Historical Constitution of Public Radio Stations in Brazil

Abstract

Educational, state, cultural, and university radio stations have already developed over more than 70 years of history in Brazilian radio broadcasting. Currently, there are hundreds of stations transmitting across the country, from the North to the South. Some of them—that in the 1990s included 100 broadcasting stations and among these, the oldest and nationally referenced—up to this decade operated and were referenced as a component of the educational radio system. Mainly from this period on, most of these stations began to call themselves public. And, especially due to their programming, they have been attempting to define themselves within the profile of public radio stations. The purpose of this article is to uncover the historical construction of this group of radio broadcasting stations, by means of a timeframe, from the advent of the non-commercial segment in the 1930s until today. It reconstructs referential models and presents main threads and features of the programming of these stations throughout these seven decades. In this way, it will also evince how Brazil is constructing its model of public radio.

Notes

¹The presidential government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003–2010). Lula was a popular progressive President of Brazil, having risen from the lower Brazilian social classes and a member of the socialist Workers Party (PT). He is known worldwide for his various social and media reforms in Brazil.

²President of EBC/TV Brasil, Tereza Cruvinel (2008), says that on instituting the company, the government attempted to attend to the Constitution, beginning the public system. She cites as participants of the radio segment system, the state owned stations: Nacional AM and FM, from Brasília, Nacional Amazônia, that operates in Shortwave, Nacional AM, from Rio de Janeiro, and MEC AM and FM, from Rio de Janeiro. She defends the public nature of these stations because they belong to a company that is financed by the State, but are not subordinate to the government. That is, they areindependent in relation to the market (for not having commercial publicity) and to the State (for their publishing and programming autonomy).

³Rádio MEC—now a station with the EBC, continues to have a thriving and broad repertoire of AM and FM programming: http://radiomec.com.br/. The website also features continued programming by Rádio Nacional of Rio de Janeiro. Rádio MEC still has a program called the “Premio Roquette-Pinto” (Roquette-Pinto Prize).

⁴Project Minerva was a federal government program established in 1970, aimed at adult education. The military regime required all broadcasting agencies to include some Minerva programming (http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projeto_Minerva).

⁵According to the chronological history of Radio MEC from Rio de Janeiro, available on its site (Rádio MEC, 2007), the first activities of SINRED were informal. They began in 1982, with the co-production of two educational and cultural series: “Coisas da Província” [Things of the Provence] and “Meu Brasil Brasileiro” [My Brazilian Brazil]. The objective of SINRED was to produce and transmit, on national networks, programs with cultural manifestations from each region in Brazil, promoting the exchange of information. But it was only in 1983 that SINRED was formally and officially instituted, by means of the MEC Administrative Rule 344. Also according to the Rádio MEC site, at the beginning of the official System, two co-produced series were featured: “Perfis Brasileiros” [Brazilian Profiles] and “Esses Moços” [Those Boys]. SINRED operated until 1988. In this year it was disabled and in 1994, there was an attempt to reactivate it, even by means of the publication of a new ministry administrative rule, but without success.

⁶Radiobras is another name for the EBC—the Empresa Brasileira de Comunicação. This is a “public company” or economic organization created by the Federal government to sistemetize radiodiffusion in a more centralized fashion (http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiobr%C3%A1s) or Radiobras (2011). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1359686/Radiobras

⁷MPB—Música Popular Brasileira (popular Brazilian music) is a name used to refer either to most modern Brazilian music (pop, rock, etc.) after bossa nova, or to a very specific era of popular music in the 1960s and 1970s that was infused with a (frequently subtle) social engagement agenda.

⁸It is this failure of radio stations aimed at promoting public interests to reach the whole public that seems to be behind the author's continued bracketing of public radio stations as “so-called” public radio.

⁹Specifically, this research was based on personal interviews with many station and network leaders, including the following:

• Agostinho Gosson–a journalist and broadcaster for 22 years of Rádio Universidade 107.9, from the Fundação Cearense de Pesquisa e Cultura, diretor of the station from 1996 to 2006. Interviewed in March 2007.

• Adalberto Mello–Coordinator of journalism of the Rádio Universitária da Universidade Federal do Maranhão. Interviewed in November 2007 and November 2009.

• Eduardo Weber–Coordinator of production at Rádio Cultura Brasil AM e FM in São Paulo. Interviewed in April, August and Novermber 2008.

• Élida Murta–Advisor of the presidency of Rádio Inconfidência AM, FM and OC from Minas Gerais. Interviewed in September 2008.

• Fernando Paulino–auditor of the radio stations of EBC. Interviewed in December 2009.

• Getúlio Neuremberg–supervisor of journalism of Rádio Inconfidência AM, FM and OC from Minas Gerais. Interviewed in September 2008.

• Gioconda Bordon–General Coordinator of the Núcleo de Rádio da Fundação Padre Anchieta, maintainer of Rádio Cultura AM e FM from São Paulo. Interviewed in November 2008.

• Ivete Cardoso do Carmo Roldão–director of Educativa FM from Campinas, São Paulo, from October 2001 to December 2004. Interviewed in 2009.

• Irineu Guerrini– director of Rádio Cultura of São Paulo from August 1983 to July 1986. Interviewed in December 2009.

• José Roberto Garcez–president of the Fundação Cultural Piratini from 1999 to 2002, director of journalism of Radiobrás from 2003 to 2008 and currently director of services at EBC. Interviewed in 2001, 2002, 2007, 2009 and 2010.

• Leovigilda Bezerra–programming coordinator of Rádio Universidade 107.9, da Fundação Cearense de Pesquisa e Cultura. Interviewed in March 2007.

• Liana Milanez (Baiana)–current executive manager of Rádio MEC RJ, coordinated the implantation Project at FM Cultura in Porto Alegre and was the first director from 1989. Interviewed in 2007 and 2009.

• Liara Avelar–employee at Rádio MEC do Rio de Janeiro since 1983. Has served as apprentice, reporter, editor, broadcaster, Head of Journalism, Supervisor of Production and Programming, and Assessor to the Executive Manager at both stations of MEC RJ. Currently, she occupies the position of Leader of Production and Programming of MEC AM, which is similar to that of Coordinator. Interviewed in October, November and December 2009.

• Luiz Alberto Sanz–Director of the Centro Nacional de Rádio Educativo Roquette-Pinto-Radio stations MEC in Rio and in Brasília–April to August 1996; Head reporter, Planning editor in Journalism, Editor and Producer in the Education Division of MEC RJ, Head of the Division of Journalism of the MEC AM and FM radio stations in Rio de Janeiro from 1988 to 1993. Interviewed in December 2009.

• Orlando Guilhon–superintendent of radio stations at EBC, president of ARPUB and general director of Rádio MEC. Interviewed in August 2009.

• Patrícia Duarte–Current director of the radio FM Cultura from Porto Alegre, of which she was also sub-director and coordinator of programming from 1999 to 2002. She was also coordinator of production of the radio at EBC until 2010.