Broadcasting House, also known as the House of Radio ( el, Ραδιομέγαρο, Radiomégaro) is an office and broadcasting installation building in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

. It currently houses the Greek state broadcaster, the

Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation The Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation ( el, Ελληνική Ραδιοφωνία Τηλεόραση AE, Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi SA) or ERT () is the state-owned public radio and television broadcaster of Greece. History Overview ERT b ...

History

Construction and early years

Construction started in 1968, during the Greek

military dictatorship A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...

for the housing of EIRT (National Radio Television Foundation), later replaced by the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT). Construction was complete by 1969 and it was inaugurated in 1974. It is one of the many examples of Brutalist architecture in public buildings in Athens.

2013: Occupation by workers and police invasion

On 11 June 2013, with the closure of ERT, the redundant workers occupied the building, which became the scene of large-scale demonstrations on the same day, on 11 September and 7 November.Κάλεσμα για συλλαλητήριο στο Ραδιομέγαρο στις 16.00 - Στάση εργασίας κήρυξε η ΕΣΗΕΑ
/ref> On 7 November, the riot police invaded, occupied and evacuated the building, evicting the workers.

The ERT sign, its removal, and re-installation

Prior to its replacement, the original ERT sign was spelled out as "ELLINIKI RADIOFONIA TILEORASI" in Greek, with white text on a blue background. On 13 April 2014, the old ERT sign was removed from the building in preparation for the installation of ERT's successor,

New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television ( el, Νέα Ελληνική Ραδιοφωνία, Ίντερνετ και Τηλεόραση) or NERIT (ΝΕΡΙΤ) was the state-owned public broadcasting, public broadcaster for Greece from 4 May 20 ...

. On 20 September, the new NERIT sign finished installation. Unlike its original predecessor, it was all blue text without a background, something which remains true in the current ERT sign. The sign remained there until 8 June 2015, when the "N" and "I" were removed to spell ERT after

Alexis Tsipras Alexis Tsipras ( el, Αλέξης Τσίπρας, ; born 28 July 1974) is a Greek politician serving as Leader of the Official Opposition since 2019. He served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019. Tsipras has led the Coalition of th ...

decided to reopen the broadcaster. ERT was restored 3 days later, after NERIT closed on 6:00 EEST. On 4 November 2017, the entire Greek spelling of ERT "ELLINIKI RADIOFONIA TILEORASI" was then restored on top of the building.

History

Construction and early years

2013: Occupation by workers and police invasion

The ERT sign, its removal, and re-installation

See also