Bulgarian radio stations are on the air approximately 500 hours per week. Foreign broadcasts are transmitted approximately twenty-six hours a day Monday through Saturday and twenty-nine hours on Sunday. These programs are broadcast in Bulgarian, Turkish, Greek, Serbo-Croat, French, Italian, German, English, Spanish, and Arabic and are transmitted to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America, and South America. The number of domestic listeners has approximately doubled over the 1960-71 period. In mid-1973 over a quarter of the population owned radio sets.
The leading radio programs are transmitted by Radio Sofia. Radio Plovdiv, Radio Varna, and Radio Stara Zagora also transmit popular programs. Radio Rodina is the main station transmitting to Bulgarians residing abroad. Generally, radio programs consist of news bulletins dealing with both local and international events; programs for rural listeners and industrial workers, which deal with industrial, agricultural, and cultural matters; programs for children, which complement the formal educational curriculum; literary and cultural programs; and scientific programs.
In January 1971 Radio Sofia took steps to refurbish its old programming. Some critics felt that the old programming was lacking in variety, causing listeners to turn to foreign broadcasts for more enjoyable entertainment. Others within the medium wanted to have more freedom and creativity in programming. As a result, in mid-1973 the three main programs of Radio Sofia had a singular and distinctive character. "Horizont" provided both general information and popular music. "Christo Botev" had a more cultural and propagandistic nature, presenting ideological, literary, and educational programs. "Orfei" was the program for classical music, which was occasionally supplemented by theatrical and literary features. The results of these changes have been mixed. Although some critics felt that the new programs were more lively than their predecessors, others continued to criticize them for a "dearth of original thought, a laconic style, and a pompous tone."
Other recent developments in radio have been the establishment of radio relay ties with nearby countries. These relay ties are expected to increase Bulgaria's communications with the West while providing her new partners with access to the East. In July 1972 the construction of radio lines between Bulgaria and Turkey was completed. In December 1972 plans for a radio relay line between Sofia and Athens were announced; the line was to be completed by 1974. This particular line was expected to provide Greece with access to Eastern Europe and Bulgaria with access to the Middle East and North Africa.
TELEVISION
Television, like radio, became a state monopoly under the control of the Ministry of Culture on March 26, 1948, but the first strictly experimental broadcasts were not undertaken until 1954. It was 1959 before the first regular programming—consisting of two programs per week—was being broadcast. By 1962 programs had been increased to only four per week.
The number of television subscribers rose from a mere 2,573 in 1960 to 185,246 in 1965 and to 1.2 million in 1971. These figures meant the number of sets per 1,000 people were; less than one, in 1960; about twenty-three, in 1965; and 138, in 1971. During the same period an increasing number of transmitting stations was making reception possible in nearly all parts of the country. By 1972 there were twenty-seven transmitters; the major ones were located at Sofia, Slunchev Bryag, Botev, Varna, and Kyustendil. In spite of the expansion of the network and the increasing numbers of sets available, in comparison to other European countries there were still relatively few television subscribers per 1,000 of the population.
Three-quarters of the television sets are located in the cities. Although there is only one major television program, Program I, plans are underway for the transmission of a second program, Program II. This, when added to the coverage of Program I, is expected to reach 95 percent of the population by 1975.
Television is transmitted on a daily basis. The weekly programs run between 68 and 72 hours. Television time has been apportioned more or less according to popular taste. Of the total hours, 22 percent of television time was devoted to documentaries, 15 percent to music, 12 percent to news, 11 percent to programs for children, 10 percent to language and literature programs, and 8 percent to sports. There were also special broadcasts to villages and question-and-answer programs in industrial enterprises and cooperative farms. Unlike the rest of Eastern Europe, Bulgaria imported very few television films from the United States.
One of the most recent innovations in television programming was the transmission of a special program for tourists in 1973. Bulgarian Radio and Television decided to cooperate with the Committee for Tourism to promote a 1-½-hour program for foreign tourists on the Black Sea coast. The program, as envisioned in 1973, would consist of local news, presented on three different channels in Russian, English, and German respectively; local events; international news; tourist information; and advertisements.