On 9 April 1940 Norway was invaded by Nazi Germany. Vidkun Quisling usurped the radio broadcaster in Oslo, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), and performed a coup d'etat via radio. Christie travelled to Oslo on 10 April and worked for a few days as the secretary of Quisling's cabinet, although this cabinet soon became defunct. In September 1940, Christie was named by Gulbrand Lunde as commissary president of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. He held his inaugural speech in the radio on 29 September. This was written by someone else and given to Christie minutes before airing—Christie had no experience with NRK whatsoever.