Fourteen[4] members of the prewar staff of Czech Radio had been imprisoned or executed by the Nazis, some for political reasons and others because they were Jewish.

During the six-year occupation, the Nazi regime used the radio to distribute propaganda, decreed that all broadcasts be made in German, and banned music by Czech composers.

[8] From 30 April – 1 May 1945, the Waffen-SS Senior Group Leader (Obergruppenführer) and General of Police Karl Hermann Frank announced over the radio in Prague that he would drown any uprising in a "sea of blood".

Frank ordered the streets to be cleared and instructed the German army and police forces in Prague to fire at anyone who disobeyed.

About 90 SS guards were posted inside the building at Vinohradská 12 in downtown Prague, and a barbed-wire fence was erected outside the entrance, with two machine guns controlling entry and exit.

The SS men, heavily armed with machine guns and grenades, were confused by the lack of signage in the building and unaware that Czech policemen had taken control of the upper stories.

With considerable loss of life due to their inferior weaponry—the Czech policemen were armed mainly with pistols—the resistance fighters were eventually able to drive them into the basement and the courtyard.

[11] At 19:22, a radio broadcast urged Praguers to build barricades to prevent the Germans from moving troops and armour into the city.

On 6 May, the SS sent armored cars carrying troops in an attempt to swarm the building, but they were overrun by the Czechs, who seized the vehicles and the weapons.

[15] The Czechs had smuggled equipment and laid telephone lines from the military headquarters at the City Hall to the nearby church, from whose tower they continued to broadcast.

[17][18] About 123 Waffen-SS, barricaded in a nearby school at Na Smetance, were able to shoot resistance fighters coming in and out of the radio building and inflicted many casualties.

The Germans signed the surrender at 11:40, handed over a lorry filled with Panzerfausts, small arms, and ammunition, and vacated the area.

The Czech Radio likely played a role in inciting war crimes against German civilians during and after the Prague uprising, by passing on anti-German messages from political leaders.