Klubrádió

Klubrádió is a commercial talk and news radio station based in Budapest, Hungary. Klubrádió is often labeled as the voice of the left-liberal opposition. Many on the right and far-right find it important to emphasize what they perceive as the political bias of Klubrádió by pointing to the fact that Klubrádió has hired a liberal politician as a host since 2008. The then-active SZDSZ MP, also former party chairman Gábor Kuncze was the Minister of Interior appointed by the liberal party, SZDSZ. Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány also hosted once a program on Klubrádió while in office. Klubrádió was started broadcasting in April 1999, as the official radio of the Hungarian Auto Club (HAC). After HAC sold the station to Monográf Zrt, the original programming of the Auto Club changed, and the broadcast format was completely transformed into a talk and news station.

Hungarian Auto Club decided to participate in a tender for two Budapest-based frequencies offered by ORTT (95.3 and 102.1 MHz). After winning 95.3 MHz in 1998 December, the Auto Club hired staff and built up a studio. Broadcast started in April 1999. Oszkár Hegedűs, president of the HAC, was the first to speak on the air. This made the Hungarian Auto Club the first of the European auto clubs broadcasting 24 hours a day.

After some two years on the air, the leadership of the HAC decided to sell the company for undisclosed reasons. HAC raised the equity of Klubrádió by 145 million forints and immediately sold 100 million forints worth of shares to Monográf Rt. in October 2001, not long before the 2002 elections in Hungary. Monográf Rt. was founded in 2001 September, one month prior to gaining controlling stake in Klubrádió. The headquarters of Monográf was in the same building as the publisher of the left-wing weekly 168 óra. Monográf, whose ownership at that time had close ties to the SZDSZ party, acquired Klubrádió from the Hungarian Auto Club, even though other bidders offered more. In the second half of 2002, the consortium gained 100% ownership in Klubrádió.

With this change, the original Klubrádió owned by the actual Autó Klub (HAC), together with the traffic radio format in Hungary, disappeared after having the approval of the media authority (ORTT). Only the name and frequency remained whereas the format and the programs offered were completely changed. This way the program structure of the station became completely different from the one presented and approved in the 1998 tender. However, since Auto Klub offered many public service broadcasts in the tender, such as frequent traffic news, the license fee for the station was considerably less than that of a commercial radio. The ORTT in 2001 approved the change, enabling the new opinion and news profile of Klubrádió. The Orbán- government's delegates had the minority in ORTT at the time. Since the departements are staffed based on the election mandates and Fidesz - KDNP holds 67% of the parliamentary majority, it is not surprising that all state departements, including the ORTT had Fidesz - KDNP majority in 2011. The licence awarded for the frequency had a duration of twelve years and expired in February 2011.

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