he improvised a quick direct translation of the English term, which today sounds something like "the big speechmaker" (μέγας λέκτης). The radio station In 1926, Christos Tsigiridis set up his transmitter of approximately 400 Watt power in the premises of the International Trade Fair. The first radio station of Greece, the Balkans and South-Eastern Europe in general was finally realized. The transmissions began on 25 March 1926, with initially only two listeners, one around Ippodromiou square, and the other in an English ship in Thessaloniki harbour. The high cost of a radio receiver at the time meant that few could afford them; nevertheless, the receivers multiplied soon. A strict law on radio transmissions had been already passed, and therefore Tsigiridis was forced to operate the transmitter only during the International Trade Fair in September. He kept applying for a long-term broadcasting license, but it was not granted to him for several years. Tsigiridis operated the transmitter on his own expense, based on income from advertisements. His "station" hosted several artists. The gramophone had just incorporated the electric signal, and since records were rare and Greek record collections even rarer, the musical program consisted of live performances by singers and musicians, in the studio. The most important employees of Tsigiridis in the 1930s were M. Ghrosomanidis, Nikos Karmiris, A. Stratidis, Traianou, K. Tsantsanoglou and others. At the outbreak of World War II, Tsigiridis used his radio station to interfere with broadcasts from the Italian radio station of Bari, which carried out propaganda broadcasts to Greece. It was also Tsigiridis' station that broadcast the news of the Italian invasion to Thessaloniki, since the Athens radio signal could not reach Northern Greece. German occupation With the beginning of the German occupation, the transmitter was confiscated and Tsigiridis was forced to technically support German-supervised transmissions. Since he was the only one able to operate the equipment, he kept causing trouble to the German transmissions by regularly suspending them for "essential repairs", as he claimed. The Germans imprisoned him, believing they would be able to operate the transmitter by themselves, but it soon proved to be impossible. So they released Tsigiridis the following day in order to operate the station again. Soon they hired a German mechanic to work with Tsigiridis, so as to be instructed on how to operate the transmitter, while they wrote down every move of Tsigiridis. Tsigiridis, being suspicious of the