The National Archives of Hungary (Budapest, 2006)

PRESS AND MEDIA ARCHIVES - The Archives of the Hungarian Radio by István Salamon

BY ISTVÁN SALAMON THE ARCHIVES OF THE HUNGARIAN RADIO By István Salamon: The Archives of the Hungarian Radio I

f we want to introduce the Archives of the Hungarian Radio properly we have to look through the history of radio service briefly. The demands of the people - to get the news and publications as soon as possible - living at the turn of the last century was fulfilled by the Telephonograph/ Teledifussion that started in 1893. Teledifussion was based on the invention of Tivadar Puskás. It worked for more than thirty years and the Hungarian Radio and Teledifussion started broadcasting in its room (22. Rákóczi road) 1

st December 1925. Teledifussion considered its task to broadcast news quickly and they started entertainment (concerts, literary programmes and children's hour) and education (educational programmes, language courses) just later. At the beginning only 40-50 hours were broadcast. Due to the technical development both the circle of the listeners and the variety of the programmes were extended. The musical programme became richer and richer in the years of 1930s and 1940s, the themes of literary programmes and the club of authors grew, radio plays appeared, there were more and more programmes for the youth and more and more educational and sport programmes. Due to the broadcast of high standard it obtained a distinguished place among the world radios. Hungarian Radio Broadcast suffered great damages in World War II. During the siege of Budapest nearly the whole building and nearly all technical equipment was destroyed. Cultural worth was not an exception, (scores, notes, audio records, documents) It required great human effort during the war-time conditions to broadcast the first programme 1

st May 1945. Due to the technical development broadcasting television programmes also started in the second half of the 1950s. It meant broadcasting information visually. The Hungarian Radio and Television Company was formed in 1957 (up to 1974.) After the political changes the organization of radio broadcast also