Serbia's Iconic B92 TV Officially Becomes History

Serbia's once iconic B92 TV station will officially pass into history as the name changes to O2 television, media reports have announced.

Dusan Masic, a former Radio B92 journalist and the author of a book about the radio station, "Waves of Serbia", told BIRN that latest decision on changing the name would make the sale of B92 easier.

He said the channel long ago "forfeited almost everything B92 used to advocate". Together with several journalists and public figures, he had already asked the new owners to change the name of B92 due to conceptual differences.

The daily newspaper Blic reported on Friday that the decision had been expected because "the current television no longer has anything to do with the old B92 concept".

It is added that cover face of the future O2 station will be the actor Sergej Trifunovic, while new overall concept of O2 is being kept secret.

"It is true that there will be great changes and surprises from the autumn. Our company tries always to be one step ahead and surprise viewers in the best way, and so it will be this time, too," B92's PR office told Blic.

The veteran editor-in-chief of B92's informative program Veran Matic, who was one of the founders of B92, was unavailable for comment.

B92 was founded 28 years ago as a radio station. Today, it includes television with national coverage, a cable television channel, a news website and a radio which has changed its concept and was renamed Play Radio in 2015.

B92 was one of few media outlets that did not fall under the control of Slobodan Milosevic's government during the 1990s. Its target audience was intellectuals and urban youngsters opposed to the authoritarian nationalist regime.

Even after the...