The year 1939 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting. Events 1 April – The rumor that Hitler is dead sweeps the United States, as millions of CBS radio listeners hear the Führer cut off in mid-speech during a shortwave relay of his address at the dedication of the German battleship Tirpitz in Wilhelmshaven. 17 June – A trans-Atlantic radio broadcast features coloratura soprano Ewa Bandrowska-Turska singing four songs by Karol Szymanowski from Wawel Castle in Krakow, Poland, for a United States audience on WENR. 15 July – Inauguration of DZRH, one of the oldest radio stations in the Philippines. 29 July – In France, with war on the horizon, a package of decrees tightens the state's control of public radio and obliges all private stations to broadcast, unedited, the government's Radio-Journal in place of their own news programmes. 7 August – Official test transmissions begin from Radio Andorra. The station is ceremonially inaugurated two days later by the French Minister of Public Works, Anatole de Monzie. September – The French government's radio for schools initiative ends until 1946. 1 September – At 18.55 local time BBC engineers receive the order to begin closing down all UK transmitters in preparation for wartime broadcasting: this marks the end of the National and Regional Programmes of the BBC. At 20.15 local time the BBC's Home Service begins transmission: this will be the corporation's only domestic radio channel for the first four months of World War II. 3 September Fireside chat by the President of the United States: On the European War. Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, speaking from 10 Downing Street, announces on the BBC at 11.15 local time (10.15 GMT) that "this country is at war with Germany". 19 September – Popular British radio comedy show It's That Man Again with Tommy Handley is first broadcast on the BBC Home service, following trial broadcasts from 12 July. Known as "ITMA", and also featuring Jack Train and many others, it runs for ten years; the performers have initially been evacuated to Bristol. 17 November – Radio station ZQI begins broadcasting in Jamaica, initially for an hour a week. 11 December – Havana, Cuba's CMQ (from 1959, state-owned Radio Rebelde) becomes the first affiliate for the NBC Red Network based outside of the United States and Canada. 12 December – James M. Cox gains control of WSB and