Radio Brno: Czech Radio celebrates 100 years of broadcasting in Moravia
September 1, 1924, saw the launch of Radio Brno – the first radio station to launch broadcasts outside of Prague. This was just two years after the launch of the BBC and a year after Radiojournal (Czech Radio) started broadcasting in the Czech capital.
Český rozhlas Brno is one of Czech Radio’s regional radio stations, based in Brno with broadcasting for the South Moravian Region. It was founded in 1924 and is the oldest, largest and most listened to regional station of Czech Radio.
On the occasion of its centenary, Radio Brno has organized a special exhibition dedicated to the history of radio in Moravia. Named “100 Treasures of Radio Brno” it includes a radio receiver made by Brno airport employees for their director in the second half of the 20th century, a letter that Milan Kundera sent to Brno Radio from Paris, the harmonica of the legendary musician Ladislav Kozderka or an anthology of poems by Jan Skácel.
The first Radio Brno studio was located on the roof of the New Provincial House on Žerotínov Square. In a short time, the regional station gathered around it a strong team of talented and dedicated artists. Members of the Brno National Theatre and professors and pupils of the Brno Conservatory were the main contributors to the program. In the 1930s, Oldřich Nový, at that time the director of the operetta of the National Theatre in Brno, cooperated closely with Brno Radio.
Since the 1950s, Brno Radio has been located in the city centre in Beethoven Street in the building of the former Czech Union Bank, which was built in 1923-1925 according to the design of the architect Ernst Wiesner. The building, which is on the national list of protected monuments, was renovated in 2021.
