Radio History

Spain – Ceuta

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Google-translated from French:

1934-2024, 90 years of Radio Ceuta in the Spanish exclave on the coast of Morocco. This May 9 is the anniversary of the first broadcast of the oldest radio station in Ceuta. The EAJ-46 station was owned by the company “Mas, Bernaola y Compañía” and then sold with Radio Melilla to “Torres Quevedo” in 1954.
Torres Quevedo wanted to develop radio in North Africa with Radio Ceuta, Radio Melilla and Radio Dersa in Tangier. Thanks to its 3 stations, it covered the entire Moroccan coast and part of the Algerian coast. The independence of Morocco in 1956 put an end to this vast project in 1963: Radio Dersa stopped its broadcasts and “Torres Quevedo” sold its two other stations.
In difficulty in the 1960s, it was part of the network of the Spanish Broadcasting Company, SER. It was the contribution of programs from Cadena SER which made it possible to relaunch the radio.
At the beginning, Radio Ceuta broadcast on 1409 KHz medium wave with 200 W. Its transmitter was located at the top of Mount Hacho. The studio was in a building, now defunct, on Calle Salud Tejero. They then moved to 32 Poblado Marinero.
If it was the first radio station to broadcast from Ceuta, today it shares the airwaves with RNE, four private stations: Onda Cero, Radio Solidaria, Onda Color, Radiolé and two religious stations: Adventiste and Maria. All broadcast on FM, except Radiolé, which took over the place of Radio Ceuta on medium waves 1584 kHz, it must be said that both belong to the same owner.

Radio Magazine FB group (2024-05-09)

Spain

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Google-translated from French:

100 years of radio, first! “. This May 12, we celebrate the centenary of the first broadcast of regular radio programs in Spain. It is a highly contested anniversary, because on that date, Radio Iberica was broadcasting without a license.
Radio Iberica SA was founded by two companies. As early as 1922, one of these two companies was already marketing “wireless telegraph receivers for receiving concerts and radiotelegraph and radiotelephone auditions” broadcast from abroad.
Isolated tests were carried out in 1923 and early 1924. It was tempting for Radio Iberica to be the first radio station on the airwaves. To the point of putting the transmitter into service as soon as it was announced that a law would authorize it. A quick start without waiting for the publication of the royal decree and without even submitting the license request!
Illegal broadcasts given that it was only on June 14, 1924 that the royal decree was published. A regulator who fixed the power, prices, broadcast periods and content.
The first broadcasts were produced in the Radio Iberica studios located at Paseo del Rey n° 18, de Más Madrid and broadcast on 392 meters. The broadcasts were scheduled between seven in the afternoon and midnight.
It was therefore only from June that future private radio stations were able to apply for a broadcast license. The first stations registered were EAJ-1 Radio Barcelona, EAJ-2 Radio España, EAJ-4 Radio Castilla, etc. Radio Iberica, our illustrious precursor, obtained the callsign EAJ-6. Then in 1925 there was EAJ-7 Radio Union. Surprisingly, the Radiocommunications Technical and Inspection Council demanded the alternation of nighttime schedules between Radio Unión and Radio Iberica! In 1927, the two stations joined forces with others to begin the creation of a first network.
See you on November 14, to CELEBRATE 100 years of radio in Spain, with SER and legal radio EAJ-1 Radio Barcelona.
To avoid offending anyone and to make everyone agree, we will say that Radio Iberica was the first in Spain and Radio Barcelona was the first in Catalonia! This should save me from neighborhood wars, given that I live near Waterloo in Belgium, the land of exile of Carles Puigdemont!

Michel Fremy, Radio Magazine FB group (2024-05-12)

Mexico

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Radio Educacion‘s Centennial in 2024.
To celebrate its century of broadcasting, in Nov 2023, Radio Educacion in Mexico began a new feature, Radio Centenaria, to present programs emblematic of its history. Right now it is only on its AM channel, 1060 kHz, and on-line Monday-Friday at 15-19 hours local time. Each month covers a different decade (February was the 1940s). All of this is of course en Espanol and fascinating. Their Radio Centenaria special site is here and includes the program schedule for the month:
https://sites.google.com/view/agendare/radio-centenaria?authuser=0

In June there will be an Encuentro Diexista of more direct interest to shortwave listeners, and between now and then this column will carry more details about that event and the history of the station. Radio Educacion’s shortwave frequency is 6185 kHz. That service began in 1977, which is why the mediumwave centenary carries more heft on AM radio. Compared to its AM cousins the program schedule is more limited (with a lot of good music filler).

Classical music fans should take special note of Sunday’s Concierto O.S.N. which takes place Sundays from 1815 to 2015 local time (currently 0015-0215 UTC). More about the centennial and its programs (especially any shortwave tie-ins) in the coming months.

(Bill Tilford-IN-USA; private SW Program Spotlight; via NASWA Journal #3 – page #9; of March 8, 2024)
BC-DX items 8 March via WOR iog (2024-03-13)

Brazil

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Have short waves become a necessary step to obtain an FM frequency? For several weeks “Rádio Clube de Ribeirão Preto” in Sao Polo has been broadcasting on 15415 kHz.
It is one of the 7 radio stations and a TV channel operated by “Sistema Clube de Comunicação” in Ribeirão Preto and São Carlos. Telecommunications regulations in Brazil offer “AM” stations (including medium wave) to exchange their AM license for an FM frequency.
We seemed to have forgotten that the short wave was also amplitude modulated, therefore AM! This seems to be the logic applied by the country’s radio communications officials.
Is it to celebrate the 100th anniversary of “Rádio Clube de Ribeirão Preto” or to benefit from the generosity of the law that Sistema Clube de Comunicação is putting its old shortwave transmitter back into service to broadcast a program “Rádio Clube de Ribeirão Preto”
The company owned station PRA-7, the first radio station inside Brazil, which was founded on December 23, 1924. There were at that time 7 stations in Soa Paulo but none outside of Soa Paulo. the old capital. PRA-7 “Radio Club de Ribeirão Preto” was the only one in Ribeiro Preto from 1924 to 1953 before the arrival of Radio 79.
Around 1935, the station operated on a new frequency of 670 kHz, or 447 meters, with 1000 watts. The “Radio Precision and Scientific Research Laboratory” was created, obtaining federal authorization to carry out scientific experiments in broadcasting and research on video and audio transmission, i.e. television. The authorization therefore includes the authorization for the installation of a shortwave transmitter station, under the code “PRH-7”
On May 10, 1938, PRH-7 became the first Brazilian shortwave station and on January 28, 1956, the “Radio Palace” was inaugurated, the first building in Brazil built exclusively to house a radio station. A radio house where a floor had already been built for a future television!
It was in 1979 that Club became Sistema Clube de Comunicação, the company’s headquarters is located at Av. Nove de Julho, 606 Higien-polis – RIBEIRAO BLTO.
It should be noted that it is already this frequency of 15415 kHz that the station used in the 1950s.
Thanks to the reactivation of its shortwave transmitter, the station can become a priority to obtain an additional FM frequency given that Club AM has already benefited from the migration: it began broadcasting in February 2018 on 96.7 FM Club 1 until in December 2022 before having the license to migrate Club AM to 83.1 MHz.

Michel Fremy‘s Facebook Page Radio Magazine (2024-03-03)

Cuba

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Google translated from French:

February 24, the 66th anniversary of “Radio Rebelde, the broadcaster of the Cuban Revolution”. “Aqui Radio Rebelde La Voz de la Sierra Maestra, it is with these words that the radio of Ernesto Guevara known as Ché became known. The first transmission, which lasted 20 minutes, took place on February 24, 1958, at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, followed by another at 9 o’clock. It began with the first notes of the Invading Anthem, Captain Luis Orlando Rodríguez, Station Director, then read an editorial on the founding of the station. “Radio Rebelde was created to contribute to the necessary and useful orientation of the people in this decisive hour of the country, to make known the true intention of this struggle and to encourage and practice virtue wherever it is found, and to come together and love and live in passion for the truth as Martí said. “
In 1957, a few months after the landing of the Granma, Che Guevara realized how necessary and useful it was to have a radio which served to coordinate combat actions between the rebel troops and to break the silence, imposed by the dictatorship, on the progress of the war in the mountains and transmit directives and slogans for the development of the global struggle against tyranny.
It was Che himself who ordered the transfer of the equipment to the island and its installation on the Sierra Maestra in the province of Granma.
The radio was installed in a small house located in Alto de Conrado, near Che’s camp in La Mesa, Sierra Maestra. The transmitter, which was placed on the table, behind the microphone, was of the American brand, it was a Collins, model 32-V-2. It had a power of 120 to 150w and broadcast on short waves in the 20 meter band.
To escape central power, failing to be able to install a powerful transmitter, the guerrillas quickly equipped each rebel column with a small radio station, thus forming the Freedom Channel. At the end of the war, 32 stations from the guerrilla columns were connected to Radio Rebelde. Rebel who played an important and unifying role in the Cuban revolution.
On December 31, 1958, by order of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, the station was dismantled from Che’s camp in La Mesa, Sierra Maestra and reinstalled in Palma Soriano. On January 1, 1959, it broadcast Fidel Castro’s speech to the people of Cuba live on Radio Rebelde.
It was in January 1959 that the clandestine radio station became the national transmitter of the new republic.
65 years later, Radio Rebelde broadcasts 24 hours a day a varied program of national and international music, news and sports programs in AM, FM and shortwave.
With the help of the Soviets, the station set up a national network and after the end of the USSR, it was China that helped Radiocuba – Señal Radio y TV
Another memory of the first broadcast still remains on the airwaves: the callsign of Radio Rebelde: the Invading Anthem is still the station sign used by Radio Habana Cuba Francés.!

Michel Fremy Facebook Page Radio Magazine (2024-02-24)

United Kingdom

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It was on 5th February 1924, at 9.30pm, that the iconic BBC ‘pips’ were broadcast for the first time. Serving as a time signal for 100 years, the six distinctive pips are still broadcast on flagship BBC stations
BBC Radio 4 (formerly BBC Home Service) and BBC World Service at the top of each hour to this day. However, the pips remain an accurate time signal only on analogue broadcasts such as FM and longwave because of the considerable – and variable – delay on digital signals such as DAB radio and online streaming.

Live broadcasting is an important part of the BBC’s output, with around 50% of programmes on Radio 4 being transmitted live rather than pre-recorded. The BBC prides itself in providing up-to-date news
coverage throughout the day across its radio networks, and in-depth reporting from sporting events such as Wimbledon tennis and Test Match cricket. It also produces world-class coverage of national events such as the King’s Coronation in 2023.

However, not all listeners will be aware that the reports they are hearing on supposedly ‘live’ BBC radio may not be live at all. Significant moments – from the scoring of a goal to the crowning of the King – will only be relayed to listeners on digital radio or online via BBC Sounds between 5 and 30 seconds after they actually occur. This is because of the time required to encode digital signals ready for transmission, and to decode them in digital radio receivers. BBC Sounds has an especially long lag; try listening ‘live’ to Sounds and to FM radio at the same time, and this becomes obvious.

In fact, the only way to get a truly immersive experience via television or radio – to witness events at the same time as people who are actually there – is to listen on FM, mediumwave or longwave radio. These analogue services do not require encoding, and are transmitted almost instantaneously. Thus, whilst listeners to Radio 5 Live on BBC Sounds will find out who wins Wimbledon around 30 seconds after the final match is over, only those tuned to 909 or 693 kHz MW will hear the result as it happens. The same thing applies to breaking news on Radio 4, which listeners can only hear genuinely live on FM or longwave.

To mark the anniversary of the pips, the BBC has commissioned a special programme, Do We Still Need the Pips?, to be broadcast at 9pm today, Monday 5th February, across Radio 4’s frequencies. Arguably, the time signal is meaningless on digital radio and online. To set your watch by it using those platforms would potentially put your timekeeping astray sufficiently to miss a train.

But the pips have been broadcast, faithfully and accurately, on longwave for nearly a century, since the BBC’s first longwave broadcasts in July 1924. Longwave incurs no delay and transmits to the entire country and beyond at the speed of light – it is genuinely live. Indeed, longwave is still used by thousands of people with ‘Economy 7’ heaters to control their central heating, so accurate and dependable is the signal nationwide. Longwave radio must be retained, not only for its huge historical importance, but also to continue to bring truly up-to-the-minute information to the nation, a critical piece of infrastructure in these uncertain times.

BBC Radio 4 Longwave really is a signal you can set your watch to.
Please help us ensure that this vital service is retained for generations to come, and sign our petition to keep longwave today.

You can read more about this on the Keep Longwave website here:
https://keeplongwave.co.uk/2024/02/05/celebrating-100-years-of-the-pips/

Dr Tobias Thornes, Campaign to Keep Longwave via Mike Terry in Longwaveradiolistening.iog (2024-02-05)

Germany

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Re.: https://mediumwave.info/2024/01/25/germany-27/

Information missing from the Radio Magazine article: 
“The trading pawn in the hands of the U. S. had been the megawatt long wave transmitter located in Munich. The record shows that when the Soviets stopped jamming the VOA Russian programs in June of 1963, the VOA megawatt transmitter in Munich shut down very soon thereafter. In August 1968, when the Soviets resumed jamming of the VOA. […] the megawatt in Munich returned to the air. Again, in September of 1973 Soviet jamming against the VOA stopped and a month later the megawatt transmitter on 173 kHz went off the air. This off again-on again relation was rooted in the 1948 European Broadcasting Conference at Copenhagen where medium wave and long wave frequencies were assigned to the participating countries within Europe. Under the plan, 173 kHz was assigned to the USSR. […] The presence of the VOA megawatt transmitter in Munich appearing on the same frequency caused an acerbic reaction – the Soviets took the position that their 500 kW signal on 173 kHz from Moscow was being jammed”. (W.Edwards. Longwave Duel)

“The Senate Foreign Relations Committee had a good laugh about what the State Department thought it was doing with the Munich transmitter in the hearings on the future of RFE and RL in May 1971. It broadcast on the same frequency as Radio Moscow but Martin Hillenbrand, assistant secretary for the European bureau of the State Department denied that the VOA was jamming in a technical sense. “They were merely broadcasting a perfectly intelligible programme on the same wavelength.” he said. The frequency, 173, had been allocated to Radio Moscow by the 1948 Copenhagen agreement but the State Department argued that because Germany was not a party to the Convention it was in order for the VOA to use it.” (War of the Black Heavens, Broadcasting in the Cold War, Michael Nelson)

Mike Barraclough (2024-01-26)