We’re a day late, but this is worth mentioning so you’re going to hear about it anyway: the first radio station in Croatia, also the first one in this part of Europe, started broadcasting in Zagreb on May 15th 1926 from a building at St. Mark’s square!
“Hello, hello! This is Radio Zagreb!” Those were the first words sent off into the ether by the speaker Božena Begović. The broadcast started at 8.30 PM with the Croatian national anthem played on the piano by Krsto Odak, followed by a speech by station director Dr Ivo Stern, both of whom you can see on the photo above. The audience listened to the radio bulletin, some classical music and 15 minutes of daily news.
First reporting from an outdoor location happened in November when the monument to J. J. Strossmayer was uncovered at the square of the same name. At the time the radio station started broadcasting, there were only 290 subscribers in the whole area of the Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs.
The initiative to launch a radio station was conceived in March 1924 by a group of distinguished intellectuals and businessmen who founded the Radio Club Zagreb. The club was headed by astronomer and physicist Oton Kučera. After two years of continuous efforts, the members of the radio club managed to obtain the concession and other permits required to get Radio Zagreb off the ground. The station was first owned by a proprietary company, and got nationalised further on.
The story doesn’t stop here – another important anniversary to follow! In 1956, on the same day when Radio Zagreb kicked off, Croatia got its first television broadcast with the image transmission coming from Vienna via Graz and Slovenia, thanks to a transmitter located on Medvednica. The first available programme was the Italian RAI 1, followed by an experimental channel TV Zagreb on the same year.
Source: Povijest.hr
