The station was created as a shortwave service almost simultaneously with the emergence of independent Slovakia and began broadcasting on 4 January 1993.

Its duties were laid down as providing listeners in other countries with information about the new state and maintaining contact with the numerous expatriate Slovak communities around the world.

RSI's programmes are broadcast in English, German, French, Russian, Spanish, and, for expatriates, Slovak.

Its daily 30-minute magazine programmes contain news from Slovakia, features on the Slovak economy, sciences, culture, geography, environment, sports, examples of the spoken, written, and musical arts, and portraits of important personalities.

The program is now relayed on two WRMI frequencies (11580kHz & 5850kHz) and via Shortwave Service in Germany (6005kHz)