Rádio FM, the fourth channel of the Slovak Radio, is an alternative music radio, established in November 2004. The specific feature of Rádio FM is its focus on young listeners who avoid consumer musical production and are interested in alternative music genres such as indie rock, dubstep, hip-hop, world music, metal, dance electronic music, jazz and so on. The radio also broadcasts radio coverage from festivals, live 'unplugged' performances and concerts. They have also broadcast the final of the Eurovision Song Contest since Slovakia's withdrawal from the contest in 2013. Rádio FM began with the tradition of awarding Radio Head Awards. Its listeners chose the best Slovak album, Single of the Year, Newcomer of the Year and Best live act of the Year and another prize is awarded also by professional music critics made up of Rádio FM and partner media editors. Through its broadcasting, it tries to discover, highlight and promote music by artists who do not receive air time on the commercial broadcasters. Rádio FM is one of the pioneers in podcasting technology and mobile phone applications on the Slovak media market and also makes strong use of the potential of social network communities such as Facebook or Twitter.
Frequencies
broadcasts on frequencies with a note at the time from 6:00 to 18:00 Radio Patria programme in Hungarian. Also available on satellite:
Rádio FM began the tradition of awarding “radio heads” in 2009 when its listeners chose the best Slovak album of the year and another prize was awarded also by professional music critics. In the same year, the fourth channel of Slovak Radio introduced also a visual aspect by awarding statuettes. It was a tradition that the winners get a piece of work created by the artist Bety K. Majerníkova – a statuette with radio instead of the head. On 6 February 2009, the electro band Noisecut became the first winner of the Radio_Head Awards for the album Bliiizko and songwriter Ján Boleslav Kladivo received the critics' choice award for his album Rozhľadňa. The attractiveness of music awards and their increasing popularity brought some significant changes into the second edition. Next Radio_Head Awards brought three new categories added to the original award for Album of the Year and Album of the Year/Critics choice. In two voting rounds the listeners chose their favorites in the new categories Single of the Year, Newcomer of the Year and Best live act. Vetroplach and young band Billy Barman were the winners of the second edition and the main award went to the band Diego for their album Peripheries. The critics´ choice went to the electronic project The Autumnist. The gala evening was hosted by the moderators Baláž and Hubinák from the most favourite show of Rádio FM and ten bands performed live on stage. The third edition of Radio_Head Awards took place on 18 February 2011 in public.
