It started consistently broadcasting in December 1947 under the name Telem-Shamir-Boaz, and was renamed to Kol HaHagana ("Voice of the Haganah") in March 1948.

[1] The first Kol Yisrael transmission was a live broadcast from Tel Aviv of David Ben-Gurion reading of the declaration of independence.

Kol Yisrael staff was made up of both former PBS personnel and former staffers at the Haganah underground radio stations.

[5] Between 1960 and 1963, the service also broadcast daily programs in English, French and Swahili for African audiences and began distributing tapes for rebroadcasting across the continent.

[9] In 1965, the Israel Broadcasting Authority, an independent public entity, was created and took over responsibility for Kol Yisrael from the Prime Minister's Office.

[citation needed] A previous station named Kol Yisrael had briefly been operated by the Haganah in 1940 on the 42-meter band.

Current Kol Yisrael channels include: There are also educational stations broadcasting via low-power transmitters from colleges and universities across Israel under the collective banner of Tachana Chinuchit.