“Then someone in Prague radio had a brilliant idea to do a radio relay. All the stations connected. Prague started then Hradec Králové, České Budějovice, Brno, Olomouc, Přerov, us, Slovak towns Bratislava, Košice etc. joined. The television at that time by far did not have such possibilities as today; handheld wireless microphones and light cameras did not exist; everything was recorded thanks to production trucks. It was easier for the radio. Listeners knew the situation thanks to our broadcast. The editors from Ostrava showed a great courage during that time. It was said that miners were the power of the Communist party and they broadcast their speeches against the occupation by the troops, they recorded the employees of steelworks, people from culture, theatre actors and so on. It was amazing.”
“Colleagues showed and explained me how the broadcast worked. Editors went to factories to make reports. They sent them to us, and we presented them. It was our task to encourage people to stay calm and to not attack the Russians because they had guns, and somebody could get hurt. Colleagues also told me that the Russians were moving in the building and that they wanted to know where we were broadcasting from. The technicians did the thing that they took them into an empty broadcasting room. Meanwhile, we were broadcasting from the studio where radio plays were recorded. There were not signals. They said to the Russians that if we broadcast, the light had to be on. So, we broadcast, and they were moving in the building with machine guns."
“People said in the middle of 1955 that the television transmitter in Hošťálkovice had been constructed and that Ostrava would also start the television broadcast on New Year´s Eve in 1955. The television studio was part of Czechoslovak Radio at the beginning. That is probably why I, as a presenter, and actor Lubor Tokoš whom I had known from many recordings in Ostrava Radio, were invited for the first broadcast from studio. I said a few sentences: ‘Good evening dear friends. I welcome you to the first broadcast of television in Ostrava. Yes, it is right. Even Ostrava now has its own television transmitter and you are real TV viewers. It is a little bit unusual, isn´t it? But you will get used to it.‘“
“Once in the morning my father whispered to my ear: ‘Eva, get up, the Russians are here. They came riding horses.‘ I ran quickly to the village square. The Russians were really there, people greeted them. One officer came riding a horse to the yard of the farm where we lived and talked to us. He also told my father that he knew the Czechoslovak anthem. Dad was surprised and the Russian started to sing ‘Kde domov můj‘ beautifully. That was my greatest experience of the end of War."
Eva Mudrová, née Kunertová was born on the 5th of February 1933 in Hať near Opava. Her father was a police officer and the family changed place of living often. She spent the end of World War II in Mladeč near Litovle. She moved with her parents to Český Těšín in 1947 and she studied Business Academy there. After the Secondary school leaving exam, she started to work in the editorial office of Czechoslovak Radio in Ostrava. She became the first presenter of television broadcast from Ostrava in 1955. She took part in Ostrava Radio broadcasting against Warsaw Pact troops occupation in August 1968. She was sacked from broadcast and the Czechoslovak Communist Party during political screenings in 1970. She couldn´t find work for several years after it. She worked as a secretary in North Moravian Dairy factory from 1975 to 1990. She started to cooperate with the radio after the fall of the communist regime. She died on August 17, 2024.
Eva Mudrová during live broadcast of the finish of one of Peace Race´s stages , VŽKG (Klement Gottwald´s Vítkovice Ironworks) stadium in Ostrava in 1959
Eva Mudrová during live broadcast of the finish of one of Peace Race´s stages , VŽKG (Klement Gottwald´s Vítkovice Ironworks) stadium in Ostrava in 1959
