The Radio-100 Fence Exhibit
1. HUNDRED YEARS OF THE HUNGARIAN RADIO
Hungarian radio officially began regular public broadcasts hundred years ago in December 1, 1925. As one of the most relevant means of mass communication in the 20th century it transformed fundamentally the flow of information, the sphere of public life and cultural transmission. The broadcast content was provided by the Telephone Herald (Magyar Telefonhírmondó és Rádió Rt.), the technical background was ensured by the Hungarian Royal Post. Experimental broadcasts had started as early as the first decades of the century. It played a crucial role in the military during WWI, then after the war the engineers of the Postal Experimental Station set up the first studio inside an old furniture van. Although only a few hundred people listened to the experimental broadcasts, but following the start of regular broadcasts a huge interest was shown to radio broadcasts, radio receivers were purchased by a lot of people and radio transmitters were set up all over the country to enable good quality broadcasting everywhere in Hungary.
2. THE PUSKÁS BROTHERS
Tivadar Puskás was born on 17th September 1844 in Pest as the eldest child of a noble family from Transylvania. He finished his studies in the Theresianum in Vienna and in the Buda Technical University, worked in railway construction in England and Transylvania, sold railway tickets in Vienna, mined gold in America. During his travels in North-American cities he met Thomas Alva Edison, who was working at that time on the improvement of Bell’s telephone. Puskás returned to Europe in 1877, he purchased the patent right registered to Charles Scribner and built the telephone exchange in Paris.
The deployment of the telephone network in Hungary was the task of his brother, military engineer Ferenc Puskás (1848-1884), whom he professionally prepared in Paris. He asked for a ministerial permission to begin the work, and obtained it on 20th May 1880 for the territory of Budapest and Újpest. The introduction of telephone network was however accepted with certain aversion in Hungary, so the network building was started financed by Tivadar Puskás. The first telephone exchange was opened on 1st May, 1881 in Fürdő Street 10 (now Hild Square). A few months later a branch exchange was installed in Lövész Street (now Királyi Pál Street) and in Buda, in Pálffy Square (now Bem József Square).
In the summer of 1881, the performances of the Paris Opera were listened to using telephone and the carbon microphone of Clement Ader displayed in the electricity exhibition. Tivadar Puskás had a part in the implementation of Teatrophpone as well. Ferenc Puskás, who had visited the exhibition, presented his own system named “Dalműtelefon” (Operatelephone) on 4th February, 1882 in the Pest Redout. The guests of the press ball were able to enjoy the Erkel opera broadcasted from the National Theatre. The stressful work undermined his health, Ferenc Puskás died on 22nd March, 1884.
3. THE TALKING NEWSPAPER AS THE FORRUNNER OF RADIO
“From now on a new newspaper is published in Budapest…A newspaper with no paper; it does not have a body, only a soul, it cannot be seen, only heard.” (Budapest Hírlap - Budapest News)
Tivadar Puskás filed his patent for „Telefonhírmondó” (Telephone Reporter) on 14th July, 1892. The technical background was provided by the Hungarian Royal Post and Telegraph Institute. The first communications studio in the world started to operate on 15th February, 1893, at 9 o’clock in the morning in the apartment house 6 Magyar Street, Budapest. News was collected by the editors in the telephone line and were updated by the hour. Telephone subscribers in Budapest could ask for connection with the editors via telephone exchanges for a monthly 1,50 Forint extra charge to listen to the latest news. The first anchor of Telephone Reporter was journalist Elek Magyar, author of a famous cookbook published later. Barely a month after the start of the Telephone Reporter, on 16th March, Tivadar Puskás passed away, therefore the ministerial license went to Albert Puskás, his successor on 26th September, 1894. The press law in force at that time could not be applied to the Telephone Reporter, so the news to be reported had to be submitted three times a day to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and to the Police Commissioner, on the day following the broadcast to the ministries concerned. Theatrical plays and operas were also broadcasted by the Telephone Reporter and the respective studio had a permanent connection with the Opera and People’s Theater.
4. STUDIO IN RÁKÓCZI STREET
The Telephone Reporter (Telefonhírmondó) was sold by Albert Puskás with its patent in 1894. The buyer, engineer István Popper established the Hungarian Telephone Reporter Joint Stock Company, created the financial background and built up the independent telephone line system. The ever-expanding editorial and studio first moved to 24 Erzsébet Boulevard, then in October, 1894 to the 3rd and 4th floor of 22 Kerepesi Road (now Rákóczi). Popper commissioned engineer Emil Szvetics with the technical management, journalist Béla Virág was in charge of the editorial board. One year after the start, news, stock exchange information could be reached in the homes of almost five thousand subscribers. The technical problems generated by the quick increase of the subscribers’ numbers were solved by Emil Szvetics, he introduced the sign of the twelve o’clock a.m. exact time sign, and the alarm sign (longer beep = sensational news, shorter beep = literature or music).
The ”talking newspaper” was transformed into a public entertaining broadcast with a selection of programs more then a quarter of a century before the appearance of the radio, with interviews, music, parliament reports, weather forecast, building broad public awareness. Newspaper editorials and cultural events were presented, language lessons, children’s entertainment, ice rink news were offered. At first the plan was to reach the country’s major cities, the broadcast finally started only in the neighboring Újpest and Kispest, beside the capital. In 1911 the clockwork of the Telephone Reporter was introduced; street “exact time” clocks were automatically regulated three times a day.
5. STUDIO OF THE RADIO REPORTER
During WWI the number of taxpayers had decreased, there was no financial source for the renewal of the network, so István Popper sold his company to the Hungarian News Agency in 1922. The new owner had just started modernization, when snowfall damaged the external line, and Telephone Reporter had to be stopped for several months. In the summer of 1925, the rooms in Rákóczi Street were modernized lead by Emil Szvetics and Bernát Paskay, technical manager of the Hungarian Royal Post. The reading studio was placed on the 3rd floor, the new large studio’s location was on the 4th floor. The decree regulating the details of radio broadcasting was issued in November, and the Telephone Reporter Company was allowed to broadcast the programs of Radio Reporter as a result of the concession.
On 1st December, at five o’clock p.m. radio broadcasting was started in the presence of dr. József Vass, Minister of Welfare, Károly Demény, manager of the post and telegraph, and Miklós Kozma, Chairman of the National News Agency, deputy chairman of the company. Károly Demény had announced in Hungarian, German and French: „The Budapest broadcasting station of the Hungarian Radio Reporter, as the successor of the Hungarian invention metallic access network Telephone Reporter is ready to start its official operation and daily program from the modern studio converted from the room of its famous predecessor with the technical means of the Hungarian Royal Post via the Csepel station.” With the two concessions unified, the Hungarian Telephone Reporter and Radio Company had been founded with the management of Miklós Kozma on 12th January, 1926.
6. THE ROYAL HUNGARIAN POST’S EXPERIMENTAL STATION
The Royal Hungarian Post’s Experimental Station was established in 1891 by the decree of the Minister for Trade and Commerce, Gábor Baross, to keep up with the new tasks created by mechanical advancements, and for the study, survey and development of substances used in mail and telecommunications systems, while also running its services in a modern fashion. At first the station was set up in a few rooms that belonged to the Central Post Office in Párizsi Street, then from 1903 on Theresienstadt Telephone Exchange in Nagymező Street, finally being granted its own building in 1912, in Gyáli Street, which was designed state of the art to aid in the research work conducted there. To achieve the best results possible, it was equipped with the most modern laboratories and measurement rooms, such as the radio engineering laboratory, and the chemistry and acoustics laboratories established for quality control, where György Békésy made research of the mechanics of hearing – for the purpose of perfecting the telephone receiver – which earned him the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1961. The station’s engineers played a decisive role in the establishment and operation of the telephone exchanges and networks, and the introduction and development of radio and television broadcasting.
7. THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPH IN CSEPEL ISLAND
The wireless telegraph station in Csepel Island was an important part of the early history of Hungarian broadcasting. The wireless telegraph station was built at the beginning of the WWI by the Royal Hungarian Post, on order of the government, because quick communication was of great strategic importance at wartime. Construction started on July 28, 1914 at the northern side of Csepel Island, the 120 meters high central tower was raised on the 6th of September, with other equipment installed on the 14th of October, making it possible to begin with sending and receiving coded messages of the wireless telegraph station fitted through the military broadcasting of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Soon steady communication was established with Vienna, Berlin, Constantinople, and Sofia, and in 1917 it was the Csepel Island station that broadcasted the peace terms of Soviet Russia to the Central Powers. It was through this channel in 1919 that Lenin, the first leader of the Soviet Union messaged Béla Kun, the Hungarian People’s Commissar, but it was also used by the Red Cross to communicate with POWs. It was further used to distribute messages by the Hungarian delegates during the Trianon peace talks.
8. THE BROADCASTING NETWORK
The Hungarian Royal Post started regularly broadcasting a program with a 2kW medium wave transmitter in 1925, but its capacity was limited, with reception only reaching Budapest and its vicinity. But the interest was enormous, causing the program’s starting length of 4 hours stretch to 10 hours, with subscription numbers growing to fifty thousand in a year. In 1927 the Hungarian Royal Post consequently started using a 3kW transmitter, then in 1928 a 20kW transmitter, and postal engineers started working on a 120kW big transmitter and ten smaller stations, to achieve nationwide coverage. In 1933 the Lakihegy big transmitter was built, which had outstanding technical capacity for its time period, then small and medium wave stations started being built all over the nation, transmitting not only the central programming, but in certain cases their own regional program, too. By the 1940s radio had become an important instrument of mass communication, playing a key role in social, political and cultural life.
9. LAKIHEGY CIGAR ANTENNA
The Hungarian Royal Post Experimental Station had elaborated the plan of the development of Hungarian radio broadcasting in 1931, and proposed the installation of a modern transmitter at the Lakihegy Radio Station and a new antenna-system suitable for long distance reception for the building of a national radio broadcasting network. The Post Directorate commissioned the Standard Electricity Company with the work. The tower construction was manufactured by the Hungarian Iron Steel and Machine Factory the wires were manufactured in the Hungarian Wire Company and in the Rimamurány-Salgótarján Ironworks. The tower construction 14 meters higher than the Eiffel Tower was assembled and built between 5th July and 5th November, 1933, and the transmitter was finished simultaneously. Broadcasting started on 2nd December with the 120kW Lakihegy Transmitter and the 314 meters high cigar shaped antenna. The Lakihegy Transmitter, a symbol of Hungarian radio broadcasting was pulled down by the retreating German troops. On 30th November, 1944. Following its reconstruction broadcasting was restarted from 21st December, 1946 with a transmitter of lower capacity. The antenna tower was reconstructed in 1968, it was provided with a spar insulation, and was designated to national monument in 1985.
10. THE RADIO’S NEW STUDIOS
In its first years the radio’s broadcasts were transmitted from the Rákóczi Street studio in Budapest, then for the first time on 8th October, 1928 from the Hungarian Radio’s new Sándor (today Bródy Sándor) Street studio. According to the radio concession the studio rooms were provided by the Telephone Reporter, but it was up to the post to supply and operate the technical equipment. The new studio palace designed by architect Gerlóczy Gedeon housed a smaller and a bigger studio, with a shared observation room. The Hungarian Royal Post’s technical officers were responsible for the technical equipment placed inside the amplifier. In a few years the radio grew too large for this building too, and a bigger one was needed. The following expansion from 1932 to 1935 grew the studios’ floorspace from 275 m² to 813 m², with the number of studios growing from two to ten. The biggest new studio, the legendary number six’s acoustics were designed by György Békésy postal engineer, with the cooperation of Ernő Dohnányi, chief music director. Even though until 1944 the aerial bombardments did not cause any damages, in the autumn it was decreed that the radio move to Magyaróvár. During the siege of Budapest, studio one was hit by bombs, rendering its equipment out of order. Rebuilding started in February 1945, with the broadcast resuming on May the 1th. By the end of 1946 the studios, excluding the ruined number one and four studios, were all back in order.