ly 200 hours per week, averaged one-half
hour in length, and generally carried domestic news and comments on
international developments. In addition to Romanian, the broadcasts to
European listeners were presented in English, German, French, Greek,
Italian, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, and Spanish. Overseas programs were
beamed to North Africa and the Near East in Arabic, English, French, and
Turkish; to Asia, in English and Persian; to the Pacific area, in
English; to North America, in English, Romanian, and Yiddish; and to
Latin America, in Portuguese and Spanish.

Radio Audience

The communist regime has long recognized the importance of radio
broadcasting as a medium for both informing the people and for molding a
favorable public attitude toward the government. As a result, the
construction of broadcast facilities and the production of receiving
sets have been steadily increased since 1960. Also, during this same
period the number of radio receivers increased more than 50 percent,
from 2 million in 1960 to almost 3.1 million in 1970. The number of
licensed receiving sets included approximately 870,000 wired receivers
and amplifiers that usually reached group audiences in public areas.

By early 1972 the government had given no indication as to the results
achieved by the radio in the intensified ideological campaign launched
in mid-1971. Press reports revealed that, whereas radio programs
continued to be criticized as to content and purpose, changes more
favorable to the socialist concept of culture and political thought have
not yet been extensive. Western programs, though fewer, were still being
offered, and certain musical programs were being revised to favor the
light and popular music of native composers over the modern Western
style. Listener resistance to changes intended to improve the "communist
education of the masses" was revealed by official statements that called
for the need of radio editors and program coordinators "to improve their
skill" in arousing and focusing the interest of the radio audience on
"up-to-date" programs.

Television Broadcasting

Since its inception in 1956, television broadcasting has been closely
linked with radio, by the regime, as an increasingly important
instrument of "propaganda and socialist education of the masses." Like
radio, television operated under supervision of the Council of Romanian
Radio and Television, whose policy guidelines were received directly
fro