Radio Belgrade ( sr, Радио Београд, ) is a state-owned and operated radio station in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...

. It has four different programs (Radio Belgrade 1, Radio Belgrade 2, Radio Belgrade 3, and Radio Belgrade 202), a precious archive of several hundreds of thousands records, magnetic tapes and CDs, and is part of

Radio Television of Serbia Radio Television of Serbia ( sr-Cyrl, Радио-телевизија Србије, sr-Lat, Radio-televizija Srbije, italics=yes; abbr. RTS/PTC) is Serbia's public broadcaster. It broadcasts and produces news, drama, and sports programming thr ...

History

The predecessor of Radio Beograd, ''Radio Beograd-Rakovica'', started its program in 1924 and was a part of a state wireless telegraph station. ''Radio Beograd, AD'' started in March 1929. Its program consists of music, news, radio-drama, broadcasting from theaters, etc. Radio Beograd stopped broadcasting on April 6, 1941, when bombed during the German air raid of Belgrade, ( Operation Punishment). After the occupation of Belgrade, Radio Belgrade became the German forces' radio station under the name of ''Soldatensender Belgrad'' (Soldiers Radio Belgrad) on the same frequency. It could be received throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. A lieutenant working at the station who was taking leave in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

was asked to collect some records to broadcast. Amongst a pile he obtained from a second hand shop was the little-known two-year-old song

Lili Marleen "Lili Marleen" (also spelled "Lili Marlen'", "Lilli Marlene", "Lily Marlene", "Lili Marlène" among others; ) is a German love song that became popular during World War II throughout Europe and the Mediterranean among both Axis and Allied t ...

sung by Lale Andersen, which up to then had sold only around 700 copies. Karl-Heinz Reintgen, the German officer in charge of station, began playing the song on the air. Due to their limited collection of records at the time the song was played frequently. After the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

government then ordered it to stop broadcasting the song, Radio Belgrade received many letters from Axis soldiers all over Europe asking them to play Lili Marleen again. In response, Radio Belgrade returned the song to its programming. From then on, the station played Andersen's recording every evening at 9:55 PM and its popularity continued to grow. Soldiers stationed around the Mediterranean, including both German

Afrika Korps The Afrika Korps or German Africa Corps (, }; DAK) was the German expeditionary force in Africa during the North African Campaign of World War II. First sent as a holding force to shore up the Italian defense of its African colonies, the ...

and British Eighth Army troops, regularly tuned in to hear it. Even

Erwin Rommel Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel () (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was a German field marshal during World War II. Popularly known as the Desert Fox (, ), he served in the ''Wehrmacht'' (armed forces) of Nazi Germany, as well as servi ...

, the commander of the Afrika Korps admired the song. He asked Radio Belgrade to incorporate the song into their daily broadcasts, which they did. Even Allied soldiers enjoyed listing to it, when the song was taken down. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery protested along with numerous soldiers of the Eighth Army. After

Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his death ...

's Partisans seized power in 1944, a new Radio Belgrade, this time under Communist control, continued its operation and gradually became the most influential broadcast medium in

and the former

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

. Nowadays, Radio Beograd is transformed into a

public service A public service is any service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community. Public services are available to people within a government jurisdiction as provided directly through public sector agencies ...

broadcaster.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Radio stations in Serbia International broadcasters Eastern Bloc mass media Radio stations established in 1924 Mass media in Belgrade State media 1924 establishments in Serbia

History

See also

References

External links