📻 Perth Hungarian Radio – Perthi Magyar Rádió
Category: Media & Publications
Status: 🟡 Research in Progress
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Known broadcasting history: at least 1982 onward
For many years, Hungarian-language community radio provided Hungarian news, culture, music and community connection in Perth.
The complete history of Perth Hungarian Radio – Perthi Magyar Rádió has not yet been reconstructed. However, surviving sources allow us to identify some of the people and broadcasts involved.
This page is therefore both a historical record and an invitation to former presenters, contributors and listeners to help complete the story.
🎙️ An Earlier Hungarian Program — 6NR
Evidence has emerged that Hungarian-language community broadcasting in Perth predates the better documented 6EBA program.
In a 2023 academic thesis about community television in Western Australia, the author recalls a personal involvement in community broadcasting:
“dating back to 1982 when I ran a weekly Hungarian radio program at Curtin University's 6NR.”
This establishes that a weekly Hungarian-language radio program was operating through Curtin University's 6NR by 1982.
Further research is needed to establish how long this program operated and whether it was directly connected with the later Perth Hungarian Radio service on 6EBA.
📻 Perth Hungarian Radio and 6EBA
A published survey of Hungarian-language broadcasting around the world records:
Perth – 6EBA – Perth Hungarian Radio – operating since 1985 – leader: Szabó Irén.
This provides an important documented milestone in the history of Hungarian broadcasting in Western Australia.
Whether the 1982 6NR program developed directly into the 6EBA service, involved some of the same people, or represented a separate broadcasting initiative remains to be established.
👩💼 Szabó Irén
Szabó Irén is one of the earliest people we can currently document in connection with Perth Hungarian Radio.
The Hungarian Oral History Archive records that she was born in 1930, worked as a teacher and later at the Cartographic Institute, emigrated to England in January 1957 and subsequently moved to Australia.
The archive specifically records that she lived in Perth and:
“évekig a helyi magyar rádió főszerkesztője volt”
— meaning that for years she was editor-in-chief of the local Hungarian radio program.
Of particular historical interest, the archive contains a 1999 recorded oral-history interview with Szabó Irén, registration number 720.
This recording may provide further information about her life and potentially about Hungarian community broadcasting in Perth.
👨💼 Lőcsei János
Another documented figure is Lőcsei János.
A 2008 edition of the Australian Hungarian newspaper Magyar Élet, reporting on visitors to the Australia–Hungary Friendship Circle, identifies him specifically as:
“Lőcsei János, a Perthi Magyar Rádió vezetője”
— János Lőcsei, leader of Perth Hungarian Radio.
This demonstrates that Perth Hungarian Radio remained a recognised Hungarian community institution well beyond its beginnings in the 1980s.
It also leaves an important gap to investigate:
Who were the presenters, editors and volunteers between the Szabó Irén and Lőcsei János periods, and who followed them?
🧩 Help Us Reconstruct the Presenter List
Community radio exists because people volunteer their time.
There were almost certainly many more people involved with Perth Hungarian Radio than currently appear in the historical record.
We would like to identify:
🎙️ presenters
🎚️ producers and technical volunteers
📰 news contributors
🎵 people who selected or supplied music
📣 community organisations providing announcements
🎤 interviewees and guests
🤝 other volunteers involved behind the scenes
If you remember someone involved with the radio, even an approximate name or decade may help.
📼 Do Any Recordings Survive?
One of the most important questions is whether recordings of Perth Hungarian Radio still exist.
They might survive on:
📼 cassette tapes
💿 CDs
📹 video tapes
💾 computer files
📱 later digital recordings
📦 personal or family collections
An old recording could preserve much more than the radio program itself.
It could contain voices of former community members, advertisements for Hungarian businesses, community announcements, interviews, music, events and information about organisations that may otherwise have disappeared from the historical record.
If you have an unidentified recording of Perth Hungarian radio, please consider preserving it.
❓ When Did Perth Hungarian Radio End?
This remains one of the major unanswered questions.
A community recollection suggests that regular broadcasting eventually ceased because there was nobody available or willing to continue producing the program.
We have not yet independently verified this account.
We are therefore particularly interested in hearing from people involved during the final years of broadcasting.
We would like to establish:
When was the final broadcast?
Who were the final presenters?
Was an attempt made to find new presenters or volunteers?
Were recordings or program records preserved?
Why did the program ultimately cease?
🔎 Questions Still to Answer
Our current research questions include:
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When did Hungarian-language broadcasting first begin in Perth?
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Who established the 1982 6NR program?
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How long did the 6NR program operate?
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Was there a direct connection between 6NR and 6EBA?
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Who established Perth Hungarian Radio on 6EBA?
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Who were all of its presenters?
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What days and times was it broadcast?
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What did a typical program contain?
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Which community organisations participated?
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Do photographs of the presenters or studio survive?
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Do program schedules survive?
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Do recordings survive?
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When was the final broadcast?
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Why did the program cease?
📚 Sources & Further Research
Hungarian-language broadcasting survey
A published survey of Hungarian-language broadcasting records:
“Perth: 6EBA … Perth Hungarian Radio 1985 óta. Vez.: Szabó Irén.”
This provides the documented 1985 date and identifies Szabó Irén as its leader.
Oral History Archive — Szabó Irén
The Hungarian Oral History Archive records Szabó Irén (1930) as having emigrated to Australia and living in Perth, where she was editor-in-chief of the local Hungarian radio for several years.
The archive holds a 1999 sound-recorded interview, registration 720.
Magyar Élet — 25 July 2008
An article concerning the Australia–Hungary Friendship Circle lists:
“Lőcsei János, a Perthi Magyar Rádió vezetője”
among its previous Australian-Hungarian visitors.
Community Television in Perth, Western Australia — 2023
The author's account records running a weekly Hungarian radio program at Curtin University's 6NR beginning in 1982.
📣 Do You Remember Perth Hungarian Radio?
Perhaps you listened every week.
Perhaps you remember a presenter's voice.
Perhaps somebody in your family appeared on the program.
Perhaps an old cassette is sitting in a cupboard.
We would like to hear from you.
Even a single name, approximate year, photograph or recording may help recover another piece of Western Australia's Hungarian history.
