Periodicals
By 1971 there were 963 periodicals with an annual circulation of 48.6 million, roughly tripling the pre-World War II figures. Periodicals were an extremely popular form of reading material.
Among the leading periodicals of Bulgaria are: Novo Vreme, a monthly journal of the Central Committee; Ikonomicheska Misal, the organ of the Institute of Economics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences; Puls, a publication of the Central Committee of the Komsomol; Slavyani, the monthly journal of the Slav Committee in Bulgaria; Bulgarski Voin, the monthly journal of the chief political department of the Bulgarian People's Army (Bulgarska Narodna Armiya); Resorts, a bimonthly journal printed in Russian, French, English, and German; and Lov i Ribolov.
RADIO
In 1939 there were three radio stations and over 60,000 subscribers (see table 12). Approximately one out of every 100 Bulgarian citizens owned a radio set.
Table 12. Bulgaria, Number of Radio Stations and Subscribers, Selected Years, 1939-71
| 1939 | 1948 | 1960 | 1971 | |
| Radio stations: | ||||
| Mediumwave | n.a. | n.a. | 5 | 12 |
| Shortwave | n.a. | n.a. | 2 | 4 |
| Ultra-shortwave | n.a. | n.a. | 0 | 11 |
| Number of radio stations | 3 | 5 | 7 | 27 |
| Number of relay stations | n.a. | 41 | 1,347 | 1,835 |
| Number of radio subscribers | 62,677 | 210,366 | 1,430,653 | 2,304,567 |
| Number of radio receivers | 62,677 | 201,866 | 868,950 | 1,546,163 |
| Subscribers* | 10 | 30 | 182 | 269 |
| n.a.—not available. | ||||
| * Per 1,000 population. | ||||
As of March 26, 1948, the state controlled not only the management of radio stations and the content of radio programs but also the manufacture, distribution, and sale of radio equipment. The ownership and operation of radios were subject to the chief directorate of radio information according to the Law on Radio. Article 15 of this law stated that private homes could only receive programs of Bulgarian radio stations. Article 17 of the same law stated that all people wishing to purchase radios had to receive prior authorization and pay a radio tax.
The ideological purposes of radio broadcasts are presented by the government in quasi-cold war terms. One radio commentator, Lyuben Popov, has described the radio as a weapon for waging war on the air. He explained that "the struggle on the air is becoming sharper and sharper and more and more uncompromising.... Our propaganda work is part of the ideological struggle for victory of communist ideas." Radio is perceived as serving two principal ends. On the domestic level it serves to provide information as well as propaganda to the public; on the international level it functions in a purely ideological capacity.
There are twelve mediumwave radio transmitters: two are located in Pleven; two in Kurdzhali; two in Sofia; and one each in Plovdiv, Blagoevgrad, Varna, Shumen, Stara Zagora, and Stolnik. There are eleven ultra-shortwave stations: three are located in Sofia, two in Botev, two in Slunchev Bryag, two in Kyustendil, one in Snezhinka, and one in Plovdiv. There are four shortwave radio stations in Bulgaria. Of the total number of twenty-seven radio stations in the country, six broadcast in both amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM); twenty broadcast in AM only; and one located at Botev Peak broadcasts only in FM.