1945: The Russian Hour

While the Western Allies set up their own radio stations in their occupation zones after 1945, the Soviet occupying power levied a claim to control the state-owned Austrian radio station, Radio Wien. However, the only programme it created was The Russian Hour. The programme, broadcast twice a week, covered topics from music, literature and science in the Soviet Union with the explicit purpose of correcting the country’s image, which had been propagandistically distorted by the Nazi regime. With the intensification of the Cold War, however, the programme increasingly became a propaganda mouthpiece for Soviet politics. Designed by a communist staff, the programme on Radio Wien, whose director Rudolf Henz (1897–1987) had already run the station from 1934–1938, repeatedly caused tensions. In colloquial language, Radio Wien was known as a “Russian Broadcaster” because of The Russian Hour, even though the influence of Austrian politics on the programme may have been considerably larger.

With the signing of the State Treaty in 1955, the programme was discontinued.

External Resources (in German):
Radiosendungen: Zwei Beiträge aus dem Radioprogramm der "Russischen Stunde"
https://www.mediathek.at/portaltreffer/atom/1336C10F-0B9-00012-00001254-13363EB8/pool/BWEB/