Ethnic and linguistic discrimination and economic neglect by the politically-dominant West Pakistan led to the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. On March 7, 1971, Bangobandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gave a speech at the Racecourse Ground and urged "his people" to turn every house into a fort of resistance. On 25 March 1971, the Operation Searchlight was crackdown by the brutal Pakistani invaders including a virtual massacre of the intelligentsia of Bangladesh. Bangobandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in his declaration of independence called upon the people to resist the occupation forces through a message in the first hour on 26 March 1971. On 26 March 1971, Bangladesh Betar was raised as "SWADHIN BANGLA BIPLOBI BETAR KENDRA" with the voice of impedance. With that broadcast the entire nation got back its confidence, courage of conviction and strong optimism. The broadcast was done from a 10 KW transmitter in Kalurghat Radio Station, Chittagong. During the whole period of Liberation War, Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra successfully carried out its intellectual war like an organized second front of the war of liberation and aired its patriotic songs which greatly inspired the freedom fighters and freedom seeking people.

Since then, Bangladesh Betar, the national radio network has been discharging the honorous responsibility of disseminating information, education, entertainment with utmost commitment, honesty and objectivity. It functions to support nation building efforts of the government upholding social values and the country’s rich historical and cultural heritage. Betar has been playing a pivotal role towards developing a knowledge based information society taking advantage of its unique and distinctive capacity as the cheapest and most versatile medium to reach to the grass root level. At present, Betar with the help of 15 medium wave, 2 short wave and 13 FM transmitters has the strongest logistic network reaching across the breadth and length of the national boundary and beyond. Apart from the central News Desk, spewing out hourly bulletins incorporating latest national and international events, Betar as a true public service broadcasting medium has been propagating programmes and news from its 71 studios round the clock reflecting national requirements through 12 stations and 6 units namely External Service, Transcription Service, Commercial Service, Population -Health & Nutrition Cell, Traffic Channel and Farm Broadcasting.