Foundation Anniversary: RTBF — June 18, 1930

The French-language Belgian public broadcaster RTBF traces its institutional origin to the law of 18 June 1930 creating the autonomous public broadcaster Institut national de radiodiffusion (INR) in Brussels, which absorbed the private transmitters Radio Belgique and Boerenbond Radio Velthem and operated one French-language and one Dutch-language transmitter under a management board appointed jointly by the King, the Senate, and the Chamber. Reorganized by the law of 18 May 1960 into Radiodiffusion-Télévision belge (RTB) alongside the Dutch-language BRT and the Institut des Services Communs, the broadcaster moved its radio and television studios from Place Flagey in Ixelles to a purpose-built complex on Boulevard Reyers in Schaerbeek constructed between 1964 and 1978, and took the name RTBF under the decree of 12 December 1977 of the Cultural Council of the French Community.

A note on this date. Institutional histories of public broadcasting in French-speaking Belgium record three statutory founding dates: 18 June 1930, when Belgian law created the unified public broadcaster Institut national de radiodiffusion (INR); 18 May 1960, when legislation established Radiodiffusion-Télévision belge (RTB); and 12 December 1977, when a decree of the Cultural Council of the French Community instituted RTBF and endowed it with its autonomous statutes. This anniversary follows the 18 June 1930 founding law of the INR and states all three dates. We publish it with the warning rather than leave the page out, and if you can point us to a register or an archive that carries it we will confirm or correct it.

Dates verified on Higher Audiovisual Council of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (CSA) and Connaître la Wallonie (Public Service of Wallonia).