Radio Timișoara - The first sign on air

(5th May 1955)

The first steps towards the development of radio in Banat were taken during the years between the wars, immediately after the first broadcast of the Romanian Radio, but the outbreak of the Second World War blocked the implementation of the project. It was not until the early 1950s that the initiative was resumed, this time with the aim of making the communist regime's propaganda more effective.

Thus, in 1952, the broadcasting of a short 15-minute program from Timișoara was started, which included a synthesis of local news with Romanian and Serbian music, and on May 5, 1955, Radio Timișoara was broadcasting the first program on the air at 8:15 p.m. , on the 540 m wavelength. The first announcers were Andrei Dângă and Emilia Culea.

Today, Radio Timisoara broadcasts on several medium waves and FM, making it the only station in Europe to offer broadcasts in Romanian and nine other languages (Hungarian, German, Serbian, Slovak, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Czech, Italian and Romany) as a sign of Banat multiculturalism.

Excerpt from Kovacs, Zoltan (2022). Calendar Timișorean File din istoria orașului. Timișoara: Central Dabasi Nyomda Zrt.

Author: Nicolae Șerban

Translator: Nicole Olariu