site.btaBTA and BG Radio Sign Partnership Agreement

The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and BG Radio signed a partnership agreement on Thursday on the occasion of the radio station’s 25th anniversary, with the aim of promoting Bulgarian music.

BG Radio was founded on March 3, 2001, and the first BTA news item related to BG Radio dates from February 27, 2001, an announcement that the new radio station would begin broadcasting on March 3, with a live concert at Alexander I Battenberg Square, featuring only Bulgarian pop and rock music, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said.

The oldest photograph the BTA possesses related to BG Radio is dated January 27, 2004. It was taken at a ceremony held at the National Theatre when one of Bulgarian National Radio’s annual Sirak Skitnik awards was presented to BG Radio for the impactful mission of the private radio station. A review of BG Radio’s presence in BTA bulletins shows that there were three publications in 2015, while last year there were 66. 

“This collection of news related to BG Radio proves that BTA is Bulgaria’s information institution. BG Radio started as a mission that very few people believed in, but 25 years later we too are becoming Bulgaria’s musical institution. All the news reports you have published prove our success, for which we thank you, personally, and BTA for all these years,” BG Radio Director General Nikolay Yanchovichin said.

“This is a very important anniversary year for us, because we truly proved that over the years we have been changing Bulgaria, for the better, proving, as a media outlet, that Bulgarian culture and music can develop. We have always had a wonderful partnership with BTA, but we apparently decided that now is the moment to formalize our excellent relationship with a contract, through which all our interesting news and events, both on and off air, will receive the coverage they deserve thanks to you,” Yanchovichin added.

“BG Radio is the home of Bulgarian music, and the upcoming concert at Alexander Nevsky Square will naturally be this year’s major event for Bulgarian music, so we will have a great deal of content and news. We will, of course, begin with announcing the hosts, which is traditionally a highly anticipated piece of news. Every year, some of the most prominent and popular figures take part in our concerts, so you can expect to find out who the hosts will be this year. The concert is shaping up to be the largest event organized in Bulgaria connected with Bulgarian music and on a world-class level. Marvin Dietmann is once again the creative director, so we expect a stage that can be compared to stages at the biggest events in Europe, such as the Eurovision Song Contest,” BG Radio PR Director Teodora Lapshova said.

“On March 3 we celebrated both the country’s national holiday and BG Radio’s 25th birthday by inviting iconic performers, friends, and personalities connected to this 25-year history to join us on air. What they all said was that BG Radio has already become an institution. That it is the home of Bulgarian music and Bulgarian artists, and that it is an authoritative and important media outlet. These words, of course, are an assessment of BG Radio’s 25-year presence. We are people who consistently respect traditions. We started with a big concert at Alexander Battenberg Square in 2001. Then, we celebrated our 10th anniversary at Alexander Battenberg Square with a large concert again. Now, once again we are in the heart of Sofia with a big concert at Alexander Nevsky Square. For us, this partnership with BTA is important because now that BG Radio is already an institution, we are very happy to partner with BTA, another institution that our country loves and trusts,” host Atanas Stoyanov said.

Valchev said that BG Radio is yet another partner of BTA in the field of Bulgarian music, “We have agreements with all Bulgarian universities, including those offering music education, the National Academy of Music, the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Plovdiv, as well as several universities with faculties and departments related to music; with the national music schools in both Sofia and Plovdiv. We are also in contractual relations with the Bulgarian National Radio, the Union of Bulgarian Composers, and Musicautor, with all state opera houses, with the Sofia Philharmonic, with emblematic performers who BG Radio plays, starting with Lili Ivanova, whose concerts, including the upcoming one at the Olympia concert venue in Paris, we are partnering; with The Foundation, Hilda Kazasyan, Stefan Valdobrev, the Signal band, Desi Dobreva, Iliya Lukov, the Singing Artists project, and with nearly 30 music festivals featuring Bulgarian music.”

“I would also like to take this opportunity to announce that we have now accumulated a critical amount of information about news in Bulgarian music. We have begun publishing news about new songs, which are most often premiered on BG Radio. With your help we will try to create a specialized sub-section dedicated to new Bulgarian music,” Valchev added.