90 years of Polish Radio
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
01.02.2015 12:43
Sunday marks ninety years since Poland's first radio broadcast on 1 February 1925, seven years after the country regained its independence in the wake of World War I.
Roman Rudniewski (1893-1965), director of the Polish Radiotechnical Society, 1925. Photo: Polish Radio
The first programme was emitted by the Polish Radiotechnical Society (Polskie Towarzystwo Radiotechniczne) from their makeshift studio in a Warsaw suburb.
''It was actually a test, but a successful one, and that is why we consider this moment as the beginning of the activity of Polish Radio,'' commented Andrzej Siezieniewski, current chairman.
The official founding of Polish Radio was on 18 August 1925.
A transmission van used by Polish Radio prior to WWII.
English language broadcasts started as early as 1936. Today's English Section, renamed Radio Poland in recent months, continues this tradition.
Meanwhile, since April 1927, the historic bugle call from Kraków's St. Mary's Basilica has been played daily at noon on Programme I of Polish Radio, excepting the Nazi German occupation of World War II, when the radio went underground. (nh)