Czechoslovakia announced Saturday it has stopped jamming Radio Free Europe after two decades, and the U.S.-owned network urged Bulgaria to stop its interference with the station's signals.
The Czechoslovak government said the jamming of the Munich-based radio station ended on Friday."We will be happy to be able to get our message through at last," said Bill Marsh, the executive vice president of Radio Free Europe.
Marsh said the station will consider how to take better advantage of the cleared air waves between Munich and Czechoslovakia.
"We would be able to include more music, and we could also eliminate some repeat programs. All our jammed services had been repeated to make sure we got through," Marsh said.
He said Bulgaria is the only Soviet bloc country that continues to hinder Radio Free Europe signals. "We'd like to see the last of the jamming countries stop the jamming."
Marsh said Bulgaria had unexpectedly turned off some jammers aimed at Radio Free Europe on Friday night, but switched them back on after several hours.
Sources in Prague, who insisted on anonymity, said Czechoslovakia also had stopped jamming Deutsche Welle, a West German radio station based in Cologne.
Hans Petrik, a spokesman for Deutsche Welle, said interference of Czech-language broadcasts had stopped several months ago.