Who in Serbia was listening to the radio illegally?

(the first domestic radio, made by Kosmaj)

In the year when radio program broadcasting in Serbia is celebrating its 90th anniversary, the exhibition “The Beginnings of Radiophony in Serbia” was opened at the PTT museum.

Upon the exhibition opening, the Marketing Manager at Posta Srbije, Nela Bojovic, said that after World War I, former Kingdom of the Serbs, Croatians and Slovenians saw the importance of radiophony and delegated to the Ministry of post office and telegraph to develop that field.


On October 1, 1924, the Ministry approved regular radio program broadcast comprising concerts, stock exchange reports, information on water level and news, to be broadcasted three times a week.

Bojovic mentioned that at that time citizens registered at the post office their radio devices, paid subscription and taxes and the post office had a special commission for detection illegal radio program listening.

- The objective of Posta Srbije with respect to this exhibition is to celebrate anniversary and offer a true certification that it is a technological development carrier of our society – Bojovic said.

At the exhibition which will last until May 24, original documents illustrating key moments for radiophony development in Serbia, among which there is a decision of the Ministry of post and telegraph on regular radio program broadcasting, the list of people who were listening to the radio illegally as well as old radio devices, are presented.

The first electronic media in the Balkans is Radio Beograd whose first broadcast was from radio-telegraph station in Rakovica, October 1, 1924. Journalists of Politika and Dnevne were preparing the news while the headquarters of the Belgrade opera was in charge of the music section.

Previously, the first trial concert was broadcasted September 19, 1924, from the studio in Knez Mihailova 42, via sender in Rakovica, and the regular program broadcast of Radio Beograd started on Sunday, March 24, 1929 from the building of the Serbian Academy of sciences and arts.

Radio Beograd is one of the oldest electronic media in Europe: Radio Paris started working only six months earlier and the same day Radio Beograd started working, Radio Vienna broadcasted for the first time.