This is the International Section of
The Broadcast Archive

Maintained by:
Barry Mishkind - The Eclectic Engineer

Israeli Broadcasting:

  • History
  • Regulation
  • Station Identifications

Israeli Broadcast History:

The first radio station in what was then called Palestine was officially opened at Tel Aviv on April 7, 1932. Radio Tel Aviv was operated by Mendel Abramovitch under license from the British Mandatory Government. Opening speeches were by Abramovitch and Tel Aviv Mayor Meir Dizengoff. Radio Tel Aviv died in April 1935.

The British-run Palestine Broadcasting Service (PBS) started in Jerusalem on December 24, 1935. "Kol Yerushalyim" (Voice of Jerusalem) operated at 668 kHz at 20 kW, for 5 hours a day -- 3 hours of "general programming" and then an hour of Jewish programming and an hour of Arabic programming. According to contemporary news reports, the emphasis was on news and features plus some music.

The studios were in Jerusalem, with the transmitter in Ramallah; technical work was done by the Marconi company. 

In 1948, with independence, the state run broadcasting authority Kol Israel (Voice of Israel ... later renamed The Israeli Broadcasting Service) takes over the PBS facilities and staff. 

In October 1949, FM broadcasts were begun in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

May 2, 1968 saw the beginning of television broadcasts (color came in 1981).

More Israeli broadcast history, including information on content, can be found here.

Regulation:

Early broadcasting was run under the British government, the from 1948 Kol Israel operated under the Ministry of Interior. It was later transferred to the Prime Minister's Office.

On June 6, 1965, the Broadcasting Authority Law was passed by The Knesset (Israel's Parliament), creating the  Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) as an independent agency.

In 1994, an agency was organized for the operation of Palestinian stations. The PBC (Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation) began operating as the Voice of Palestine.

In 1995, local commercial broadcasting came to Israel.

Station Identification:

Most stations used "Voice of" (Kol in Hebrew) with the location, governmental organization, or political orientation as the remainder of the name.

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