Vocational day in Bratislava

Our vocational day in Bratislava was on Tues May 19, where we visited the public TV and radio stations in the city. The day started at the TV station where we were greeted by prime time news anchor Lubomír Bajaník, who gave us a tour of the facilitates. We got to see the various studios where programs are recorded, as well as the back offices. We saw a few school groups during our tour, and all the children seemed to look at Lubo like a celebrity, so we enjoyed the VIP attention. In addition to presenting the 7pm news during the week, he also travels to major news events for live broadcasts.

We had a few minutes to speak with one of the news editors as well. We asked him about the top news stories of the day, and how he handles reporting with shrinking budgets. While in the newsroom, we saw many reporters coming and going to follow up on stories.

The station has a morning talk show called Dãmsky Klub (ladies club), and we were able to look around the set before meeting two of the four hosts. They were very welcoming and wished us well on the rest of our trip.

  
   

  

   

  
After lunch, we headed to the radio station. The first part of our visit was an architectural tour, as the building is designed as an inverted pyramid. The building is well known in the city for its unusual design, and we appreciated learning more details about how it came to be built. For example, we learned it took 16 years to build because the project ended up requiring 4x as much money as originally projected. Also, the building has received few updates since its opening in1983, so it sometimes felt like we were in a time capsule.

After the tour, which even including crouching beneath one of the sound stages to see the acoustics from another angle, we spoke with the editor of the radio station. We were very grateful for Ingrid’s insight into how music and radio news have evolved, and appreciated hearing about her rise to the top of her field. 

   
     Check out more here:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_Radio_Building

That evening, we were with our host families. Although we are in hotels some nights for logistical reasons, we really treasure the opportunity the learn more about local culture through the lives of our host families. Patti and Theresa’s host families got together that night for dinner at a local restaurant in Marianka, the oldest pilgrimage site in Slovakia (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marianka).  Kim and her family enjoyed a quiet evening at home discussing a wide variety of topics, and Sarah accompanied her host to his ice hockey practice and to dinner.  

After a busy day, we were off to bed to rest up for our tour of Bratislava with Rotarian Martin Sloboda. Kim will be posting about that next! 
-TC