„ALO, ALO, AICI RADIO BUCURESTI!…” (“HELLO, WEARE RADIO BUCHAREST!…”)
Launched in the ether on November 1st, 1928, these words represented the birth of the Romanian Radio. In his inaugural speech, professor Dragomir Hurmuzescu, the first President of the Administration Board of the Radiotelephonic Broadcast Company from Romania and the creator of the first experimental radio broadcasting station at the Institute of Electrotechnics in Bucharest, affirmed: “Radio broadcasting must be considered by us as a matter of high social, educational and national importance for the awakening, connectedness and elevation of the soul. Its unseen waves /…/ will go up to the farthest and loneliest place where another message would reach with difficulty”.
The 85 years that have passed since the first radio broadcast allowed the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company to create the oldest and most comprehensive media archive from Romania: the Golden Sound Archives of Romania. The audio documents, preserved on different media supports, according to the technological evolutions, from the first hard rubber records completed after 1950 by the magnetic tape and then the cassettes and compact discs, make up a unique and invaluable heritage, that offers a genuine sonorous panorama of the Romanian culture and history.
Those over 135,000 hours of recordings, stored on 12,276 hard rubber records, 37,000 vinyl records, 15,000 CD’s, 400,000 magnetic tapes… treasured in the sound archives of the Public Radio reunite everything that was significant and valuable in the Romanian culture and history, so that it would be always hard to make a list of the great voices, shows, concerts…
In a short enumeration of the most precious sonorous documents we can not forget the “Testament“ by Ienachita Vacarescu, uttered by Elena Vacarescu, the oldest recording in the Golden Sound Archives, from a disc recorded in Sorbonne in 1913. Also we can not forget the speech entitled “Idealul creator” (The creative ideal) delivered by Nicolae Titulescu, on June 10th, 1921 during the Deputies’ Assembly Meeting, in his position as Minister of Finances, also a copy of a hard rubber record, as well as the fragment from the radiophonic conference “Unitati organice in viata statelor si natiunilor” (Organic units in the life of states and nations) from March 24th, 1939 delivered by Nicolae Iorga (a genuine star of the interwar microphone with his “Sfaturi pe intunerec” (Pieces of advice in the dark) or the recording of Liviu Rebreanu made in 1941, on the eve of the theatrical season opening.
Among the most important recordings on magnetic tape there are those which reveal to us the voices of some of the most prominent Romanian writers: Mihail Sadoveanu reciting “Sara pe deal” (‘Tis eve on the hillside) by Mihai Eminescu (1952 recording), Lucian Blaga reciting his own poems (“La cumpana apelor” – “At the watershed”, 1960 recording), Tudor Arghezi, “Flori de mucigai” (“Flowers of the mould”, 1962 recording), George Calinescu delivering the famous speech on “Eminescu, national poet” at the Palace Hall, in1964. To them we must add the scholars such as Henri Coanda (1967 recording) or the great names of the Romanian music such as George Enescu (1943, 1951 recordings), Maria Tanase singing “Hora Unirii” (“The dance of unity”, 1957 recording) or Mihail Jora, in a very emotional evocation of the great Enescu in 1955, who died the same year…, to mention just some of the treasures of the Golden Sound Archives.
Romfilatelia celebrates the 85th anniversary of the Romanian Radio and introduces into circulation the postage stamps issue entitled “The Golden Sound Archives of Romania” dedicated to this event.
We thank the management of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company for the documentary assistance granted in the accomplishment of this postage stamps issue.
Issue date: 2013-11-04
