Lithuanian national radio (LRT) is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, remembering the people who helped build and run the institution. One of them was Petras Babickas, the country's first radio announcer, who became known as the “Radijo Dėde” – radio uncle.
Aušra Jonušytė, a historian and museum curator at the Kupiškis Museum, describes him as a man of many talents. During his lifetime, he published 16 books, travelled extensively around Lithuania by bicycle, collected folklore and museum artefacts, took photographs and organised exhibitions.
"In 1932, his personal exhibition of artistic photography in Kaunas attracted considerable interest – all 300 photographs were sold. But perhaps his greatest recognition came in 1937 at the World Exposition in Paris, where his photographs were awarded a gold medal," she says.
Babickas became a Lithuanian Radio announcer unexpectedly in 1926. At the time, the national radio service and its transmitters were part of the defence system, and the head of the radio service, Colonel Alfonsas Jurskis, did not have a dedicated announcer position.
According to accounts from the time, the decisive moment came by chance. The colonel summoned a soldier from the Kupiškis region and instructed him to read news bulletins from the Lithuanian news agency ELTA. The soldier read them in a strong local dialect.
Babickas, who was then working as a teacher in Jurbarkas, heard the broadcast and decided to travel to Kaunas himself.
"He went to see Colonel Jurskis and asked why the news was being read so poorly. The colonel replied: 'If you can do it better, please read it yourself. I don't have any separate positions available,'" archival sources record.
Soon afterwards, Babickas became a presenter at the radio service and Lithuania's first radio announcer.
Never returned to Lithuania
As the Second World War drew to a close, Babickas left Lithuania for Germany and later moved to Italy. While living there, he wrote for the press and pursued his interest in the arts.
In 1946, he emigrated to Brazil, where he worked as a cultural attache and hoped to establish a Lithuanian museum. He said he would return to Lithuania only when the country's borders were guarded by Lithuanian soldiers and customs officers.
Until his death, he never took the citizenship of any other country.
Babickas died in Rio de Janeiro in 1991. His remains were returned to Lithuania in 2006.
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