Translated from Spanish:
THE DEBACLE OF THE NATIONAL RADIO NETWORK
Since the beginning of 2024, the network of RADIO NACIONAL ARGENTINA (RNA) stations has been going through a rather particular situation, taking into account the budget cuts ordered by the current National Government, especially those affecting its regular programming. RNA is a network of radio stations that depends on ‘Radio y Televisión Argentina S.E.’, the entity that administers the state-owned media, and which in turn is under the orbit of the Secretariat of Media and Public Communication. After the new national authorities took office, one of the first measures taken against the public media was to get rid of each of the directors of Radio Nacional’s branches in the interior of the country. To this end, telegrams of dismissal were sent to them, without naming their replacements, based on the fact that the position of ‘Director of National Broadcasting’ was abolished, with the result that, at present, none of the 49 provincial stations of Radio Nacional has a director in office.
In March of this year, the businessman Héctor Enrique Cavallero was appointed Executive Director of RNA. By a resolution dated 05/07/2024, he ordered the replacement of local programming in prime time on the 49 stations of the Radio Nacional network throughout the country with slots produced by LRA1 Radio Nacional Buenos Aires (AM 870 KHz). The measure came into effect at midday on Monday 8 July. Subsequently, it was also stipulated that, as of Wednesday 9 October, all FM stations of these same stations should rebroadcast in full the LRA1 signal from the Federal Capital. In this way, only the AM stations operated by these subsidiaries can now broadcast their own production and purely local and regional programmes, only at ‘non-core’ times. These decisions have been harshly criticised by various political, social and trade union sectors, who have stated that this has a significant and negative impact on federalism, the right to information and freedom of expression, restricting the work of those who work in these media, and ultimately harming the audience throughout the national territory.
We hope that this policy of ‘restructuring’ of Public Radio will stop attacking our culture and national identity, and should instead be directed towards strengthening pluralistic and federal communication. From this publication we encourage the continuity of the Public Media, in view of the important work they carry out for our community.
Argentina en AM y FM Facebook group (2024-11-01)