B92

RTV B92, or simply B92 (stylized as b92, formerly BΞ92 and B 92), is a Serbian news station and broadcaster with national coverage headquartered in Belgrade.

Founded in 1989 as radio station, it was a rare outlet for Western news and information in FR Yugoslavia under Slobodan Milošević, and was a force behind many demonstrations that took place in Belgrade during the turbulent 1990s. It also played rock music. Due to this, RTV B92 won the MTV Free Your Mind award in 1998, and many other awards for journalism and fighting for human rights. RTV B92 is the subject of the best-selling book This is Serbia Calling. On 6 October 2000, the day following the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević, television B92 started broadcasting.

During the 2000s, the company has undertaken a shift from political and societal topics towards commercialization, and has changed the ownership structure multiple times. The B92 brand name was subject to several replacements and restorations: in July 2015, Radio B92 was shut down and was replaced by a new station called Play Radio. In April 2008, the second TV (cable-only) channel named B92 Info, with 24-hour news coverage was launched, to be replaced by Prva World in 2016, under the sister brand Prva TV. In 2017, TV B92 changed its name to O2.TV, only to be restored to B92 in March 2020.

RTV B92 media company continues to operate the Play Radio and B92 television channel. As of December 2017,^[update] other active segments of the B92 media network are B92.net web portal, B92 Fond humanitarian fund, Samizdat B92 book publisher and Rex cultural center. The most prominent person in RTV B92 history is Veran Matić, who was one of the founders and CEO from B92's establishment in 1989 until 2019.

Radio B92 was founded in May 1989 in Belgrade as a predominantly youth-oriented station on 92.5 MHz FM. It received financial help from the Open Society Foundations and the USAID. It was briefly closed down by authorities in March 1991.

During the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s, RTV B92 was one of the very few sources for news not controlled by the government. Although the government did everything in its power to prevent RTV B92 from transmitting its programs they failed.^{[citation needed]} With the help of Dutch internet provider XS4All, RTV B92 started broadcasting their programs over the internet in 1996. These broadcasts were then also re-transmitted via the BBC World Service while several local stations on the ground made the programs available throughout Serbia. In 1996 the Internationale Medienhilfe organisation awarded the title "Radiostation des Jahres" to Radio B92.

It was forced off the air for a time in 1999 when NATO bombed Yugoslavia, and government agents cracked down on pro-Western reporting. The government took over the station in 1999 but the team continued broadcasting in borrowed studios as B2-92. In a dawn raid in May 2000 government troops seized everything. Internet broadcasting from secret studios continued however, until after the ousting of Milošević in October 2000, when the two stations were unified. It has continued as a combined music and news radio station since.

Throughout the years it has become a national radio with wide audience. The radio station at its peak had around 400,000 daily listeners which made up 35% of all radio listeners with almost 80 stations competing for airtime. As of 2014, Radio B92 covered the whole of the territory of Serbia.