Station closes due to financial problems

PRIZREN - Doğan News Agency

Prizren Radio, which has been broadcasting in both Turkish and Albanian for 40 years in Kosovo, will close because of financial problems.
The closure of the radio station caused concern among Kosovo Turks after the closure of other Turkish language stations Yeni Dönem and Mehmetçik FM.
The station, which was founded during former Yugoslavia, broadcasted Albanian programs for 21 hours and Turkish programs for three. But in the last few months it has only been playing music.
Having hosted significant figures of Kosovo, Prizren radio has also hosted the late Turkish President Bülent Ecevit, late politician İsmail Cem, famous comedian Cem Yılmaz, late artist Barış Manço and singer Emel Sayın.
The station received support from the Prizren Municipality until 1999 but started having problems when the municipality cut funding. Since then, it survived with the support of the Turkish Representative Council.
The station moved from where it operated for 30 years in 2000 to a smaller building. Eight people worked for the Albanian programming while two people worked for the Turkish programming, but the station could no longer afford workers’ salaries the past seven months.
Turkish service director Ülkü Cibo said the radio station could be listened to in many parts of the country and had a significant Turkish audience. Cibo said they had applied to many Turkish and Kosovo organizations to support the radio station, but the efforts were to no avail.