Slovenia is the home to Europe’s oldest continuously operating student radio station. When it launched, Radio Študent’s signal covered only the dorms at the University of Ljubljana, but it became an important voice in the 1980s, when its journalists openly challenged Communist orthodoxy.

The station signed on for the first time in 1969 as a project of the local Student Association. With studios in the basement of one of the dorms and a small transmitter on the top of the building, Radio Študent put out a week signal that did not reach far beyond the housing complex. Still, its informal, conversational approach attracted loyal young listeners who were eager for an alternative to the often staid offerings of state-run radio.

The listenership was large enough to attract advertisers, and commercial funding soon became an important source of revenue for Radio Študent. For the station’s crew, this was a source of pride. “We are like Radio Luxembourg,” a staff member told the British journalist John Ardagh in the late 1970s, ambitiously comparing the station to the European commercial powerhouse from the Grand Duchy.

A transmitter upgrade in 1978 allowed Radio Študent to reach much of the Ljubljana Basin, and thousands of new listeners were introduced to the radio station offering an attractive mix of music – pop as well as alternative –, combined with spoken word programming. The improved signal was to play a decisive role in the decade that followed.

The 1980s saw the beginning of a political crisis in Yugoslavia, with many losing faith in the Communist government and its capacity to end a long-lasting economic crisis. It was a time of increasing discontent, and Radio Študent slowly became a voice of that dissatisfaction. Its commentators and disc jockeys routinely challenged the status quo, needled the authorities, and fearlessly exposed the hypocrisy of the political establishment. Along with the magazine Mladina, Radio Študent ushered in an era of media liberalization that, for the first time since World War II, made the expression of “dangerous” views possible in public. The times were changing, and by now, even the Communist hardliners realized that they could not silence the iconoclastic station without triggering a backlash.

In the 1980s, Radio Študent also became a technological pioneer. Instead of being greeted with music, listeners tuning in to the station at certain times of the day could hear electronic screeching resembling the signals of a fax machine. What they were actually hearing were transmissions of homegrown computer programs, ranging from game to office applications. The signals were taped by computer enthusiasts for use on the inexpensive UK-designed Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer, which was then taking Slovenia by storm. Having shaken the political establishment, Radio Študent was now introducing the country to the Computer Age.

After Slovenia’s independence in 1991, many new radio voices sprung up around the country, ranging from community stations (including a second student-run broadcaster in the town Maribor) to purely commercial operations. The advent of democracy caused Radio Študent to lose much of its political clout, and many of its most respected commentators moved on to work for mainstream media companies. Meanwhile, the station returned to its roots, offering a mix of alternative music and unconventional perspectives on various social trends. It has become a permanent part of Slovenia’s media landscape and a recognizable radio brand – thanks largely to its history of not being afraid to challenge the status quo.