site.btaJanuary 21, 2026: Darik Radio Goes on Air 33 Years Ago

Thirty-three years ago on Wednesday, on January 20, 1993, Bulgaria's first private radio station, Darik Radio, began broadcasting.

Darik Radio, founded by journalist Radosvet Radev, was named after an ancient Persian gold coin that was launched under King Darius the Great (550-530 BCE). The station went on the air at 12:00 noon on January 21, 1993, broadcasting on 98.3 MHz in Sofia from a studio located at 16 St. Kliment Ohridski Blvd. in Sofia. A year later, Darik Radio established its own network of regional radio stations, with studios opening first in Dobrich, Vratsa and Kyustendil. On October 5, 1997, the radio station moved into its new headquarters in downtown Sofia. In October 2000, Darik Radio became Bulgaria's first private radio operator to be licensed to broadcast within a national range. Next, new transmitters and regional studios went into operation countrywide.

Darik Radio has won numerous awards for journalism, including the Radio Award at the Albena Media Festival in 2006 and five awards at the 15th Mediamixx International Media Festival in 2008, among other for its Man of the Year and Best City to Live in Bulgaria initiatives.

In recent years, Darik has successfully implemented various initiatives, including Politician and Event of the Year, What is your European dream? (a national radio listener survey), and You Are Not Alone (an international humanitarian mission involving Darik Radio, the Standard News daily and bTV).

After Radosvet Radev’s death in 2021, his stepson Hristo Hristov became the radio station's CEO. 

Following is a selection of original English-language news stories about Darik Radio that BTA's External Service ran in 2000:

"Darik Radio Becomes First Private Nationwide Radio Operator

Sofia, October 26, 2000 (BTA) - Darik Radio, one of the first local-range radio stations in Bulgaria, was licensed Thursday as the first private nationwide radio operator, said Ivan Taushanov, Chairman of the State Telecommunications Commission and chairman of the evaluation committee.

Darik earned 3,116 of a possible maximum of 4,500 points. The other bidder, Infopress & Co., won 2,545 points. On October 17, the National Council on Radio and Television granted programme licenses to both bidders.

Darik was preferred because its executives demonstrated sufficient knowledge of national legislation and the media market, and because the station's technical project meets most broadcasting criteria, Taushanov said. DD/VE/ 19:57:24 26-10-2000"

"Bulgarians in Western Outlands Want to Listen to Darik Radio in Dimitrovgrad, Bosilegrad

Sofia, January 22, 2000 (BTA) - The Bulgarians in Dimitrovgrad and Bosilegrad, Southeastern Serbia, insist that the signal area of Radio Darik be extended to reach Dimitrovgrad (Tsaribrod) and Bosilegrad, anchor Kiril Valchev said in Saturday's The Week show on Darik.

He cited two letters sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in which the Bulgarian minority in Dimitrovgrad and Bosilegrad and the Helsinki Committee for the Protection of Human Rights in Dimitrovgrad urge for the provision of technical, legal and other opportunities for tuning in to the programmes of Darik Radio in the two main towns of the Western Outlands, an area now in Southeastern Serbia which Bulgaria, defeated in World War I, lost to Yugoslavia under the 1919 Treaty of Neuilly.

Radio Darik is a commercial Bulgarian station broadcasting in the FM band. On the air since 1993, it beams national and regional programmes to 19 urban areas across Bulgaria.

'In this way the Bulgarian State, jointly with Darik Radio, will give the Bulgarians in the Western Outlands the fullest possible access to information from Bulgaria,' reads one of the letters, quoted by Valchev.

'We have perused the letter very carefully but at this point we are looking for technical and legal opportunities to address the issue,' Foreign Ministry Spokesman Radko Vlaikov said on Darik Radio. He specified that his Ministry categorically supports 'any undertaking intended to provide a larger quantity and more authentic information to our compatriots abroad.' 'What our Ministry is trying to do is to look for a solution to the legal aspect of the question, which involves international standards and rules,' the Spokesman said.

The Chairman of the State Telecommunications Commission Vesselin Stoikov pledged to make the enquiries necessary for implementation of the idea. 'This will not be easy, there is a Geneva Convention and an approved international broadcasting plan, but I am convinced that we will identify the right formula,' Stoikov said. He added that his Commission, together with Darik Radio and other institutions, will decide how to formalize the legal premises.

Stoyan Raichevski MP, who chairs the National Assembly Committee on Culture and the Media, also expressed support for the idea. He expects that the idea will not meet with much opposition from the Serbian authorities "because things in the Western Outlands have changed and people are now not afraid to claim their ability to communicate freely with their friends and relations in Bulgaria. YY/LG/20:50:25 22-01-2000"

"Darik Radio Starts Turkish-Language Broadcasts

Kurdjali, Southern Bulgaria, October 4, 2000 (BTA) – The local team of the private Darik Radio starts Turkish-language broadcasts, said the local chief of this radio, Miroslava Mihova. The Turkish-language programmes are prepared under the Airwaves for Ethnic Tolerance project of the NGOs Centre in Kurdjali.

Under the programming arrangements, the local news will be presented both in Bulgarian and in Turkish twice daily. There will also be three other programmes in the Turkish language during the week - two of 15 min. and one half-hour.

The National TV started broadcasting Turkish-language programmes as of October 2, 10 minutes every day.

Yunal Ljutfi MP of the mostly ethnic Turks' Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) said Wednesday that they hail the launch of Turkish-language broadcasts by the National TV but their hopes are that they will be moved from 5 p.m. to prime time around 8 p.m.

'I hope it is not a pre-election publicity stunt of the incumbents,' Ljutfi also said. 'The expansion of programmes in minority languages will prove it is no formal act used to fool the Turkish national minority. If the news stay as they are now, Turks in Bulgaria will keep their TV aerials turned to receive the programmes of neighbouring Turkey.'

MRF deputy leader Emel Etem said they hope that the implementation of some of the provisions of the framework convention on national minorities will not remain at the point of the 5 p.m. news. PB/ED/LN/ 16:34:33 04-10-2000"