Bulgarian National Radio

Broadcasting attempts were made as early as in 1927 when the first radio-technical association in Bulgaria was established. In 1930 a few enterprising Bulgarians, among whom Prof. Assen Zlatarov, Elin Pelin, Georgi M. Georgiev, started a movement for the establishment of a cooperation that was to ask for a permit for radio broadcasting in Bulgaria. The constituent assembly of the Rodno Radio (Homeland Radio) cooperation was held on March 30, 1930. Rodno Radio was granted a building in Sofia, and in June 1930 it started broadcasting between 6 and 8 p.m. On January 25, 1935 the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom of Bulgaria issued a decree, approved by Tsar Boris’s edict, which made broadcasting in Bulgaria a state property. The regional radio stations in Sofia, Varna, and Stara Zagora formed the national radio of Bulgaria. Mr. Panayot Todorov was appointed head of the broadcasting in Bulgaria and director of Radio Sofia. Gradually the radio started building its contemporary image and expanding the range of its programmes. In September 1935 it was the first time that the radio broadcast a performance of the Orchestra of the Radio Sofia’s Studios, later known as the Saloon Orchestra of Radio Sofia. Again in the autumn of 1935 the Jazz Orchestra of Radio Sofia could be heard. In May 1937 the Radio started broadcasting in Italian, German, French, English, and Esperanto. Since its establishment BNR is undoubted factor in the cultural, political and public life of Bulgaria.