Sveriges Radio building, Radiohuset, in Stockholm (August 2008)
The company – which was founded as AB Radiotjänst ("Radio Service Ltd") by a consortium of newspaper companies, the TT news agency, and radio manufacturing interests on 21 March 1924 – made its first broadcast on 1 January 1925: a relay of High Mass from St James's ChurchinStockholm. It was officially renamed Sveriges Radio in 1957.
Sveriges Radio was originally responsible for all broadcasting in Sweden, both radio and television, and hosted the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest. A reorganization in 1979 saw it become the parent company of four subsidiaries:
Four radio channels are available nationwide on FM, DAB and via the internet.[1][2]
P1: news, culture, debate, readings, documentaries, etc. Almost no music is played, except in the daily summertime programme Sommar, in which guest presenters introduce their own choice of music.
P2: classical music, folk, jazz and world music; the channel also carries some minority-language programming.
P3: popular music and comedy targeted at a younger audience.
P4: popular music, entertainment and sport, chiefly targeted at an older audience; the network is made up of 26 local stations, each of which carries a mix of local and national programming.
SR P2 Musik (in Stockholm): relays most of the output of P2, but replaces programming in minority and foreign languages (available in Stockholm from P6, see below) with additional music output – Schedule
SR International is not responsible for programming in the domestic minority languages, Finnish and Sámi, which have their own dedicated digital channels.
On 16 March 2010, Radio Sweden announced the end of broadcasts on shortwave and medium wave as from 31 October 2010.[3] External service programmes would continue on the internet only.[4] Language services for immigrants to Sweden in Albanian, Syriac, Serbian, Bosnian, and Croat would also be discontinued, while programmes in English (also on the domestic service), German, Persian, Dari, and Kurdish would remain.[5]
The public's trust in the company, along with its Public Service counterparts in Sweden, may have decreased slightly during the 2000s. The decrease is most significant among right wing citizens.[6][7]
On 2022, it was revealed that SR had registered the word ”Sommar”, meaning Summer in Swedish, as a trademark, along with other names related to their show, Sommar i P1, much to the dismay of some podcast operators.[8]
On 18 April 2023, Sveriges Radio stopped using Twitter as part of its social media plan due to concerns over "recent turbulence" at the company over its (in)ability to combat fake news and hate speech.[9]
