It was in 1959 when the first regular TV show was broadcast in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Interest in such kinds of shows rapidly increased but the specific character
of signal reception prevented their broadcasting throughout the country.
Soon a decision was made to develop a net of 12 broadcasting stations:
the retransmitting station on mount Botev started functioning in the end
of 1965; another one located in Sunny Beach started operating in November,
1967, etc. The Varna retransmitting station, built on the Franga plateau
to the north of the city, was also a part of that net. 
The famous Black Seaside resorts were not far away from Varna - an advantage
taken into consideration for the building of the Varna retransmitting station.
Its building was supposed to finish in 1961 and it was expected to begin
functioning the following year. Its actual operation, however, started
in September 1966. Preliminary testing activities stated that the signal
was received in the nearby towns of Dobrich, Provadiya and Kavarna. All
this cleared the way for the appearance of a TV set production industry
in Bulgaria and meanwhile about 20 TV sets had already been brought to
Varna.
Varna TV retransmitting station was built on the Franga plateau to the
north of the cityat an elevation of 301 m. The exact position of its antenna
was chosen on the very edge of the plateau slope descending to the city.
Thus the transmitter could emit a very strong signal to the whole of the
city, as well as to its southern regions.The TV tower complex consists
of a 6-floor building and a metal tower, on top of which the transmitting
antennae are fixed. A transmitting appliance is installed in the building
and a radio-relay hall can be found on its last floor. Its technical equipment
was imported from the German companies "Siemens" and "Rohde & Schwarz".
The tower reaches 52 m in height and its transmitting antennae consisted
at first of 6 four-dipole whole-wave panels located on two floors. The
image capacity of the transmitter is 600 W, and its sound capacity is 150
W. The horizontal transmitting diagram has three maximums - to the south,
west and north. The TV programme for the region of Varna is received on
9th channel. After 1970 a colour signal transmitter was also installed. 
In 1976 a second antenna was built which transmitted the programmes of
Radio Varna, Horizon, and Christo Botev. Later on the special services
installed an antenna in the complex region to jam the "enemy's" radio stations,
but it is no longer used. Nowadays the Tower is used not only as a TV retransmitting
station, but also as a carrier of international and inter-city telephone
traffic.
In December 1986 a second TV transmitter was tested. It was built in
Lazur (Dzhanavara) region, on the southern side of Varna Lake. At first
it transmitted a Soviet TV programme. Nowadays it transmits TV Varna programme
and doubles Channel 1 and BTV.
Special thanks to Esin Halid for the translation of this page.