Ususaadete taastamine ja areng Eesti Raadios aastatel 1988-2004
Date
2005
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The aim of the current Bachelor of Arts thesis was to research religious programmes on
Estonian Radio with a specific focus on the frequency of religious topics in the late 1980s and
the emergence of regular religious programmes in the 1990s. The sources of information
included the radio guide Raadioleht, archives of Estonian Radio and interviews with key
persons connected with the production of religious programmes.
The first part of the thesis focused on the first radio programmes publicly dealing with
religious issues as well as the emergence of regular religious programmes. The issues of the
radio guide Raadioleht in the late 1980s show that religious programmes gained momentum
already at the end of the 1980s with Stereoraadio Sunday programme Stereopühapäev. The
programme introduced both Christian culture as well as the history of the Christian church.
The attempt to establish links between (the Christian) religion and the European culture was
characteristic of the late 1980s. The talks in Stereopühapäev included ministers, historians
and literary scientists. Both the coming of Christianity to Estonia as well as the history of the
Estonian Bible and its impact on the development of Estonian literature were discussed.
In 1989, programme presenters and listeners gradually began to discover other religions
besides Christianity, bringing a change to the situation. The talks begun in Stereopühapäev
continued in Vikerraadio late night programme Keskööprogramm with an increasing focus on
other religions, such as Buddhism or Judaism. Philosophical and religious issues, for example
the readings of Herman Hesse and Uku Masing, found good ground due to the late night
transmission time. In parallel to this, the history of Christian philosophy was intensively dealt
with in Filosoofia ja kultuur, an Estonian Radio Channel 1 programme. On the other hand,
other Channel 1 programmes, such as Mõttekiir, Esivanemate vaimuvara and Silmaring,
focused on Estonian folk tradition and ethno-religion.
The regular transmission of religious programmes had its beginning in co-operation with the
Estonian Council of Churches at the beginning of the 1990s, although the church community
already supported the broadcasting of the Christmas service in 1988. Sunday morning
religious meditations and radio sermons began with Hingevalgus series in 1989. These
programmes later developed into daily morning prayers which are still on air on the Estonian
Radio today.
The thesis also explored the co-operation of the Estonian Radio and religious organizations in
producing religious programmes, the nature of these programmes and the way they were
produced. One of the most long-lasting partnerships of the Estonian Radio has been with the
Estonian Council of Churches. On February 24, 1990 Kirikuelu, a programme reflecting the
activities of Christian churches was launched in addition to Sunday morning Hingevalgus and
was initially transmitted every other week. Daily religious programmes supported by the
Estonian Council of Churches were launched a year later, on February 11, 1991. The
programmes were listed every morning at 8:15 with a Bible reading or a meditation on
weekdays, Kirikuelu on Saturdays and longer radio sermons on Sundays. The production of
morning meditations was divided on a weekly basis by the Estonian Council of Churches
between its churches and associations of congregations with morning prayer time allocated to
member churches proportionally according to their size. The same principle is still being used
for apportioning morning prayer time by the Estonian Radio now. The Estonian Council of
Churches also supports the Estonian Radio financially by paying the speakers’ fees and the
editor’s salary. Churches also support the organization of Christian radio work training days.
Using the interviews and the archives as a source, the thesis then gives a short account of the
work done by the editors contracted with the Estonian Council of Churches. The first editor
of religious programmes was Toivo Aare, the former chief editor of the newspaper Noorte
Hääl, followed by Terje Soots and Ilona Hausmann in 1993. Contributions also came by
Mare Pihlak from Tartu studio now working as the chief editor of Pereraadio. In 1994, Jaan
Leppik commenced work as editor and coordinator of religious programmes, holding the post
until 2001.
The Estonian Radio also co-operated with the International Broadcasting Association (IBRA),
a mission organization of Swedish Pentecostal background, whose support enabled the
commencement of Christian evening programmes on Channel 3, named Stereoraadio, in
1993. Unable to cover its broadcasting expenses, the Estonian Radio was ready to close down
Channel 3 in 1993, which made IBRA’s co-operation very welcome. It supported the
Estonian Radio financially by compensating the expenses of Channel 3 while Stereoraadio
broadcasted the Christian programme Raadio 7 in the evening hours. IBRA’s interest for the
co-operation with the Estonian Radio emerged a few years before necessary trainings for
Christian radio work began in Sweden for Estonian Radio staff and ministers of different
Christian churches.
From 1997 onwards, the Estonian Radio also had a third co-operation partner, Lutheran Hour
Ministries Estonia. The aim of this organization, specified in the articles of association, was
to promote Christian values and principles via mass media in Estonia. The work of the
Lutheran Hour Ministries Estonia media centre included programmes both on Vikerraadio
and Klassikaraadio once a week, mostly financed by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod,
USA. In 2003, the financing stopped and the media centre was closed down.
In co-operation with the Estonian Radio, the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church acted as
an intermediary for bringing usable radio studio equipment as humanitarian aid from
Germany. The Lutheran church also organized radio seminars in co-operation with the
Communication Committee for Lutheran Minority Churches in Europe (KALME) and invited
editors of Christian programmes to training sessions abroad. In 1991, the Estonian Radio
Mixed Choir recorded a selection of hymns from the new Lutheran Book of Praise and Prayer
which were later used in morning prayer programmes. The first church radio and television
broadcasting at Christmas 1988 was also one of the initiatives of the Estonian Evangelical
Lutheran Church.
The present Bachelor of Arts theses emphasized the key role of the Estonian Council of
Churches in partnership with the Estonian Radio in the production of Christian religious
programmes. It introduced different regularly transmitted radio programmes and their editors.
The study also described several programmes produced with support from Lutheran Hour
Ministries Estonia and IBRA and sought to understand the motives of the Estonian Radio for
including the above-mentioned organizations in the production of Christian radio
programmes. The study identified economic reasons as one possible motive and made a
proposal to develop a set of principles for co-operation with religious organizations. In future,
these principles would provide a necessary framework in a situation where the number of
people belonging to other religions besides Christianity increases in the society, making the
Estonian Council of Churches unable to provide for all potential target audiences.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General), bakalaureusetööd