“Radio was introduced to Greece in the 1920s, in the form of experimental broadcasts. The Ministry for Naval Affairs, which was responsible for broadcasting between 1921 and 1926, issued transmission licenses on the condition that an internal antenna be installed.
The first station broadcasting regular programmes was founded in Thessaloniki in 1926 by Christos Tsigiridis, who had lived in Germany for several years and had studied electronics at the University of Stuttgart. In 1929, the government of Eleftherios Venizelos began efforts to spread radio technological.
In 1935, the totalitarian regime of Ioannis Metaxas established a state-owned public broadcaster in cooperation with the German phone company Telefunken. For Metaxas, the creation of this network was not just a matter of national pride, but also a means of "educating" Greek society. Besides, Metaxas was inspired by Nazi Germany, which had invested a lot in the use of radio as a means of propaganda, as well as fascist Italy, which had founded in 1927 the public service broadcaster that was to become RAI (Radio Audizioni Italiane) in 1944.
The birth of public radio officially took place in November 1935 with the law 19 / 20.11.1935 which established the Radio Broadcasting Service. On 25 March 1938, Greece’s national holiday, the new public radio station was inaugurated by King George II, initially limited to radio services from Athens, with the Athens Radio Station based in the Zappeion. The station's complete programme is presented on 21 May 1938.
During the Greco-Italian war, the radio broadcast information regarding the armed conflicts; during the Axis occupation however, the public radio passed under the control the Nazi forces as the Limited Hellenic Radio Company.”
