Radio 4's Narva studio marks 30th anniversary

The Narva studio of Estonia's Russian-language Radio 4 marked its 30th anniversary on Tuesday, September 2. Hosts of the morning show "Velikolepnaya chetverka" (The Fabulous Four), Pjotr Sushkov and Dina Prusakova, broadcast that day's program directly from the Narva studio and spoke with residents of the city.

Sushkov said listeners called in and, most notably, still clearly remember the station's history. One listener, a long-haul truck driver, reportedly said he keeps listening to Radio 4 no matter which country he happens to be driving through, which the host said was gratifying to hear. Prusakova added that listeners also remember and remain fond of staff members who no longer work at the station and whose voices haven't been heard on air for years, yet people still recall their names and the stories they covered.

Founded during a difficult period

The anniversary broadcast also featured recollections from people involved in setting up the Narva Radio 4 studio back in 1996, a fairly difficult period in the city's history. Galina Shustrova, a former head of the Narva studio, recalled that the station went on air daily with news at a time when unemployment was rising sharply and many Narva residents were leaving the city because they struggled to adapt to the new Estonia.

ERR journalist Yuri Nikolayev described the late 1990s as the studio's strongest period, a time before the internet had taken over as a source of information, when electronic broadcast channels carried the most urgent, essential news. According to him, the studio was the first to tell residents what was happening in the city, and thousands of Narva residents tuned in.

Over the past 30 years the Narva studio has gone through many changes, but one thing has stayed constant: Narva still has a voice on Radio 4. On weekdays, the program "Podrobnosti iz Narvy" (Details from Narva) continues to cover life in the city and across Ida-Viru County.