Roman Catholic broadcasting radio stations in Poland

There are over twenty diocesan Roman Catholic broadcasting radio stations in Poland. They are of different profile: in some of them evangelisation and religious topics are the most important, in others – regional issues and musical and journalistic programmes are dominant, while religious topics (including prayers and broadcasts of services) appear in the evening hours. For the Polish Roman Catholic Church, diocesan broadcasting radio stations are important means of evangelisation. In some regions of Poland, these stations successfully compete with other regional stations and they achieve good financial results. In other regions, diocesan stations have big financial problems and also problems to gain advertisement givers (which can be connected with poor management, often by clergymen who lack the necessary management skills and do not understand the specifics of the local radio market). Therefore, especially because of the less successful stations, there has been an attempt to create the network of diocesan Catholic stations named PLUS, which uses regional frequencies to broadcast the all- Polish programme.The article discusses the role and importance of diocesan broadcasting radio stations, their place in the Polish media system, as well as their history and prospects for the future. The analysis will be completed with the information concerning the all- Polish Radio Maryja (belonging to the Redemptorist Order), commercial Christian stations and Catholic radio bands in all the Polish Radio programmes.