The story
History
During Dutch and Japanese colonial eras
Radio Republik Indonesia was not actually the first radio station in Indonesia. The earliest radio station to begin broadcasting in what was then known as the Dutch East Indies was Bataviase Radio Vereniging (BRV), on 16 June 1925. At that time, BRV had two channels: "Stadzender" (Local Program) and "Archipelzender" (National Program). BRV broadcast from the Harmoni area of Jakarta (Batavia) and used Dutch in its programming.
The birth of BRV was followed by a number of other radio stations in a number of regions, such as the Nederlandsch-Indische Radio-Omroep Maatschappij (NIROM, Batavia); the Solosche Radio Vereniging (SRV, Soerakarta); the Eastern Radio Luisteraars (VORO, Bandoeng); the First Madioense Radio Omroep (ERVO, Madioen); and the Meyers Omroep voor Allen (MOVA, Medan). Almost all of them were privately owned at that time, except for NIROM. NIROM then developed into the largest radio station, by establishing communication lines via telephone with a number of cities, having central broadcasts transmitted from other cities such as Semarang, Bandoeng, Soerabaja, Soerakarta and Yogyakarta, plus having programs aimed at the local community. NIROM was born as a result of the issuance of the Radiowet by the colonial government in 1934 and received funding from the radio tax scheme (Luisterbijdrage).
Another radio station worth mentioning is SRV, which began operating on 1 April 1933, and was the first radio broadcaster owned by the Dutch East Indies' indigenous population. SRV was born from a collaboration between Surakarta nobleman Mangkunegara VII and Sarsito Mangunkusumo. After SRV emerged, other indigenous radio stations such as MARVO, VORL, CIRVO, EMRO, and Radio Semarang emerged. Initially, there was a mutual symbiosis between NIROM and these radio stations, but NIROM later became concerned about threats from national radio broadcasts. As a result of NIROM's efforts to sever this partnership, Volksraad member Sutardjo Kartohadikusumo and Sarsito Mangunkusumo (a pioneer of SRV) then gathered the administrators of indigenous radio stations on 29 March 1937 in Bandoeng. This meeting agreed to establish a forum called the Eastern Radio Association (PPPK) as a forum for their collaboration. Although a collaboration between PPPK and NIROM was later agreed upon, whereby PPPK radio stations would provide programming while NIROM would provide technical assistance, efforts continued to ensure PPPK members could broadcast independently. The first PPPK program broadcast via NIROM was broadcast on 1 November 1940.
With the fall of the Dutch East Indies to the Empire of Japan in March 1942, Japan disbanded private radio stations and implemented broadcasts centrally through the establishment of Pusat Jawatan Radio (Radio Bureau Center (放送管理局, Hōsō Kanri Kyoku)). Their respective branches include Jawatan Radio (Radio Bureau (放送局, Hōsō Kyoku)), which covers 8 cities and Shodanso which is tasked with monitoring the use of radio so that people do not listen to foreign radio broadcasts. Japan clearly saw the importance of radio as a tool propaganda, based on experience through Radio Tokyo (now NHK) broadcasts which at around 10 pm were very well received by the Indonesian people. Radio was actually used as a propaganda tool, containing war news and prohibitions on listening to foreign languages and songs.
The founding of RRI
Just as when the Dutch surrendered in 1942, radio again played a crucial role during the proclamation of independence in 1945. For example, news of Japan's defeat was secretly obtained from the BBC World Service on 14 August 1945 by young people. The proclamation of independence on 17 August 1945 made the young people want to seize this important means of communication, with the aim of spreading the news of the proclamation. In Bandoeng, the Hoso Kyoku branch there was seized, albeit with bloodshed, with a replacement radio station, Siaran Radio Republik Indonesia Bandung, used to read the proclamation news by three young men named Sakti Alamsyah, Odas Sumadilaga, and R.A. Darya. In Soerabaja, to deceive the occupying government, the proclamation broadcast was read in Madurese, while in Jakarta, Joesoef Ronodipoero emerged as a hero for his efforts to read the broadcast at 7:00 pm despite being tortured by Japanese soldiers. Knowing this, the occupying government then sealed the radio broadcasts that had been going on since 19 August 1945. The independence figures also used strategies to continue broadcasting this important news, such as through illegal broadcasts which were successfully used by President Sukarno to give a speech on 25 August 1945.
The radio fighters realized how important these radio facilities were in anticipating the worst possible outcome, namely the return of British and Dutch troops to Indonesia. Over time, the Japanese occupation government and its troops lost interest in maintaining these radio stations. The youth began planning to seize and operate the existing radio stations, thanks to Ronodipuro's suggestion to Abdul Rahman Saleh. On 10 September 1945, regional radio leaders from Soerakarta, Djogjakarta, Bandoeng, Semarang and Poerwokerto held a meeting to agree on a plan to force the Japanese army to immediately hand over the Hoso Kyoku station to the fighters. They also intended to inform the government of this, through a meeting on 11 September at 5:00 pm in the Pejambon area of Jakarta at the suggestion of one of the radio figures, Oetojo Ramelan. However, the response of the Ministry of the State Secretariat A.G. Pringgodigdo was to reject the proposal to seize the Japanese radio stations in favor of creating a united radio broadcast, fearing that it would lead to conflict with the Allies.
The RRI pioneers then proceeded with their plan, seeing the potential for conflict to arise. In the early hours of 11 September, at a meeting attended by 17 people entitled Perdjuangan Kita (Our Struggle) at the house of Adang Kadarusman, Menteng Dalam Jakarta, RRI was officially established with Abdul Rahman Saleh appointed as its first general manager. The meeting also produced a declaration known as the Piagam 11 September 1945 (Chapter of 11 September 1945), which contained three points of commitment to the duties and functions of RRI, later known as the Tri Prasetya RRI. The plan to take over the radio stations then went well, except in Surabaya where it was only successfully carried out on 29 September 1945, and in Surakarta, where the handover took place on 1 October 1945. With the emergence of the Indonesian National Revolution, RRI quickly gained widespread public acceptance. RRI then also began to carry out the important task of conveying the conditions of Indonesia to the world, which at that time was dominated by broadcasts from the Dutch.
On 12-13 January 1946 a meeting was held in Surakarta to discuss the development of radio in Indonesia during the ongoing war. In this meeting, several conclusions were reached, such as RRI Jakarta was handed over to the Department of Information; Bandung and Purwokerto were briefly merged into PTT (now Pos Indonesia); Semarang was under the funding of Governor of Central Java Wongsonegoro; Surakarta received regional government funding; Yogyakarta and Surabaya were funded by local radio taxes; and Malang was funded by PTT. The meeting also discussed the topic of RRI as a government organ or autonomous institution, where the government proposed that RRI be divided into technical and broadcasting bodies with the leadership appointed by the government. The proposal to split RRI was rejected, while the plan to make RRI a government agency was later accepted after tough negotiations. Finally, on 1 April 1946 the government inaugurated RRI with its new status as a government institution which was then under the control of the Ministry of Information. Since then, RRI has become the official voice of the newly established government at that time.
Read the full text
RRI then expanded its network through the merger of a number of local radio stations named Badan Siaran Radio (Radio Broadcasting Agency), which was formed in 1946 and 1947 by the people in a number of cities such as Cirebon, Tasikmalaya, Garut, Magelang, Cilacap, Madiun, Kediri and Jember. However, the instability due to the conflict also disrupted the operations of a number of regional RRI stations and made them move, such as in Surabaya which was split into 3 in Mojokerto, Bondowoso, and Madiun, and Semarang which was split into three locations namely Pekalongan, Pati and Salatiga. In total, in 1948 RRI already had 32 stations located in 29 places. At the same time, other non-RRI radio broadcasts that later appeared also played a role in helping the war, such as Radio Perjuangan in Serang City, Radio Gelora Pemuda in Madiun, Radio Internasional in Kediri and Radio Pemberontakan in Surakarta.
Post-1949
As part of the founding of the United States of Indonesia in 1949, a joint institution was formed between RRI and ROIO (Radio Omroep in Overgangstijd, a Dutch-founded radio network) called Radio Republik Indonesia Serikat (RRIS; Radio of the United States of Indonesia). During this period, the unification of the call signs and centralization of regional RRI broadcasts with the RRI central station which was then in Yogyakarta. RRIS then returned to RRI after the RIS was dissolved in 1950. The development of RRI was then greatly influenced by political developments; during the Liberal democracy era, the general manager of RRI was often replaced according to the political preferences of the ruling party, Meanwhile, in the Guided Democracy era, RRI broadcasts again became a propaganda tool, dominated by long speeches. Domestic Dutch-language broadcasts were discontinued in 1954.
The RRI central station in Jakarta became one of the vital objects captured by the 30 September Movement on 1 October 1965. In that morning, RRI reported about the September 30 Movement aimed at high-ranking officers who were members of the "Council of Generals" who were about to stage a coup against the government, and announced the formation of "Revolutionary Council" led by Lt. Col. Untung.
In late 1960s, private radio stations were established and effectively ended RRI's monopoly on radio broadcasting. However, during the New Order era, upon the requests of the Ministry of Information, RRI-produced news programs were aired simulcast on all radio stations.
After the Broadcasting Act No. 32/2002 is in force, RRI, along with TVRI, set as the public radio network in 2006 and became independent of any governmental control. The status then reaffirmed by Government Regulation (Peraturan Pemerintah) No. 12 of 2005.
In 2018, RRI became the official Indonesian radio Rights of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia, RRI use the tagline Radio Tanggap Bencana COVID-19 (COVID-19 Disaster Responsive Radio). By the tagline, the network announced their efforts to combat the pandemic by providing accurate and reliable information, and supporting the actions of government of Indonesia during the pandemic.
A proposed new Broadcasting Act (Undang-Undang Penyiaran) currently in the making would merge RRI with its fellow public broadcaster TVRI unto a unified firm RTRI (Radio Televisi Republik Indonesia, Radio [and] Television of the Republic of Indonesia).
All RRI radio stations sign on with the musical theme "Mars Jakarta" (Jakarta March).
Similarly, it closes every day with the instrumental theme "Lief Ambon" (also called "Love Ambon"), composed by George de Fretes, a renowned musician of Indo-European descent. The two themes were reportedly chosen by President Sukarno.
Logo history
Fourth (current) logo variations (2023–present)
Regional logos
Service logos
From Wikipedia’s article on Radio Republik Indonesia, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4