National Radio Day, celebrated on November 1st

The first signal broadcast from the studios in Bucharest on November 1st, 1928, heralded the existence of a Romanian radio voice, at that time unique around the world. It was the voice by means of which the world got info about Romania, about the Romanian society, about its experience or ideals. "The Romanian Broadcasting Corporation, through its programs, has always catered for a series of needs of Romanian society as a whole. The country's economic, political, social and cultural life reflected itself on Hertzian wavelengths, it has also reached out to listeners via radio broadcasts as well." This is what the historian Eugen Denize wrote, in his 5-volume history of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation. Radio Romania has been broadcasting for more than nine decades now. Speaking at the microphone were political personalities, but also such prominent novelists, poets or literary critics, as Mihail Sadoveanu, Tudor Arghezi, or G. Călinescu, or the historians Andrei Oţetea and C.C. Giurescu, as well as many others. Radio Romania had a 16-year long history before the instatement of the communist regime in the counry. In its short democratic history back then, Radio Romania faithfully fulfilled its initial aim and purpose.

Shortly after Radio Romania's first broadcast, foreign language programmes were also broadcast by the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation. Such programmes were thought out to inform the diplomatic corps in Romania's capital city. In 1932, radio listeners could hear the first broadcasts in French and English. These were news reels and current affairs programmes. In the Second World War years, Radio Romania's foreign services kept foreigners informed about the most recent progress of the operations on the frontline, and about the population's state of mind. After World war Two, Radio Romania's foreign languages service became more important. The Foreign Broadcast Editorial Office was founded, while speakers of foreign languages or native speakers were employed to propagandize the new communist Romania.

Liliana Museteanu  was head of Radio Romania's written archives. She outlined the early days of radio broadcasts in Bucharest.

Liliana Museteanu:

"The early days of radio broadcasting can be placed in 1925, the year when the Radio Broadcasting Friends' Association was founded, it was the creation of a group of prominent specialists in the field, headed by professor Dragomir Hurmuzescu, who can quite aptly be called "the father of Romanian broadcasting". The association made the first broadcasts from the building of the Bucharest Polytechnic's Electrotechnical Institute, broadcasts were scarce at the beginning, targeting a very limited zone, mainly in Bucharest. The year 1927 is the year when even a broadcast station was built, also on the premises at the Electrotechnical Institute, yet it was actually a precursor of the national radio broadcaster, because in late 1928, through a royal decree, the Romanian Society of Radio-telephony Broadcasting was established. In 1928, a building had been purchased, even prior to the beginning of broadcasts in November, it was a building located in 60 Berthelot street, a very beautiful and elegant building, but which soon turned out to be not big enough for its initial purpose. "

A different period of time in the history of radio Romania began after 1945. It would last until 1989. It was a period of blatant violation of basic human rights, all throughout the communist regime. In much the same way as the press as a whole and the state apparatus, Radio Romania also became part and parcel of the communist societal model. Its initial mission was fatefully altered. According to the historian Eugen Denize, "the instatement of the communist power in Romania, for the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation meant a complete rift with the past. First of all, from a managerial point of view, the Society underwent a groundbreaking transformation and became a state institution."

The premises that, in time, played host to Romanian radio broadcasting, changed, today's building being the third since the foundation of Radio Romania. The development of radio broadcasting required the allocation of supplementary premises for that purpose. Today, Radio Romania's premises can be found on 60-64 General Berthelot street. The street bears the name of an illustrious French general, the head of the French mission dispatched in Romania in 1917. 

Liliana Museteanu:

"The building from where the main broadcasts were operated, located on 60 General Berthelot street, became increasingly hard to manage, precisely because of the technical circumstances. The air raids on August 23, 1944, seriously affected the building in General Berthelot street, and then the Society had to relocate to different quarters. Part of the broadcasts were operated from an attic in Sf. Sava College, which was especially changed to fit that purpose, and from Bod. The station in Baneasa was destroyed during the air raids."

In the years to come, the building on 60 Berthelot Street was refurbished in 1947. But the new project, today's Radio House, is the creation of a team of architects and engineers headed by architect Tiberiu Ricci and engineer Leon Garcia. The House of Radio Broadcasting was inaugurated on November 27, 1952. It was thought out as a radio broadcasting production center, capable of catering for all needs. Two studios were brought into service, with a capacity of 550 cubic meters each, as well as two other studios, with a capacity of 120 cubic meters. Added to them were two radio drama studios, 14 recording studios and 11 technical studios, Radio Romania's Concert hall was inaugurated in 1960. It had a special acoustics, arguably being one of the great achievements of that time.

(Translation by Eugen Nasta)