In this paper we improve the deterministic complexity of two fundamental communication primitives in the classical model of ad-hoc radio networks with unknown topology: broadcasting and wake-up. We consider an unknown radio network, in which all nodes have no prior knowledge about network topology, and know only the size of the network $n$, the maximum in-degree of any node $Δ$, and the eccentricity of the network $D$. For such networks, we first give an algorithm for wake-up, based on the existence of small universal synchronizers. This algorithm runs in $O(\frac{\min\{n, D Δ\} \log n \log Δ}{\log\log Δ})$ time, the fastest known in both directed and undirected networks, improving over the previous best $O(n \log^2n)$-time result across all ranges of parameters, but particularly when maximum in-degree is small. Next, we introduce a new combinatorial framework of block synchronizers and prove the existence of such objects of low size. Using this framework, we design a new deterministic algorithm for the fundamental problem of broadcasting, running in $O(n \log D \log\log\frac{D Δ}{n})$ time. This is the fastest known algorithm for the problem in directed networks, improving upon the $O(n \log n \log \log n)$-time algorithm of De Marco (2010) and the $O(n \log^2 D)$-time algorithm due to Czumaj and Rytter (2003). It is also the first to come within a log-logarithmic factor of the $Ω(n \log D)$ lower bound due to Clementi et al.\ (2003). Our results also have direct implications on the fastest \emph{deterministic leader election} and \emph{clock synchronization} algorithms in both directed and undirected radio networks, tasks which are commonly used as building blocks for more complex procedures.