Every year on November 6, Azerbaijan celebrates the professional holiday of media broadcasting professionals—Azerbaijani Television and Radio Day.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Azerbaijani radio and the 70th anniversary of Azerbaijani television.
Sea-news.az recalls that the Baku Television Studio aired its inaugural broadcast on February 14, 1956. Actress Najiba Melikova appeared on screen during the premiere broadcast, opening with the historic words “Baku is showing.” The feature film Bakhtiyar was broadcast later that evening.
Following the launch of state television, November 6 began to be commemorated as the foundational day for national radio and television broadcasting.
The city’s first 180-meter steel lattice television tower was erected in Baku in 1956. On February 14 of that year, AzTV1 launched black-and-white terrestrial broadcasts via its primary TV transmitter.
On June 28, 1957, the first live outside broadcast was successfully transmitted from the Republican Stadium using mobile broadcast units.
By 1961, high-power television stations were constructed in Ganja, Goychay, and Shusha, followed in 1962 by a regional television studio and transmission station in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.
In 1967, Azerbaijan transitioned from monochrome broadcasting to color television transmission utilizing the SECAM standard.
In 1997, the state radio channels “I Respublika” and “Araz” initiated FM band transmissions from the Baku TV Tower Complex.
In 2012, an IPTV headend station was commissioned at the Baku TV Tower Complex, enabling direct distribution of IPTV content to telecom providers.
The same year saw the launch of High Definition (HD) broadcasts for “Azerbaijan” and “Ictimai” radio stations, as well as “Ictimai” television.
On December 20, 2016, analogue television broadcasting was completely phased out across Azerbaijan, marking the full national transition to digital terrestrial television (DTT).
The primary advantages of digital broadcasting include superior image and audio quality, optimized utilization of strategic radio frequency spectrum, and increased channel capacity over terrestrial networks.
In 2019, the “Radio-Television Broadcasting and Satellite Communications” (Teleradio) Production Association under the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport completed the digital modernization of the 185-kilometer radio-relay backbone along the Fatmai – Sumgayit – Khizi – Dagbilici (Shabran) – Yerguc – Guba corridor. This project formed part of a nationwide initiative to upgrade analogue link networks transporting state, public, commercial, and regional broadcasts to regional retransmission towers.
In 2016, to guarantee uninterrupted signal transmission across Baku and the Absheron Peninsula during technical maintenance or emergency events at the main Baku TV Tower Complex, an Alternative Radio and TV Broadcast Station was established on the foundation of Radio Station No. 1 following extensive reconstruction.
Furthermore, in August 2019, Teleradio PA pioneered digital audio broadcasting in Azerbaijan by launching pilot DAB+ transmissions covering Baku and the Absheron Peninsula. Currently, a digital multiplex of 12 radio channels is accessible across the capital region on the 218.6 MHz (Block 11B) frequency band.
