The first public radio stations in Switzerland were airfield stations in Lausanne, Geneva and Zurich. They distributed reports and weather reports for aviation, in between music was played from records, and general news and the dissemination of sports results were added successively. On February 24, 1931, the seven regional organizations formed the Verein Schweizerische Rundspruchgesellschaft (SRG).
At that time, SRG received the sole license for radio broadcasts in Switzerland from the Federal Council. According to the contract, information could only be obtained from the Swiss dispatch agency SDA. When Romansh was recognized as the fourth national language in Switzerland in 1938, the Zurich radio studio began broadcasting reports in Romansh as well.
“Spiritual national defense”
At the National Exhibition of 1939, ETH Zurich presented the new television technology for the first time in Switzerland. During the Second World War, the SRG supported the “intellectual national defense” with its three national channels, Radio Beromünster (German), Radio Sottens (French) and Radio Monte Ceneri (Italian).
The programs on the political and military situation were broadcast worldwide via shortwave. Radio Beromünster, named after the regional broadcaster Beromünster in the canton of Lucerne, was considered the only “free” German-speaking broadcaster in Europe at the time. From 1953, the SRG introduced an official television service. A one-hour program was broadcast five evenings a week in the Zurich region. In 1954, SRG founded Eurovision together with eight other European television stations.
In 1957, the SRG received the first official television license in Switzerland. From mid-1958, the programs in Zurich were supplemented by German and French-language programs from Zurich and Geneva, the Italian-speaking Switzerland broadcaster broadcast programs from other parts of the country with Italian commentaries first broadcast in Romansh.
DRS 3, Teletext and Rete Tre
In the 1970s, SRG was able to open new television studios in Geneva, Zurich and Comano. From 1971 the radio news was no longer produced by the SDA, but became the responsibility of the SRG. In 1983 the third program for young people was introduced: DRS 3 and Couleur 3. And from 1984 teletext was available on Swiss television channels for the first time. In the same year, SRG launched the joint program 3sat with German ZDF and Austrian ORF and the French-language channel TV5 Monde with French and Belgian TV partners.
In 1988 the Ticino Rete Tre program was launched. In 1997 the second TV programs SF 2, TSR 2 and TSI 2, which are particularly important for sport, were put into operation and the previous telephone broadcast replaced by the three Swiss satellite programs Radio Swiss Pop, Radio Swiss Jazz and Radio Swiss Classic.
In 1999, Schweizer Radio International launched SRG’s first internet platform: swissinfo.ch enabled worldwide access to SRG programs and information from Switzerland. In 2010 Radio Suisse Romande (RSR) and Télévision Suisse Romande (TSR) merged to form Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS). In 2011 the same step took place in German-speaking Switzerland, when Swiss Radio DRS (SR DRS) and Swiss Television (SF) were merged into Swiss Radio and Television (SRF).
Special films for the anniversary
On March 4, 2018, the Swiss electorate rejected a popular initiative to abolish the media tax with 71.6 percent. The SRG then initiated extensive transformation measures, and due to falling advertising income, it implemented savings measures worth millions. Covid-19 has additionally fueled these savings efforts, although the programs enjoyed above-average popularity during the pandemic. The new Play Suisse streaming platform went live on November 7, 2020 and has already generated more than 200,000 subscribers to date.
“A look at the history of SRG is like a look at the history of Switzerland», SRG Board of Directors President Jean-Michel Cina quoted in a statement from SRG. «Today and in the future, with excellent and professional employees, we make an important contribution to the cohesion of this country, provide added social value for the people in Switzerland and for our audience in four languages, anchored in all parts of the country and on all channels. ”
On the occasion of its 90th anniversary, the SRG would like to give an insight into developments over the past few decades. On the Streaming-Plattform Play Suisse Therefore a series of documentaries from all language regions was put together. Among them you will find films such as “The Making of the Tagesschau”, “Qui Marco Blaser” or “In the Crossfire – How SRG came under pressure”. (pd / lom)
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