100th Anniversary of the First Radio Broadcast in Estonia

On 11 May 1924, at 9.35 a.m., the first public radio test broadcast in Estonia – a concert of the mixed choir of Läänemaa Secondary School – aired from the transmitter of the Haapsalu postal office and long-wave telegraph station. The crew of the test broadcast included: E. Laurmann, G. Liidemann; E. Vidrikson, J. Velling, G. Punn. The broadcast was made using the transmitter of the Haapsalu postal telegraph station with a wavelength of 2,500 metres. The mast antenna of the transmitter was a 90-metre-tall guyed mast of steel construction which stood on support insulators. The broadcast was also heard in Tallinn, Vändra, and Pärnu.

On 1 November 1924, Raadio Ringhääling was founded as a private company. Regular radio broadcasting started two years later, in 1926.