Today, on World Radio Day, we celebrate the power of radio and its role in bringing people together. It is also an occasion to look back at how swissinfo.ch began… with radio.
Beginning in 1935, special programmes for the Swiss abroad were broadcast over short wave.
In 1939, the Short Wave Service got its own antenna, located at Schwarzenberg in canton Bern.
Here is a sample programme from May 3, 1949, with a speech in Switzerland by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
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Speech by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on a visit to Switzerland in May 1949
In 1978, the Short Wave Service was renamed Swiss Radio International (SRI).
The radio broadcasts destined for a foreign audience reached their golden age during the Cold War. With programmes in eight languages, SRI reached an estimated five to ten million listeners around the world.
The decline of short wave began at the end of the 1980s. Political changes, such as the end of the Cold War, and technological advancements including satellite transmissions and the emergence of the internet, called into question the need to continue short wave broadcasts.
SRI broadcast its last radio programmes in 2004. From that point, the mandate to provide news about Switzerland to a foreign audience was the sole responsibility of its online service, swissinfo.ch.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
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Greetings to the homeland
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This year the internet portal swissinfo.ch is marking its 75th anniversary. The Swiss shortwave service was set up in 1935 and was renamed Swiss Radio International (SRI) in 1978. Listeners from all over the world were very motivated to write in, as a look in our archive reveals. (Christoph Balsiger, swissinfo.ch)
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Archived by swissinfo.ch, the manuscripts of news bulletins have been studied by a group of history students at Lausanne University. Their work contributes to a more accurate picture of of the activities of the SWS between 1939 and 1945. (Images: RDB, Keystone)
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The last shortwave transmitter in Switzerland is shutting down, bringing an end to radio broadcasts at swissinfo/Swiss Radio International (SRI). “For almost 70 years, shortwave has played a fundamental role in making the reality and the aspirations of Switzerland known to the world,” said Nicolas Lombard, the director of SRI. The Swiss Shortwave Service –…
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For swissinfo itself, his priorities are to provide more information and services to the Swiss living abroad, and to better integrate swissinfo’s website into the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation’s multimedia operations. swissinfo: You became director of swissinfo on January 1. How do you see your role? Beat Witschi: I helped to create the web platform, swissinfo,…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.