The
\nfirst signal broadcast from the studios in Bucharest on November 1st,
\n1928, heralded the existence of a Romanian radio voice, at that time unique around
\nthe world. It was the voice by means of which the world got info about Romania,
\nabout the Romanian society, about its experience or ideals. The Romanian Broadcasting
\nCorporation, through its programs, has always catered for a series of needs of
\nRomanian society as a whole. The country’s economic, political, social and
\ncultural life reflected itself on Hertzian wavelengths, it has also reached out
\nto listeners via radio broadcasts as well. This is what the historian Eugen
\nDenize wrote, in his 5-volume history of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting
\nCorporation. Radio Romania has been broadcasting for more than nine decades now.
\nSpeaking at the microphone were political personalities, but also such
\nprominent novelists, poets or literary critics, as Mihail Sadoveanu, Tudor
\nArghezi, or G. C\u0103linescu, or the historians Andrei O\u0163etea and C.C. Giurescu, as
\nwell as many others. Radio Romania had a 16-year long history before the
\ninstatement of the communist regime in the counry. In its short democratic
\nhistory back then, Radio Romania faithfully fulfilled its initial aim and
\npurpose.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Shortly
\nafter Radio Romania’s first broadcast, foreign language programmes were also
\nbroadcast by the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation. Such programmes were
\nthought out to inform the diplomatic corps in Romania’s capital city. In 1932,
\nradio listeners could hear the first broadcasts in French and English. These
\nwere news reels and current affairs programmes. In the Second World War years,
\nRadio Romania’s foreign services kept foreigners informed about the most recent
\nprogress of the operations on the frontline, and about the population’s state
\nof mind. After World war Two, Radio Romania’s foreign languages service became
\nmore important. The Foreign Broadcast Editorial Office was founded, while
\nspeakers of foreign languages or native speakers were employed to propagandize
\nthe new communist Romania.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Liliana
\nMuseteanu was head of Radio Romania’s
\nwritten archives. She outlined the early days of radio broadcasts in Bucharest.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Liliana Museteanu:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The early days of radio broadcasting can be placed in 1925, the year
\nwhen the Radio Broadcasting Friends’ Association was founded, it was the creation
\nof a group of prominent specialists in the field, headed by professor Dragomir
\nHurmuzescu, who can quite aptly be called the father of Romanian
\nbroadcasting. The association made the first broadcasts from the building of
\nthe Bucharest Polytechnic’s Electrotechnical Institute, broadcasts were scarce
\nat the beginning, targeting a very limited zone, mainly in Bucharest. The year
\n1927 is the year when even a broadcast station was built, also on the premises
\nat the Electrotechnical Institute, yet it was actually a precursor of the
\nnational radio broadcaster, because in late 1928, through a royal decree, the
\nRomanian Society of Radio-telephony Broadcasting was established. In 1928, a
\nbuilding had been purchased, even prior to the beginning of broadcasts in
\nNovember, it was a building located in 60 Berthelot street, a very beautiful
\nand elegant building, but which soon turned out to be not big enough for its
\ninitial purpose. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A
\ndifferent period of time in the history of radio Romania began after 1945. It
\nwould last until 1989. It was a period of blatant violation of basic human
\nrights, all throughout the communist regime. In much the same way as the press
\nas a whole and the state apparatus, Radio Romania also became part and parcel
\nof the communist societal model. Its initial mission was fatefully altered.
\nAccording to the historian Eugen Denize, the instatement of the communist
\npower in Romania, for the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation meant a
\ncomplete rift with the past. First of all, from a managerial point of view, the
\nSociety underwent a groundbreaking transformation and became a state
\ninstitution.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\npremises that, in time, played host to Romanian radio broadcasting, changed,
\ntoday’s building being the third since the foundation of Radio Romania. The
\ndevelopment of radio broadcasting required the allocation of supplementary
\npremises for that purpose. Today, Radio Romania’s premises can be found on 60-64
\nGeneral Berthelot street. The street bears the name of an illustrious French
\ngeneral, the head of the French mission dispatched in Romania in 1917. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Liliana Museteanu:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The building from where the main broadcasts were operated, located on 60
\nGeneral Berthelot street, became increasingly hard to manage, precisely because
\nof the technical circumstances. The air raids on August 23, 1944, seriously
\naffected the building in General Berthelot street, and then the Society had to relocate
\nto different quarters. Part of the broadcasts were operated from an attic in
\nSf. Sava College, which was especially changed to fit that purpose, and from
\nBod. The station in Baneasa was destroyed during the air raids.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the
\nyears to come, the building on 60 Berthelot Street was refurbished in 1947. But
\nthe new project, today’s Radio House, is the creation of a team of architects
\nand engineers headed by architect Tiberiu Ricci and engineer Leon Garcia. The House
\nof Radio Broadcasting was inaugurated on November 27, 1952. It was thought out
\nas a radio broadcasting production center, capable of catering for all needs. Two
\nstudios were brought into service, with a capacity of 550 cubic meters each, as
\nwell as two other studios, with a capacity of 120 cubic meters. Added to them
\nwere two radio drama studios, 14 recording studios and 11 technical studios,
\nRadio Romania’s Concert hall was inaugurated in 1960. It had a special
\nacoustics, arguably being one of the great achievements of that time.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(Translation by Eugen Nasta)<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The early days of radio broadcast in Romania<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":83019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[39801,45603,31180,36267],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-169755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-broadcast","tag-hurmuzescu","tag-radio","tag-transmitter"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n