Day of Radio and Television Workers in Kyrgyzstan Date in the current year: December 8, 2024

The date of December 8 was chosen to commemorate the opening of Bishkek television station in 1958. The first television program in Kyrgyzstan (then Kirghiz SSR) was broadcast on December 8, 1958. This day can be considered the birthday of Kyrgyz television.

At first, Bishkek TV station broadcast on just for days a week, and the broadcast lasted for only one hour. Programs were in Russian and Kyrgyz, they were broadcast in black and white. By 1979, almost all localities in Kyrgyzstan had access to the daily broadcasts of Kyrgyz television.

As for radio broadcast in Kyrgyzstan, it had become available more than two decades earlier than television broadcast. In 1931, the Republican Committee on Radio Broadcast was established within the Department of Communications of the Kirghiz SSR.

Day of Radio and Television Workers was officially established by the government of Kyrgyzstan in December 1995, the first celebration took place in 1996. Just like the rest of professional holidays in Kyrgyzstan, it is not a non-working day. On the occasion of their professional holiday, telecommunication employees are congratulated by government officials.