{"id":7856,"date":"2013-11-08T10:23:33","date_gmt":"2013-11-08T14:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=7856"},"modified":"2013-11-08T10:23:33","modified_gmt":"2013-11-08T14:23:33","slug":"bbc-radio-4-documentary-the-worlds-first-radio-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/bbc-radio-4-documentary-the-worlds-first-radio-station\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Radio 4 Documentary: The World’s First Radio Station"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The concert room of Telefon H\u00edrmond\u00f3 (1901) Source: Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

We’ve mentioned this 19th century broadcasting technology before<\/a>; the “telephone newspaper.” If, like me, you found the technology fascinating, you’ll certainly love this BBC Radio 4 documentary The World’s First Radio Station<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is the description from BBC Radio 4:<\/p>\n

We often think of the scheduled broadcasting of news, information and entertainment as having begun in the 1920s. But we’re wrong. It was in 1893 in Budapest that Theodore Puskas opened his Telefon Hirmondo or ‘Telephone Newspaper’.<\/p>\n

Subscribers to this telephone service could enjoy a daily timetable of foreign, national and local news, sport, weather, fashion, stock market reports, language lessons, music, theatre and much more. It was delivered by a team of journalists, copy-writers, editors, announcers and engineers which would be familiar to any radio station today. To our ears, Telefon Hirmondo would have sounded uncannily modern. For example, there would be live relays of church services, theatre productions, concerts and opera performances and reports direct from parliament and sports events.<\/p>\n

Laurie Taylor travels to Budapest to uncover this extraordinary story of ‘radio before radio’. He visits a special exhibition at the city’s postal museum and takes a look inside Hungarian State Opera, whose performances were broadcast live via Telefon Hirmondo from the 1890s.<\/p>\n

Laurie explores the lengths to which Telefon Hirmondo went to market its product, hooking in not just domestic subscribers but hotels, restaurants, clubs, dental surgeries and barber shops. He also delves into the telephone’s early history to explain the confusion on both sides of the Atlantic over what the device was best used for.<\/p>\n

How did Hungary come to lead the world in broadcasting, rather than the USA, Britain or France? The genius of Theodore Puskas is a large part of the explanation. Among the contributors, we hear from his descendant, Barbara Fally-Puskas.<\/p>\n

Producer: Andrew Green
\nAn Andrew Green production for BBC Radio 4.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note that the documentary, produced by Andrew Green, will only be available online until Friday November 15, 2013.\u00a0Click here to listen on the Radio 4 website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve mentioned this 19th century broadcasting technology before; the “telephone newspaper.” If, like me, you found the technology fascinating, you’ll certainly love this BBC Radio 4 documentary The World’s First Radio Station. Here is the description from BBC Radio 4: We often think of the scheduled broadcasting of news, information and entertainment as having begun […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[373,305,288],"tags":[289,291,2322,290],"class_list":["post-7856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-am","category-nostalgia","category-radio-history","tag-pleasure-telephone","tag-pri-world-technology-podcast","tag-telefon-hirmondo","tag-telephone-newspaper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-22I","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":823,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/victorian-era-radio\/","url_meta":{"origin":7856,"position":0},"title":"Victorian era “radio”","author":"Thomas","date":"August 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This post is off topic from my typical posts about wireless technology. Nonetheless, I'm a sucker for documentaries regarding the history of technology. BBC Radio 3 recently had a Sunday documentary about the \"Pleasure Telephone\"--a Victorian era technology that used telephone almost like we use radio today. As someone interested\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A stentor reading the day's news to 6200 subscribers - An image depicting the stentor of Telefon Hirmond\u00f3. Source: Wikimedia Commons","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/648px-Telefon_Hirmondo_-_Stentor_reading_the_days_news-300x277.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4787,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/tuning-in-radio-4-documentary-on-the-history-of-early-radio-in-britain\/","url_meta":{"origin":7856,"position":1},"title":"“Tuning In” Radio 4 documentary on the history of early radio in Britain","author":"Thomas","date":"November 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Tuning In, a history of early radio in Britain, will be broadcast November 3rd on BBC Radio 4. If you don't live in the UK, you can listen live on the Radio 4 website where they will also post an archive of the show. (Note that some archived shows are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/RadioListening-300x190.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":51354,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/radio-waves-voa-museum-a-historic-marvel-1bcg-special-event-report-bbc-centenary-celebration-and-czech-radio-turns-off-mw-and-lw\/","url_meta":{"origin":7856,"position":2},"title":"Radio Waves: VOA Museum a Historic Marvel, 1BCG Special Event Report, BBC Centenary Celebration, and Czech Radio Turns Off MW and LW","author":"Thomas","date":"January 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Radio Waves:\u00a0 Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio Because I keep my ear to the waves, as well as receive many tips from others who do the same, I find myself privy to radio-related stories that might interest\u00a0SWLing Post\u00a0readers.\u00a0 To that end:\u00a0Welcome to the\u00a0SWLing Post\u2019s Radio Waves, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AM"","block_context":{"text":"AM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/am\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/WHKY-AM-Towers-Transmitter-Site.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/WHKY-AM-Towers-Transmitter-Site.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/WHKY-AM-Towers-Transmitter-Site.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/WHKY-AM-Towers-Transmitter-Site.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/WHKY-AM-Towers-Transmitter-Site.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18246,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/bbc-predicts-internet-only-radio-in-the-future\/","url_meta":{"origin":7856,"position":3},"title":"BBC Predicts Internet-Only Radio in the Future","author":"Robert Gulley","date":"April 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"(The following is part news \/ part editorial) According to a report going to Parliament for the BBC's broadcast charter proposal, the BBC is preparing for an Internet-only world for broadcasting. 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