SNP80: Free Slovak Broadcaster Went on Air 80 Years Ago

Banska Bystrica/Bratislava, August 29 (TASR) - The Free Slovak Broadcaster (Slobodny slovensky vysielac/SSV) was broadcasting only for 59 days, but managed to relay important information to Slovaks once the 1944 Slovak National Uprising began and helped also with the organisation of the uprising. The SSV radio broadcasts began on August 30, 1944, at 11 a.m. in Banska Bystrica. A makeshift studio was originally established in the building of the Evangelical Society in Banska Bystrica, with the broadcasting equipment originating from Presov. A warning was broadcast on that day, urging Slovaks to listen to the programming from Banska Bystrica and not Bratislava [which didn't join the uprising -ed.note]. Two proclamations were read out following the declaration of the SNP: the Proclamation of the Military Centre and the Proclamation of the Central National Committee. Subsequently, Jozef Styk asked the inhabitants to provide aid to the fighting insurgents. The broadcasts were designed to support the resistance effort, explain its goals to the public and, particularly in the early days, help organise the uprising. It also featured coded messages from the First Czechoslovak Army to guerilla fighters and insurgents. After the Germans shelled the original radio broadcasting location, SSV found a new hideout at the Tri Duby Airfield, where they built a new broadcasting site. SSV also used a mobile transmitter, installed in a lorry, which was changing its location every ten days, so as to escape detection by the Germans. The mobile transmitter operated in Brezno, Zvolen, Slovenska Lupca and other locations of the resistance zone. October 27, 1944, was the last day that SSV went on the air, transmitting its final broadcast from Donovaly. mf/mcs