Radio Zrenjanin received 1.5 million dinars: Instead of an informative program, it broadcasts folk music.

Radio Zrenjanin received 1.5 million dinars in this competition for the project titled "Time for Us." The publisher of this radio station is the Novi Sad company NS Vid Media, which is also the publisher of Radio Sombor, which received two million dinars in the aforementioned provincial media competition.

The Assembly of the City of Zrenjanin gave its consent two years ago to the Novi Sad company NS Vid Media to use the name of the city of Zrenjanin in the title of the new radio station. This company submitted a request on March 8, 2024, to be allowed to use the city's name, so the radio station that later appeared on the air is called Radio Zrenjanin.

The letter stated that the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media granted this radio station a frequency for the area of Zrenjanin, Opovo, Kovačica, Sečanj, Titel, Žabalj, and Žitište.

Interestingly, the mentioned company received the frequency for Radio Zrenjanin even though it was not previously granted the Assembly's consent to use that name. This consent was acquired only later.

Councilor from the Democratic Party, Alisa Kockar, previously expressed her concerns at a session of the Assembly of the City of Zrenjanin, stating that the authorities decided to hand over Radio Zrenjanin to a private company from Novi Sad by allowing it to use the city's name and create its own new Radio Zrenjanin.

“They gave away our radio without even providing us with answers to questions about why this particular Novi Sad company, what it plans to do, and what qualifies it, other than that it already applied for the frequency without the city's permission to use the name,” Kockar stated.

She inquired whether the new owner is recommended by their previous work and information about events in Zrenjanin and whether young journalists will be employed at the new radio station or if experienced journalists, who spent a significant part of their careers at this radio station, will be involved.

“Will the program be broadcast in the languages of national minorities, in Hungarian, Romanian, and Slovak? Is there a plan to organize a live broadcast of the sessions of the City Assembly, just as has been the case for years? There are many questions we have not received answers to, but we suspect the answers, and yet our radio has already been given away,” emphasized Alisa Kockar.

The response came as soon as Radio Zrenjanin was on the air, stating that it does not have any classic news program but broadcasts folk music.

The former Radio Zrenjanin "went silent" in December 2015 after losing its broadcasting license, and the public company ended up in liquidation. The liquidation was initiated due to debts that the then-company owed to several creditors, and the assets were insufficient to settle them through other means.

The liquidation was initiated by the liquidator Željko Babić, continued by Goran Rakić, and at one point, it was concluded without the public learning how the assets, among which the most valuable were the transmitter and equipment received through the European IPA project, were disposed of.

The Novi Sad company NS Vid Media received a regional frequency for radio in February 2024 through a competition.

This Novi Sad company previously requested permission from the Assembly of the City of Sombor to use the name Radio Sombor for its radio station. The former Radio Sombor, by the way, had the same fate as Radio Zrenjanin.

Source: Zrenjaninski