Türi exhibition honours pioneers of Estonian-language radio

A new exhibition at the Broadcasting Museum in Türi presents the stories and photographs of 10 pioneers of Estonian-language radio. ERR reports that the exhibition, titled “A hundred years, a hundred people: the pioneers”, is the first in a planned series.

Museum director and exhibition curator Juhan Sihver said the display remembers people who laid the foundations of Estonian-language broadcasting. Among them are Aleksander Tamm, who chaired the broadcasting board and also worked as an announcer and director; Felix Moor, the first salaried reporter, editor and presenter; Erika Veidebaum, Estonia’s first female announcer; and children’s programme editor and author Pilvi Toomendi, better known as Üllaste.

The museum did not have a photograph of Tamm, so it borrowed one from the Literary Museum. In the image, Tamm, nicknamed the “Golden Voice”, stands at a microphone in a broadcasting studio. The microphone, which was meant to hang from a rubber band, is suspended from hemp cord instead. “Broadcasting had to do its work, and did so with the means available,” Sihver said.

The exhibition will be open until the end of October. The museum plans to continue introducing the people who established broadcasting.