Nine Decades of the Radio Industry in Brazil

Abstract

Seen as a whole, Brazilian radio allows for the identification of six distinct kinds of use: commercial, educational, cultural, communitarian, religious, and political. Subsequent to the educational and cultural broadcasting stations of the 1920s, commercial radios are established as the standard, as from the 1930s. During the trajectory of 9 decades of this means of communication in the country, Getúlio Vargas emerges as the politician who most influenced the national broadcasting industry, with laws and decrees that still apply today and are at the base of technological, legal, and content evolution.

Notes

This article is the result of research done since the 1980s about the radio industry in Brazil, which has resulted in three books published on the history, the political links, and the evolution of the laws and the technology of the medium.

¹Understanding the rule of Vargas would require an entire separate article. He served alternately as popularly elected President and Dictator for over 20 years.

²The military dictatorship (1964 to 1979 or 1980, depending on how one dates it), is distinct from the Vargas dictatorship (1937–1945).

³Portuguese regime de exeção refers to a government that suspends even the most basic of human rights, such as right to life and health, often using torture, etc. (http://br.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090302072739AA5GRAc).

⁴“Tupi” is a reference to the Tupi people (or Tupinambá), the primary family of indigenous tribes in Brazil prior to the arrival of European settlers. Tupi-Guarani continues to be one of the two official languages of Paraguay.

⁵Bandeirantes derives its name from the Portuguese scouts in early Brazilian history (16th–18th centuries) who forged into the vast back territories of Brazil. In more positive views of history, they planted the Brazilian flag (bandeira), enlarging Brazilian territory, as opposed to Spanish-speaking and other settlers. More negatively, their primary goal may have been to find slaves and resources in indigenous lands.

⁶Chaper V of the Brazilian Constitution deals with the creation and rights of political parties.

⁷Green and yellow are the national colors of Brazil. Rede is the Portuguese word for network (lit., “net”).

⁸Jovem Pan: Jovem means “youth” or “young person,” and “pan” is from Greek “all,” as in pan-American.