Five years after the first actual radio broadcast of speech and music in Bulgaria took place on November 25, 1929 in Sofia, the first radio station outside the capital city emerged in the coastal city of Varna. Its broadcasts were carried out by the public organization "Domestic Radio Varna", whose radio transmitter was assembled from parts purchased with donations from lovers of radio, the new miracle of the 20th century. The first broadcast of speech and music took place on September 10, 1934 between noon and 2 p.m. local time on 1276 kHz or 235.1 m medium waves. The first words that resounded on the air were "This is Radio Varna". The official opening took place on December 9, 1934. In the beginning Radio Varna broadcast its own programmes, but as of January 7, 1935, it started also relaying certain programmes of Domestic Radio Sofia via a telephone cable line. In end-January 1936 the state monopoly on radio broadcasting was introduced. Domestic Radio Varna wound up its last programme with the signing of the Radio Varna Anthem. On June 6 the transmitter and the studio were confiscated by the state authorities. As early as in 1934 the Bulgarian authorities decided to purchase radio transmitters, one with the power of 100 kW mounted in the outskirts of Sofia, near the village of Vakarel, and another two with a power of 2 kW each for Stara Zagora and Varna. The parts for the transmitter and the antenna manufactured by the Hungarian Standard enterprise arrived in Varna on February 10 1936. The cargo weighing nearly 5 tonnes was transported with a huge cart pulled by eight horses to the radio station located some 6 km away from the city centre. An antenna was erected to the height of 72 m, which was connected together with the assembled transmitter to the studio, located downtown. At noon local time on March 23, 1936, a female voice announced "This is Radio Varna" in Bulgarian and French, and that broadcast was registered as the first ever broadcast of the state-owned Radio Varna. It began its broadcasts on a daily basis on May 21, 1936, between 11.30 a.m. and 2 p.m. and then again from 7.30 p.m. to 10 p.m. The frequency remained unchanged, 1276 kHz, and the first letter from a Radio Varna listener came from neighbouring Yugoslavia. Using a telephone line Radio Varna started relaying Radio Sofia's broadcasts, too. As of July 1 1936 Radio Varna had its own broadcasts in French and German, too. A female speaker announced the news first in Bulgarian and French and then a male speaker presented the same news in German. In the summer time Radio Varna broadcast in the languages of the foreign holiday makers who used to come here, for example in Czech, Polish, etc. On October 7, 1941, the Soviet authorities started jamming Radio Varna's emissions of via a transmitter located in Georgia, which broadcast the programmes of Radio Voice of the People in Bulgarian. For a while shortly after September 4, 1944, the 1276 kHz frequency was used to relay the broadcasts of Radio Moscow for the Soviet troops in the area. Until recently Radio Varna had its own short wave broadcast which was received all over the world. Now it only broadcasts on FM and medium waves on 774 kHz (Radio Bulgaria DX Program 9 Sept, via Yimber Gaviría, Colombia, DXLD)
