First radio station of the Greek community of Istanbul officially launched

The “Echo of Istanbul”, the first greek-speaking radio of the Istanbuli-Greek (Rum) Community has been transmitting live worldwide via the Internet for the past 6 months. Its official launching event was hosted on October 30th in Athens by the Hellenic Secretariat General for Information and Communication.

The web radio station owes much to the youth of the Community and Andreas Robopoulos, journalist and editor of the Istanbul-based newspaper “Echo” (est. 1977). He gave a presentation at the event, mentioning the popularity the station has achieved so far with a daily reach of 5.000 listeners in 72 countries, Mr Robopoulos accounted on the encouraging way numerous people of the arts known and loved by Greek audiences responded to his call. From November and on, they shall be enriching its program hosting new shows on Greek culture, recipes and travel, portraits of Istanbul and Athens. Music shows will continue transmitting entirely Greek music (mostly of the rebetiko, laiko and entehno genre) and daily news updates on the activities of the Community, as well as news from Greece and Turkey and the bilateral relations.

Present at the event were a number of distinguished members of the Greek artistic scene, and members of the political leadership of Greece, including the Governmental Spokesman, the Minister for Tourism and the Media Secretary General. Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos saluted the initiative via a video message.

Musician Evanthia Reboutsika (composer of the “Touch of Spice” movie soundtrack, centered in politics and human relations among Greeks and Turks in 1960’s Istanbul) offered her movie music for the station’s jingle, saying “Istanbul for me is a place I felt I have a connection with that goes deep in the past from the first moment I visited”.

Last but not least Stelios Parliaros (the most popular pastry-maker in Greece, born and raised in Istanbul himself), spoke of the famous cuisine and recipes of Istanbul and offered Istanbuli confections to the guests.

“Echo of Istanbul” transmits at http://radio.ihotispolis.com/ and the program is available in Turkish at http://radio.ihotispolis.com/tuumlrkccedile.html

Sophia Nikolaou

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