On 25 May 2012, HRT's archive of the television and radio program and its collection of musical production was given the status of Croatian cultural heritage.

On the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Zagreb Radio Station, on 15 May 1956, the first television programme was broadcast from the transmitter built at Sljeme.

[5] The program was aired by Radio Cologne, Frankfurt, Free Berlin, Zurich, Vienna, Paris, Liege, Luxembourg, Hilversum and Stockholm while the second program of the German public television aired Zagreb made "Good Morning Yugoslavia" show.

[5] In May 1990, following Franjo Tuđman's election victory, he and his ruling Croatian Democratic Union party began a takeover of radio and television stations.

The HDZ-majority Croatian Parliament soon appointed party loyalists to top managerial and editorial positions on the broadcaster.

[7] The film director Antun Vrdoljak, a Tuđman appointee who was tasked with overseeing the changes, pledged to make HRT into the "cathedral of the Croatian spirit".

Following Tuđman's death and the 2000 election in Croatia which brought Stjepan Mesić to power, attempts at reforming HRT into a more open media were made.

[8] In 2014, more than 85%[1] of HRT's revenue came from broadcast user fees with each household in Croatia required to pay 79 HRK (~€10) per month for a single television set, with the remainder being made up from limited advertising.

The channel was later shut down with its frequency de-nationalized and put up for lease in a public tender in 2004 and it has been used by RTL Televizija ever since.

The mediumwave transmitter at Zadar was at one time one of the most powerful in Europe and at nighttime could be heard throughout most of the continent with JRT (Yugoslav) and later HR (Croatian) programming from Zagreb and Pula.

However it was badly damaged during the Serbian shelling of the city in the early 1990s, and has operated on somewhat reduced power since on 1134 kHz.