World Radio Day

  Chinese communist stations in the Shaanxi-Yanan region start broadcasting .  1-5 June : Coded messages broadcast on the BBC announce the imminence of the Allied landings (which take place in Normandy, France, on 6 June) and alert resistance fighters for action.

18 June : " Radio-Brazzaville Voix de la France Combattante " is inaugurated in the Congo.  Radio Kudu is set up at Hargeisa (Somalia) for the British army.  The BBC starts broadcasting English language lessons and halts its Russian language broadcasts at the request of the Soviet government.  4 July : The American Forces Network (AFN) is set up.

24 February : The Voice of America (VOA) starts short-wave broadcasts in English, French, Italian and German.  14 July : Following an appeal launched on the BBC , tens of thousands of French people gather around war memorials  and then parade through the main streets of French towns.  The Office of War Information ( OWI ) is set up in the United States.

Radio Douala (Cameroon), broadcasts programmes in support of the Free French.  Negus Haile Selassie I sets up a radio station broadcasting 4 hours a day in Amharic, Arabic and English, independent of colonial control.  Radio Nairobi (Kenya) broadcasts in Hindustani, Urdu and Gujarati. The Geneva Studio (Switzerland) begins broadcasts in support of humanitarian action by the International Red Cross.  August : A commission led by Colonel W. Donovan is set up in the United States to combat Axis radio propaganda worldwide.  The Yugoslav radio network is destroyed. A transmitter is built at Skopje.  A clandestine transmitter of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Croatia is established at Zagreb.  Radio starts up in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).

German radio broadcasts a single national programme.  24 April : The first Iranian radio station, supervised by the Ministry of Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones, is inaugurated.  15 May : Belgian radio destroys its facilities in Brussels and moves to France, where broadcasts from Lille and later from Montpellier.  18 June : Broadcasting from London on the BBC , General de Gaulle calls on the French people to resist.  27 July : In occupied Belgium, a decree makes listening to British radio broadcasts an offence punishable by forced labour. 1 August: General de Gaulle launches an appeal to French Canadians from London.  28 September : Radio-Belgique is established in London.  24 October : Regular news broadcasts begin in Ewe, Fanti, Hausa, Ga, Tiv and French in the Gold Coast (now Ghana).  Radio Omdurman is created in Sudan to serve the Allied cause.

Germany transmits external broadcasts in 26 languages.  September : The German government makes listening to foreign radio broadcasts a capital offence.  The French Ministry of Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones establishes Radio Dakar in Senegal.

 A law sets up military censorship in Spain.  There are 650 Radio transmitters and 26 million radio receivers in the U.S.A.  30 October: Orson Welles's programme based on H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds's broadcast on CBS and sows panic among thousands of radio listeners .

Number of radio receivers per thousand population  Germany: 122  France: 76  Netherlands: 118  Canada: 122  5 January : A radio transmitter is inaugurated at the Albert I college, Kinshasa (Zaire) on the initiative of the Jesuits. It later becomes "Radio-Leo".  Radio supports within Japan and externally Japan's military campaign against China. A ban is imposed on listening to foreign radio programmes . The United Kingdom has 10 radio transmitters and over 8 million receivers.  The United States adopts a " Radio Code ": information is a social duty and should be in the public interest.   Radio should provide entertainment, education and information that is not subject to censorship and serves objective truth .  October : Roosevelt gives a radio talk against the rise of fascism, terror and international lawlessness. U.S. commercial radio advertising receipts total $70 million.

Number of radio receivers per 1,000 population:  Algeria: 7  Australia: 131  United States: 189  France: 62  Hungary: 40  Italy: 15  Kenya: 77  New Zealand: 146  Poland: 20  Romania: 8 Czechoslovakia: 63  U.S. S.R. 22  A new radio centre broadcasting on short wave is set up at the olympic stadium in Zeesen (Germany) on the occasion of the Berlin Olympic Games .  April : A Radio-Club station is set up in Congo Brazzaville.  11 July : In Spain a Falangist group seizes the Union-Radio station in Valencia and announces that revolution is imminent. There is widespread fighting for control of Spain's radio stations. 23 September : The International Convention on the use of Broadcasting in the Cause of Peace is signed at Geneva (Switzerland). Hong Kong starts short-wave broadcasting to China and Europe.  The BBC's first big scoop : a report on the fire at the Crystal Palace (London) , with on-the-spot commentary and...

Meeting in Brussels (Belgium), jurists of the International Wireless Committee  propose a " code of good conduct " An outdoor loudspeaker built to broadcast Hitler's speeches (1933) for international radio broadcasting .  China starts broadcasting to other countries. Radio broadcasting begins in the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Italian radio starts to broadcastin Arabic (anti-British propaganda) and jams broadcasts from Ethiopian radio.  1 June : Japan starts broadcasting programmes to thewest coast of the Americas , Hawaii and the Pacific, in order to defend its foreign policy after leaving the League of Nations .  10 August : A Inter-american radiocommunications agreement between Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay sets up technical co¬ operation and bans broadcasts detrimental to good international relations .

  13 March : A Ministry of Popular Education and Propaganda is established in Germany to control the press, cinema, theatre and radio broadcasting .  The RRG (Reichsrundfunk Gesellschaft), set up in May 1925, becomes a state body.  The Ente Radio Rurale  broadcasts Radio "educational" programmes to Italian rural areas in support of a campaign to increase farm output.  The Radio broadcasting countries (members of the UIR) attend a conference in Lucerne (Switzerland) to negotiate an agreement on the distribution ofwavelengths

The International Telecommunication Union ( ITU ) succeeds the InternationalTelegraph Union , founded in 1865.  Radio transmission services played a leading role in the U.S. presidential election campaign (Hoover vs Roosevelt). At the end of the Year 1932, Radio moscow headquarters opens it's doors.

In Sydney and Melbourne (Australia), Amalgamated Wireless launches " The Voice ofAustralia ", the first regular world broadcasting service in the southern hemisphere . .   A school broadcastingservice is launched in Ceylon. From Ecuador, station HCJB ( Heralding Christ Jesus' Blessings ) broadcasts religious programmes in 11 languages under the auspices of the World Radio Missionary Fellowship.  Japanese radio comes under state control and censorship becomes more stringent.  29 April : A Madagascar station broadcasts music and information in French and Malagasy for two hours a day.  A short-wave transmitter makes occasional broadcasts in Thailand

Colombia's first radio station , "Voz de Bogotá", starts to broadcast.  Danish national Radio programmes are relayed on short wave.  7 October : The first Spanish radio news programme , "La Palabra" goes on the air.  In France, the radio station at Agen warns of the suddenflooding of the Garonne before being swept away by the floodwaters.  Station 1 BC in Caracas (Venezuela) starts regular broadcasting .

The Zeesen station  relays  German national programmes to Germans overseas.  The first short-wave broadcasts in Kenya and in Tanganyika (now the United Republic of Tanzania).  11 February : The Lateran Agreement between the Holy See and Mussolini's Italy provides for the establishment of a radio station in Vatican City . The launch of the RadioVatican is organized by Marconi and inaugurated in 1931.  April : Representatives of 27 countries attend an international conference in Prague (Czechoslovakia) and reach a long-term agreement on the allocation of radio-electric frequencies in Europe.  October : Radio Moscow International starts short-wave broadcasts in German, French and English , in compliance with its missions under the first 5-Year Plan.

 The Kuomintang sets up the  central Chinese broadcasting station at Nankin. Taiwan's only national broadcasting system, and one that only broadcasts overseas and not domestically, CBS is largely unknown to the Taiwanese general public. In actuality, it was founded on August 1, 1928 and just recently saw its eightieth anniversary. Its history is full of twists and turns, and stands testament to the twists and turns of the history of the Republic of China. The thawing of relations after years of cross-strait standoff, the development of Taiwan's image in international society-CBS has played a role in many stories worth hearing. The Central Broadcasting System, which was founded in 1928 at the instigation of senior KMT party figure Chen Guofu, first served to broadcast government policies and educate the public. After the KMT government advanced into the north of China, the whole of China sought to modernize. Chiang Kai-shek personally delivered the first CBS broadcast. CBS als...

  Broadcasting on a regular daily basis was born in the United States. The First demonstrations of radio broadcasting in Australia . The appearance in France of battery-powered receivers with valves and headphones. The Amsterdam Stock Market (Netherlands) broadcast stock prices and financial news . On 23 February - The Marconi Company organizes a radio-telephone concert (Featuring Dame Nelli Melba) that is broadcasted from Chelmsford (U.K.) and heard in France, Norway, Italy, Persia and by ships on the sea. The British Postmaster General protest against the "Frivolous'' use of public service and suspends broadcast in November. Autumn - Soviet International Broadcasts begins. 2 November - The Westinghouse station KDKA in Pittsburgh announce the victory of Warren G. Harding over James Cox in the American Presidential Election . The First Radio Telegraph (Maracay) services begins in Venezuela.

 17 October: The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) is founded, absorbng the American subsidiary of the Marconi Company and amalgamating General Electric, Western Electric , AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph) and Westinghouse. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company (or AT&T) began as Bell Telephone in 1877. 16 November: In Germany; Hans Bredow organizes political and economic news broadcasts for the Press and the Industry. Many American radio amateurs receive on their crystal sets regular broadcasts from Pittburgh (USA) by Frank Conrad. On Wednesday and Saturday evernings the station plays records chosen by the listeners . This marks the appearance of broadcasting as opposed to wireless telephon, where a connection is made from one point to another, between two correspondants.

  The Bolsheviks use radio to influence the Germans during negotiations for the Treaty pf Brest-Litovsk. 8 November: A decree on the press establishes censorship that will last for 72 Years in Russia.

  First International Broadcasts , from Germany, of daily news reports . 25 October: The American Navy Radio station in Arlington, Virginia  establishes a link with the Eiffel Tower in Paris.  By 1915, Mare Island had built all of the radio stations .