FOUNDATION OF THE ？ZM？R RADIO AND ITS ACTIVITIES IN ITS FIRST YEARS

Scientific developments of the 19th century Europe brought out inventions that caused major changes in the daily lives of societies. Radio as one of the inventions of this period became widespread and part of daily life in the first half of the 20th century and created a radical change in the traditional communication perception. Radio also began to be used in Turkey beginning from the first years of the Republic. In 1927 with the foundation of ？stanbul and Ankara radios, the number of radio listeners increased. City of ？zmir showed great interest in radio broadcastings and the city radio was founded in 1950. A radio station was established to broadcast during the ？zmir Fair, but the ？zmir Municipality bought this radio station and changed it into a permenant broadcaster. ？zmir Radio began its activities in a shed in fairground of Kültürpark. In 1951 ？zmir Radio relocated to the building of Atl？spor Club also in fairground of Kültürpark and attained larger and better conditions. In 1952 ？zmir Radio was transferred to the Directorate General of Press and Tourism and with a legislative regulation passed in 1953 ？zmir Radio became a state radio and still continues its activities at the present time. In this study, information on developments during the foundation process of ？zmir Radio, broadcasting activities, radio personnel and buildings used for ？zmir radio will be given based on archival documents from the Republican Archive of the Prime Ministry, various sources on the history of radio, articles and news from the press of the period in question. This study aims to contribute to urban history studies of ？zmir by giving information on foundation, history and activities of the ？zmir Radio, which has become an important symbol of ？zmir