Radio Europe can be listened to anywhere, regardless of geographical location, after the completion of its mobile phone application. The application not only enables listening to the radio but also provides users with news, information and daily scriptures – Bishops Dániel Pásztor and Károly Fekete and Executive Director Gábor Sike announced at their press conference on October 20, 2023, on behalf of the maintaining Tiszáninne and Tiszántúli Reformed Church Districts.
Since 2005, Europá Rádió has been at the service of students on the wavelength of values and culture. The radio’s programs were not only aimed at believers but at all open-hearted and open-minded individuals who long for a clear, human voice in an increasingly noisy world. The radio station broadcasts in a wide geographical area: Debrecen, Miskolc, Nyíregyháza, Sátoraljaújhely, and Mezőköves, among others. However, in recent years and as a result of the unstoppable development, a couple of questions have arisen that need to be answered: how can they reach those who originate from these areas, or simply do not live here, and would still like to join the valuable broadcasting service as listeners? How could the tools of the modern age be included in the construction and strengthening of church communities? How can the number of students be increased at all? Online radio broadcasting and a smart application became the right answer.
Európa Rádió is the joint radio of the Reformed Church District of Tiszáninne and Tiszántúli, whose programs are popular among believers and non-believers alike, providing culture and quality content to the airwaves. The territorial limitations that had previously limited radio broadcasts had to be clearly removed. The answer was to combine online radio broadcasting with smart mobile application technology. This is how the Europa Rádió mobile application was created, which makes it possible to access Reformed value-giving programs anywhere in the world, on any mobile device. It’s free to install in seconds and extremely easy to use. After downloading the app, users can select the church district of their interest, which setting is remembered by the application, but they can switch to the other church district at the bottom of the main menu at any time with one click. The application not only broadcasts the radio broadcast but also displays news and information published on the website of the church districts so that users can follow and get involved in the life of the church districts, thereby strengthening and growing the community. The programs and current events can also be updated continuously, so users can always get up-to-date information. They don’t need to leave the app to find out the latest news or read the most important announcements – while listening to their favorite station. Since students can be reached in this form much more simply and in larger numbers, the chance that they will personally participate in the community life organized by the church district is also measurably higher.
When developing the application, the design of messaging was an important aspect. Every morning, the daily verb arrives on the smartphone of the users/students at a fixed time, so that they can mentally prepare for the given day and start the morning recharged. But, of course, these are all stored in the system, so not only at any time during the day, but also retroactively, you can search for all the verbs that have already appeared within the Daily verb menu item of the application, and you can read them again and again, together with the verb explanations.
A push message can also be sent to users about the uploading of new news or programs: listeners can be notified either at a chosen time during the day or immediately when they are published. This information can therefore be read conveniently and separately in a separate menu item. When developing the application, we had to take into account that the content is also available in offline mode, i.e. to enable the use of the application even without an Internet connection. The previously loaded news, programs and daily verbs are thus at hand at any time, users do not depend on an Internet connection.
The printed publications of the church district also have a separate interface and menu item in the application, so they can be accessed easily and free of charge on smartphones, also in offline mode.
The Europa Radio mobile application can be downloaded for free on the Android and iOS platforms. Programs based on values are available anytime and anywhere, and with the help of technology provided by smart applications, radio listeners can become a global community, reported the Reformed Church District of Tiszántúl.
The opening photo shows Ilona Oláh.
