Radio Sindex, The First Radio Station in Indochina Was Established in Haiphong

And no, the first radio station in Indochina was not established in Saigon—or even in Hanoi. It was in Haiphong (Hải Phòng), a port located in the north of present-day Vietnam, where a private company set up a radio station in this French colony in 1928.

Sindex—the short name for the Industrial Export Company in the Far East—supplied Indochina with many manufactured goods, notably radio receivers through its subsidiary Radio-Indochine. But to sell them, the colonists needed a station to listen to. Sindex therefore acquired a transmitter built by the Kraemer establishments in Asnières and installed it in Haiphong, where it had established its first Indochinese agency.

After several tests, Radio Sindex was inaugurated on Friday, February 10, 1928, at 8:30 p.m. It broadcast on 87 meters with a power of 2 kW from 68 Avenue Paul-Bert (today Trần Quang Khải).

The program began with an emphatic address by the representative of the Governor-General, his chief of staff Mr. Trillat. Charles Olivier, Secretary-General of Sindex, then took the floor. This first broadcast ended with La Marseillaise, performed by Lucienne Dufrenne.

The Sindex station broadcast three times a day—at 11 a.m., 6 p.m., and 8:30 p.m.—featuring news, exchange rates, commercial and stock market reports, and concerts of European, Annamite, and Chinese music. Lucienne Dufrenne was in charge of artistic direction, Maurice Leplat conducted the orchestra, and Tang Truong Trung led the Annamite ensemble.

The station’s orchestra.

The radio station changed wavelength several times to improve reception and increased its power to 3.5 kW. In September 1928, it finally settled on 320 meters (937 kHz).

The Sindex station becomes Radio-Haiphong

On November 25, 1928, the station changed its name to Radio Haiphong. However, reception remained unsatisfactory (low power, interference, unsuitable wavelength) and was limited mainly to the Haiphong region. This was insufficient to make the station profitable.

The Radio Haiphong transmitter.

Moreover, Sindex was not in good financial condition (it declared bankruptcy in 1931). In the summer of 1929, the station—also known as Radio-Indochine, Sindex’s subsidiary—was no longer on the air. A new private project was then launched in Saigon, which purchased the Sindex transmitter.