Kamila Staśko-Mazur Institute of Musicology, University of Wrocław e voice of Polish Radio in the soundscape of Warsaw in 1945 Abstract: Due to political pressures and material conditions, the post-war eort to increase the radio coverage of Polish cities was to be based mainly on a network of wired radio sta- tions. e aim of this chapter is to describe the practices of sound and listening in 1945 as captured within the context of the activities of Polish Radio in Warsaw, a city rising from the ruins. e presence of the radio’s voice, as a key component of the soundscape of post-war Warsaw, is viewed from the perspective of its role in the public/private space, its material determinants, programming and reception, as well as the changes and direction to the expansion of radio coverage. Based on archive sources, including text documents of Polish Radio, radio broadcasts and written sources, an attempt was made to reconstruct both the process of making radio accessible across Warsaw in 1945 and also the reception and presence of the radio’s voice in the city’s soundscape. Analysis of these sources makes it possible to follow the transformation of the modes of emission of the radio’s voice. Keywords: wired radio station, Warsaw Radio, city soundscape, sound practices, listening practices, megaphone, in-home loudspeaker, radio programming With the conference of 1939 in Łódź, the Nazi authorities limited access to educa- tion and culture in occupied Poland. Poles were forbidden from using radio sets and had to turn them in to the authorities; those who violated this new policy were sentenced to death or sent to concentration camps.1 ese regulations were still in force immediately aer the war: in the rst half of 1945, the Soviet army also prohibited the use of radio sets.2 During the post-war period, there was no equipment to be had, and listening to the radio over street loudspeakers became the only way people could access radio news. Despite the growing number of publications about Polish Radio, it seems that the impact the radio had on post-war authors and audiences, as well as the role that the everyday sonic environment played during that period, which saw the 1 See Markowska and Naliwajek–Mazurek, Okupacyjne losy, 13–14. 2 See Siezieniewski, “Informacja i publicystyka”, 230. Dariusz Michalski provides a strik- ing example of how the violation of this policy led to an execution in mid 1945. See Michalski, “Radio poza radiem”, in Ossibach-Budzyński (ed.), Polskie Radio, 453–454. Renata Taczuk and Sawomir Wieczorek - 9783631753361 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/24/2021 04:11:06PM via free access 94 Kamila Staśko-Mazur restitution of the Polish radio broadcasting system, remain under-examined. is research paper is aimed at lling that gap by focussing on the practices of sound and listening in 1945 within the context of the activities of Polish Radio in Warsaw, a city rising from the ashes. Given the post-war situation of Poland, it is necessary to pose a number of questions about the social practices related to radio’s voice in the city’s soundscape. What was the role of radio in public/private space? What were its material deter- minants? How did radio programming evolve? What was its programmatic and technological reception? In what direction did radio coverage expand and what was its social and cultural impact? Drawing on archive sources from the Records Department at Polish Television’s Centre for Documentation and Programme Collections (Ośrodek Dokumentacji i Zbiorów Programowych Telewizji Polskiej SA, Dział Dokumentacji Aktowej), as well as archive radio broadcasts from the Polish Radio Archives, including memoirs and radio reportages,3 an attempt was made to examine the development of radio broadcasting in Warsaw in 1945.4 An in-depth study of the work of Polish Radio and its presence in the public space is complemented by a survey of the press of that period, with the emphasis on the magazine Radio i świat [Radio and the world], rst published in July 1945 – a leading periodical devoted to radio. One gure binding together the dierent threads of this paper – important events related to the role of radio in the process of the “assimilation” of the new post- war reality by the residents of Warsaw – is the pianist and Polish Radio journalist Władysław Szpilman.5 Radio journalists recall Szpilman (and many other legendary gures of Polish Radio) – oen as a living human signum of a return to the old order. 3 e story of how Varsovians rebuilt their city is accompanied by the post-war “urban” soundscape. At the Polish Radio Archives, you can listen to radio broadcasts telling the history of the city and featuring the sounds of the tram network, bridges and tene- ment houses being reconstructed, songs sung by Varsovians rebuilding their city, and rhyming calls made by tram drivers, etc. 4 is analysis focuses on the area within the city limits and does not take into considera- tion radio broadcasting centres located in nearby towns that were part of the Regional Directorate of Polish Radio Warsaw. 5 Władysław Szpilman (1911–2000) was a Polish pianist, composer, radio journalist and member of the Warsaw Piano Quintet. e author of this paper is currently writing her PhD thesis on the composer’s oeuvre at the Institute of Musicology of the University of Wrocław. Renata Taczuk and Sawomir Wieczorek - 9783631753361 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/24/2021 04:11:06PM via free access e voice of Polish Radio in the soundscape of Warsaw in 1945 95 1. “Something that was never there”: Cable radio6 During the occupation, Poland lost most of its radio equipment—what remained was destroyed or taken out of the country. at partly accounts for the novel content and style of the rst Polish Radio broadcast aer the long break caused by the war, made from Lublin in the autumn of 1944.7 Speaking about the “second birth” of post-war radio broadcasting in Poland, the Polish Radio historian Maciej J. Kwiatkowski says: Something completely new begins in Poland: cable radio. “Radio on the wire”, “squawk boxes”, “buckets” – or any number of other more or less dismissive names – played an es- sential role in our country. […] Pre-war Poland did not want to adopt the [Soviet] model.8 In the devastated country, facing a wholly new political reality, cable radio, in- cluding public address systems, became a new form of communication. Initially, it seemed to be the best medium for both news and propaganda, but it was met with resistance from local communities. ere was supposedly a joke among radio journalists: “I saw a man standing under a loudspeaker in Lithuanian Square”.9 People working at Polish Radio, which was then in the process of rebuilding itself, projected a fearful vision – half-joking, half-serious – of a loudspeaker squawk- ing across an empty square, thereby testifying to the tough conditions and social practices of that period. Not only the post-war reality, but also the squawk boxes epitomise an oppressive occupation, including oppressive sound.10 e new type of radio broadcasting and infrastructure, including the public address systems, ensured access to information during the post-war period and became an am- bivalent symbol of the new life. Back then, Warsaw (once called the “Paris of the North”) found itself in a dra- matic situation. Witnesses oen use the metaphor of a terrifying emptiness, of overwhelming devastation.11 In addition to accounts of the rst signs of new life in the war-torn landscape, there are also recollections of patriotic actions. Despite the general ban on such manifestations, Poles continued to organise symbolic 6 Kwiatkowski, To już historia, 184. 7 Since August 1944, Polish Radio had operated in accordance with the agenda of the Polish Workers’ Party. See Habielski, Polityczna historia, 186. 8 Kwiatkowski, To już historia, 184. 9 See Radio i świat (hereaer RiŚ), 12 (1945), 1. 10 For more information on the subversive ways in which sonic oppression was combated, including the Wawer scouting organisation’s minor sabotage operations with the use of megaphones, see Kwiatkowski, To już historia, 158. 11 See Spotkania z Warszawą, radio broadcast. Renata Taczuk and Sawomir Wieczorek - 9783631753361 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/24/2021 04:11:06PM via free access 96 Kamila Staśko-Mazur parades.12 A powerful impact was also made by “megaphone-type radio broad- casts”. One of the locals joyously stated that the national anthem could be heard from the loudspeakers across the River Vistula: “It turned out that there were loudspeakers across the Vistula, and you could hear Polish being spoken from them!”13 According to Maciej J. Kwiatkowski, although the role of a loudspeaker type of radio, as well as the traditional ether type, could not be considered trivial, initially it seemed rather ineective: Back then, only a small group of people were listening to these radio broadcasts in Poland. Nevertheless, broadcasting into the ether of Warsaw played a crucial political role. is means that the city, which was devastated and destined to disappear from the map, was brought back to life and was rebuilding itself.14 e Warsaw radio station was the third radio station (aer Cracow and Katowice) in post-war Poland; it went on air on 16 March.15 However, it was rebuilt locally as part of an urban radio broadcasting system before the capital was moved from Lublin to Warsaw.16 1.1 “Back then we had nothing to work with”17: Material conditions e decision to rebuild the radio broadcasting system in Warsaw was probably made aer the occupying power withdrew from the east side of the city.