Jana Černohorská

"Coincidentally, the radio in the children's newsroom were looking for someone with a pedagogical education, that would suit them, and who would be willing or handy to broadcast. They recommended me from school. It happened when I was doing my states exams. Imagine that I was focusing on preparation and an assistant came to me and said, 'Look, here's the number of Dr. Spalova. You have to go see the radio. They would like an editor there, so you could go there. Doktor Dr. Olga Spalová is or was then a well-known writer, a very educated woman. She said they wanted me in, but they gave me a trial period. Dr. Spalova said, 'We're taking you.' I said, 'But I have a seat. Well, it was a stumbling block, because I just had to go there. But then she arranged it, she went even to the ministry, that I did not have to go anywhere, and that's how I got on the radio."

"There was a wonderful boss, then the editor-in-chief of the army broadcasting, Sláva Vondrášek. And he commanded it there. So it had to be secret - the technicians operated the studio and we mainly received news, edited reports and broadcasted Czechoslovakia 2. There were more of those stations. Television was also illegal. And there we actually had the dramatic days of the beginning, when our delegation was in Russia, and in the end, it turned out badly."

"There were friends like Zdeněk Svěrák, Miloň Čepelka and Jiří Šebánek in the building in Dykova Street, who then founded the Jára Cimrman Theater. Most of them were also teachers, former teachers, and they decided to leave the radio right away. Which they did well. Vlad and I were such enthusiasts and we said, 'We can't leave the kids, we have to keep broadcasting.' So we went back to the radio and did the shows. But it turned out badly. Because those who were heard in or participated in it illegally, were immediately initiated a proceedings. I was expelled from the Communist Party, but by being told that it was because of what I was broadcasting. I had one sentence in one show. It was about flying on a flying carpet, and I said there that wise people advised us to take hats with ear covers, but we chose the ones with balls on top. And this sentence accompanied me in every case of whether I would continue to work on the radio or not."

"But I remember our dad - we lived in a family house in the suburbs - digging a cover in the garden. And it was so awfully damp, in clay, and there were benches. And here, when the sirens sounded, the whole family ran. I was terribly scared there because there were frogs. During the war, I mainly remember these moments, because we lived by the main street and in front of us was a farm and behind it such a hill. And when there was a big raid on Pardubice at that time, they bombed Semtín, so it was a great glow. It was awful. It is twenty kilometres from Hradec, Pardubice, and yet it was like looking at a burning object. I was worried."