RADIO

The Communications Regulatory Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina has close to 147 private stations on the list of licensees for broadcasting radio programs. According to data collected by BrandPuls in a survey in which 2,000 people participated, slightly more than 56 percent of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina between the ages of 15 and 64 consume content produced by radio stations.

The first radio station in Bosnia and Herzegovina started broadcasting in 1942, during World War II, and was under the control of the Independent State of Croatia. The first radio station in the free territory was Radio Sarajevo, which began broadcasting in April 1945.

The Communications Regulatory Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina lists close to 147 private stations on the list of licensees for broadcasting radio programs. According to data collected by BrandPuls in a survey in which 2,000 people participated, slightly more than 56 percent of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina between the ages of 15 and 64 consume content produced by radio stations.

The first radio station in Bosnia and Herzegovina started broadcasting in 1942, during World War II, and was under the control of the Independent State of Croatia. The first radio station on the free territory was Radio Sarajevo, which began broadcasting in April 1945.

According to the data provided by the IPSOS agency to the BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina, which refer to the share in the total audience of radio stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from March 2022 to March 2023, by far the most popular frequency in the country belonged to Radio BIG2, owned by Ljubiša Kragulja with more than ten percent share. However, the company with the largest market share is radio-television BN, owned by the Trišić family, since one of the most watched TV stations in the country is included in the company.

In addition to the parallel management of a TV and radio station, some companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, such as Džungla from Doboj, owned by the Đurić family, which mainly focuses on providing useful everyday information for the citizens but also have journalistic content in their portfolio.

On the list of the most listened to radio stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina is one religious media which is owned by the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Radio BIR is the ninth most listened to radio in the country.

Among the most listened to radio stations, unlike TV stations, there are no public broadcasters such as BH Radio 1, Radio Republika Srpska and Radio Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose work is partly financed by citizen contribution through tax.

Although content from radio stations is still consumed in the classic way, most radio stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina have made their signal available through their respective websites or portals in the last ten years, which often follow the news content on the radio.However, the key modernization of radio in Bosnia and Herzegovina is not its migration to the Internet or symbiosis with the online world, but the digitization of radio, which implies better reception and an increase in the capacity of the frequency spectrum. The digitization process has been a long-standing problem in Bosnia and Herzegovina.