strange events. And I talk about this to our audience.
    Very often I travel to Poland because immigrants living on the Isles and also our audience all over the world want to know what kind of interesting, funny or sometimes stupid events are going on in Poland. I find these kind of situations and I try to present them in a funny way in my show - The World is Laughing," he said.
    "During my show the phone is turned on and open to the audience.
    People call very often because they get a chance to voice their opinions about the stories I tell here. They are the most active when I talk about Poland.
    It's a kind of forum, we can talk about what hurts us, makes us laugh but mostly about what irritates us. The audience calls us, they are active and this is the best proof that whatever I do on air works," he added.
    Wlodzimier Witkowski is the head of the radio station's holding company, Sara-int International. He says there was a need for such a station in the British market.
    "There is no Polish radio at the moment. There are around seven hundred thousand Poles in the London area and there is a gap. We had to take advantage of the situation. The Polish community needs a newspaper and radio alike, maybe television in the future - we are thinking about this. We are also discussing this project with several Polish and British companies,"
    he added.
    Witkowski says he would also like to see coverage of the station extend across the country, and is looking for more staff to facilitate that happening.
    The official launch of PRL24 on Monday (November 12) night, saw luminaries such as former Polish president Lech Walesa and former prime minister, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, attend. The guests were entertained by popular Polish singer and musician, Grzegorz Turnau.
    But perhaps the most important people to please, are the many Poles who have made their homes in the UK.
    "It's a very good radio station. Great music, current political commentary. The most important is that everything is in Polish and it's easy to understand," said electrician Andrezej.
    "Thanks to the Polish radio we get to know about our country.
    But....it doesn't interest us because we left Poland to avoid listening to the news. We mostly listen to Polish music," added builder Radomil.
    An estimated 2 million Poles have left Poland since the country joined the European Union in 2004, seeking higher wages in countries such as Ireland and Britain.
    Although British government figures released in May say some 400,000 Poles have come to work in Britain since 2004, the Polish community estimate that number could be as high as 1 million.
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