Back in the 1930’s, prominent Bulgarian and foreign intellectuals authored and hosted the first international programmes, broadcast on the airwaves of the Bulgarian National Radio. 

For instance, Georges Milchev, editor at La Parole Bulgare newspaper, was the man behind the French-language programmes and Petar Uvaliev, better known as Pierre Rouve, - at the time working for the Press Directorate, authored the programmes in Italian. 

The weekly overview of events in Bulgaria in German was translated by Dr. Naumann from the German Embassy in Sofia. 

There were lectures twice a week in German by engineer Bory Ganchev. The English language broadcasts were in the hands of Boris Hadjimishev, (later to become opera stage director) and Mr. Lyakov, who was employed at the Press Directorate. Industrialist Stefan Ganchev and Kiril Drazhev, who worked as a graphic designer at the Press Directorate, were announcers of the programmes in Esperanto. 

In July 1944, the BNR started broadcasting a special programme targeted specifically at the Bulgarians abroad. It was called “Bulgarian News Transmitter”. The programme was organized by the Press Directorate and included domestic and international news.”

You can read details about the history of the BNR’s foreign language broadcasts in our section: “Radio Bulgaria Turns 85”.