State-Controlled Avant-Garde? Emil Bønnelycke's radiophonic portrait of Copenhagen

State controlled radio developed in the Nordic countries by the middle of the 1920es. Danish Radio was established for a trial period in April 1925, and was permanently founded in April 1926. Swedish radio was founded in 1925 and Norwegian radio in 1933. The new and unquestionably powerful medium had already given rise to avant-garde imagination in Europe (Kahn 1994), but proved in its state controlled institutionalisation less available for experimentation than hoped. Yet radio remained attractive for contemporary avant-garde oriented artists, but few succeeded in accessing the mechanical apparatus of state radio.
One example of this is the Danish writer Emil Bønnelyckes collaboration with Danish radio on Vore Dages København i Radiofoniske Billeder (Contemporary Copenhagen in Radiophonic Images) – a 4 and a half hour show broadcast prime time on Sunday evening 7. December 1930. According to the program sheet from Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DBC) the program included transmission of music from the Radio Orchestra, sound film and transmissions from theatres and dance restaurants in Copenhage