Private national radio broadcaster Darik is enjoying an ever-growing influence and currently has the highest ratings on the market, the media announced just days before it marks the fifteenth anniversary since its launch.

"Darik radio is leader on the market and its monthly ratings total 14.37% of the audience," Konstantin Vulkov, Darik Radio Program Director, said at a press conference on January 16.

"Darik radio retained its lead in radio advertising business, its ad revenues for 2007 standing at BGN 8 M, way ahead of the state-owned national radio," Chief Executive Radosvet Radev announced.

Evgeniya Marcheva, Darik radio foreign affairs correspondent, was pronounced winner in the annual poll "Voice of 2007" mainly thanks to her coverage of the ordeal of the Bulgarian nurses in Libya, who were arrested in 1999 on charges of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV and released in July 2007 after an international diplomatic shuffle.

The press conference also saw the launch of a book, bringing together 48 interviews aired during the program "Who is Talking?", hosted by Prolet Velkova and Vesselina Petrakieva.

Bulgaria's Darik Radio will have a special festive programme and many surprises for its audience on January 21 when the popular media celebrates its 15th birthday.

The celebrations will go under the motto "We are airing history", and the audience will be treated to special surprises.

The company currently manages Bulgaria's leading online Bulgarian language media Darik News (http://www.darik.net ), which merged in the middle of September 2006 with Novinite.com, the biggest English language news provider in Bulgaria.

The top online project, called DarikWeb, Inc., was born after Darik News acquired 51% stake in Novinite OOD.

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