A Century of Estonian Radio on Display at the TV Tower
Text Timo Raussi Photos Teletorn / Sergei Zjuganov and Stanislav Moškov, Finnish Institute in Estonia, Susanna Poikela
A new exhibition has opened at the Tallinn TV Tower to celebrate the centenary of Estonian radio broadcasting as part of the country’s public media history. As in Finland, radio transmission technology was tested in Estonia in varying forms between 1924 and 1926, but the official beginning of broadcasting is considered to be 18 December 1926, when regular radio programmes began transmitting via a radio station built in the Kopli district of Tallinn.
Under the main title “Tallinn Speaking! A Century on the Airwaves”, the exhibition brings together nine themed displays examining the development of media from different perspectives. One section focuses on Finland’s public broadcaster Yleisradio, which is also celebrating its centenary this year, and whose television broadcasts represented a “window to the open West” for many Estonians during the Soviet decades.
The TV Tower exhibition presents photographs and artefacts from the early years of Estonian broadcasting, including material related to the country’s first radio reporter and presenter Felix Moor, as well as the first “radio auntie” of children’s programming, Pilvi Üllaste. An authentic radio-listening corner has also been recreated, the sort that could once be found in many Estonian homes of the 1930s. Visitors can view radio receivers from different eras, some of which became status symbols because of their design and price.
The exhibition also explores the later history of television broadcasting. Visitors can learn about presenters and news anchors of ETV, or Eesti Televisioon, see examples of memorable moments in sports commentary, and examine objects belonging to commentators, including accreditation passes, souvenirs, and handwritten notes.
Technology also plays a major role in the exhibition. In the interactive section, visitors can tune antennas, direct and transmit signals, listen to radio stations from around the world, learn Morse code and send messages, play early television games, and experience how wind affects the 314-metre TV Tower and how engineers have accounted for this in the structure of the tower and antenna masts.
A special theme titled “From Tower to Pocket” explores the evolution of communication from radio and television towers to today’s smart devices. Visitors can examine a broad collection of mobile phones, ranging from the large radiophones of earlier decades to unusually designed keypad phones and early smartphones. Also on display are an 1980s coin-operated public telephone and its successor, the card phone complete with phone cards.
From Finland, the exhibition includes items connected to the children’s programme “Pikku Kakkonen”, which helped many Estonians learn Finnish. Among the objects displayed are Riku Karvakuono, companion to the dog character Ransu, and the programme’s near-iconic logo in puzzle form. Also exhibited is a NAGRA IV-AL reporter’s tape recorder used by YLE during the 1970s and 1980s, the same type used early in the journalistic career of Hannele Valkeeniemi, current director of the Finnish Institute in Estonia, who assisted in compiling the exhibition.
“I am pleased that the TV Tower wanted to highlight Finland as part of the centenary exhibition. The connection created by radio and television waves between Finland and Estonia has always been special. Obtaining exhibition items was not entirely easy, because there is currently strong demand for them in Finland as well. YLE is celebrating its own centenary, and next year Pikku Kakkonen, which turns fifty, is preparing for a major anniversary exhibition in Tampere. I would like to thank my former colleagues for their help. I considered the role of Pikku Kakkonen essential because today’s active generation of Estonians grew up watching it. Many Estonians, including more than one former prime minister, have said they learned Finnish specifically from Pikku Kakkonen. It is a generational experience in Estonia as well,” Valkeeniemi commented.
The exhibition “Tallinn Speaking! A Century on the Airwaves” is open during the normal opening hours of the Tallinn TV Tower and can be visited with a standard admission ticket.
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