page_title: Croatian Radio
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Croatian Radio / History
caption_attribution_description: Hrvatski: Hrvatska radiotelevizija
context_page_description: Croatian Radio is the official broadcasting service of Croatia. Founded on May 15, 1926 as Zagreb Radio, it's the first radio station in all of Southeast Europe. It's part of Croatian Radiotelevision.
  The broadcast, which began with just one channel that could be listened to only in Zagreb and northern Croatia, today makes 16 radio channels sent out on short wave, medium wave, FM, satellite and the Internet.
  On May 25, 2012, the television and radio program archive and a collection of music production were given the status of Croatia's cultural heritage.
context_section_description: The beginning of Croatian radio date back to 1926, when the broadcasting of Radio Zagreb began. It was founded by the Radio Club Zagreb which was made up of more than 130 distinguished radio amateurs and businessmen from Zagreb and other parts of Croatia led by the Croatian physicist Oton Kučer. It was the first radio station in all of Southeast Europe. It started broadcasting on May 15, 1926, on a 350m mid-wave from the headquarters on St. Mark's Square in Zagreb.
  The program began at 8:30 p.m. with the sounds of the Croatian anthem - Lijepa naša domovino, played by Krsto Odak on the piano, followed by an announcement read by speaker Božena Begović and a speech by director Dr. Ivo Stern. In November 1926, Radio Zagreb began with on-site broadcasts by directly broadcasting cultural, sports, religious and other events from Zagreb and other Croatian cities.
  For the first 14 years, it was privately owned by the Radio Zagreb Joint Stock Company. In 1940, it was nationalized, and after 1945 it acted as a state-owned enterprise, social enterprise, public enterprise and finally since 1990 a public institution.h
  In 1927 it joined the broadcasts of the EUREF Permanent Network and started joint broadcasts with radios in Vienna, Prague, Warsaw, and Budapest. On the basis of this cooperation, Radio Zagreb was admitted in 1928 to full membership of the International Broadcasting Union, representing the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
  At the end of 1926, Radio Zagreb had just over 4,000 subscribers (more than one million in 1976). The period from the late 1920s to the mid-1930s was marked by a decline in the purchase of radio receivers and a stalemate of programmatic and technical progress, caused by the global economic crisis. The lag behind its progress was somewhat offset in the era of Banovina of Croatia when it was relocated to more suitable premises in 116 Vlaška Street and when modern technical equipment was purchased and transmitter power increased (from 0.7 to 4.5 kW). Due to the low power of transmitters and geographical obstacles (Učka, Velebit, Dinara, Biokovo mountains), the range of broadcast was still limited to Northwestern Croatia. That is why branch stations in Dubrovnik, Sarajevo and Banja Luka (1942), Osijek (1943), and Split and Rijeka (1945) were founded. After World War II, branch stations in other major Croatian cities were launched as well. The programmatic restructuring of Radio Zagreb was carried out in 1964 and since then its three separate radio channels: Radio Zagreb 1, Radio Zagreb 2, and Radio Zagreb 3 have been broadcasting regularly. The first channel started broadcasting around the clock in 1976, and in 1997, the second and third channels and Radio Sljeme followed. The first medium-wave transmitter of more than 100 kW was installed in 1949 in Deanovac, the first of more than 1000 kW on Rasinovac near Zadar in 1986, while the first ultra-short transmitter (FM) was built on Sljeme in 1957.
caption: One of Croatian radio's studios
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