How it started
History
DR was founded on 1 April 1925 under the name of Radioordningen, which was changed to Statsradiofonien in 1926, then to Danmarks Radio in 1959, and to DR in 1996.
During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, radio broadcasts were censored – under particularly harsh conditions from August 1943 – leading many Danes to turn to Danish-language broadcasts from the BBC or the illegal press, as well as Swedish radio in 1944–1945.
Statsradiofonien's second FM radio station, Program 2 (P2), was added in 1951, followed by P3 in 1963.
Experimental television broadcasts started in 1949, with regular programming beginning on 2 October 1951 with the launch of Denmark's first television channel. Daily programming began in 1954. Colour television test broadcasts were started in March 1967, with the first large-scale colour broadcasting occurring for the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France. Danmarks Radio officially ended its "test" transmissions of colour television on 1 April 1970, although it wasn't until 1978 that the organisation's last black-and-white television programme (TV Avisen—The News) went over to colour.
In 1968, Danish television introduced television satire as a new entertainment genre. The production of satirical series by the entertainment department at DR occurred during a time when DR held a monopoly on radio and television broadcasting from 1925 to 1988, and from 1951 onwards, respectively.