Radio Caracas Radio
Encyclopedia
Radio Caracas Radio is a Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

n radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...

. It is owned by Empresas 1BC
Empresas 1BC
Empresas 1BC , is a privately owned Venezuelan corporation which operates diverse media enterprises such as Radio Caracas Televisión, Etheron, Radio Caracas Radio, 92.9 tu FM, Sonográfica, FonoVideo, Recordland, and Radionet, to name a few...

, Venezuela's second largest privately-owned
Privately held company
A privately held company or close corporation is a business company owned either by non-governmental organizations or by a relatively small number of shareholders or company members which does not offer or trade its company stock to the general public on the stock market exchanges, but rather the...

 media corporation, which also owns Radio Caracas Televisión
RCTV
Radio Caracas Televisión Internacional is a Venezuelan cable television network headquartered in the Caracas neighborhood of Quinta Crespo. It was sometimes referred to as the Canal de Bárcenas. Owned by Empresas 1BC, RCTV Internacional was inaugurated as Radio Caracas Televisión on 15 November...

, a popular and controversial cable and satellite channel.

Background

In 1930, Venezuela was an ideal environment for freedom. The struggles against the regime of General Juan Vicente Gómez
Juan Vicente Gómez
Juan Vicente Gómez Chacón was a military general and de facto ruler of Venezuela from 1908 until his death in 1935. He was president on three occasions during this time, and ruled as an unelected military strongman for the rest of the era.-Early years:Gómez was a barely literate cattle herder and...

 had not been
in vain. The word "democracy" began to rumble in the ears of Venezuelans. Under this climate, a man, after his travels to the United States and the understanding of the importance that the mass media will have for Venezuelans, began every effort to mount a Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...

 radio station. That man was Edgar J. Anzola, who at the time was employed at the Almacén Americano, an electronics business.

Anzola brought his idea to his employer, William Henry Phelps
William Henry Phelps
William Henry Phelps was an American ornithologist and businessman.-Early life:Born in New York City to Dudley F. Phelps, and of Louise Lander Prince Phelps, he attended Milton Academy and Harvard College...

, a businessman who was also the owner of El Automóvil Universal and the aforementioned Almacén Americano. Phelps already possessed the RCA Victor
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...

 receptors, discs and equipment players, Underwood typewriters, Frigidaire
Frigidaire
Frigidaire is a brand of consumer and commercial appliances. Frigidaire was founded as the Guardian Frigerator Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and developed the first self-contained refrigerator in 1916. In 1918, William C...

 refrigerators, Delco
Delco Electronics
Delco Electronics Corporation was the automotive electronics design and manufacturing subsidiary of General Motors based in Kokomo, Indiana.The name Delco came from the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co., founded in Dayton, Ohio by Charles Kettering and Edward A...

 power plants, and Ford
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

 cars and trucks. Enthusiastic about Anzola's idea, Phelps decided to install a transmitter exclusively for commercial purposes. Ricardo Espina and technical manager Alberto López join Phelps and Anzola in establishing a radio station.

Inauguration and early history

After hard work, everything was ready for Broadcasting Caracas, as the station was originally called, to go on the air. Careful tests were performed to make sure that all the equipment operated fully. Two of these tests had unique importance. One of them, which was held on 9 December 1930 and took place in the Plaza del Teatro Nacional during the dedication of the statue of Henry Clay
Henry Clay
Henry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...

, was the first remote transmission in Venezuela. That date marked the first broadcast of the new radio station which operated with a transmitter that had the capacity of only 100 kilowatts. The next day, from the ballroom of the La Guaira
La Guaira
La Guaira is the capital city of the Venezuelan state of Vargas and the country's chief port. It was founded in 1577 as an outlet for Caracas, to the southeast. The town and the port were badly damaged during the December 1999 floods and mudslides that affected much of the region...

 Country Club, the performances of a band from the North American cruise ship "Northampton" was aired in light of their visit to the port city. These broadcasts excited the residents of Caracas and increased the sales of radio appliances. The station began airing more commercial propaganda, which was the intention of its founders.

The official inauguration of Broadcasting Caracas took place on 11 December 1930, and everything was ready for its debut: the orchestras, broadcasters, singers, technicians, and even commercials, which were discreet and addressed in a well-kept language that corresponded to the station that would set the tone for future stations to be installed in the country. The first opening act was a concert by the station's orchestra conducted by Carlos Bonnet
Carlos Bonnet
Carlos Bonnet was a Venezuelan composer, orchestra conductor, and militar....

. The inauguration of Broadcasting Caracas made it the first permanent and first commercial radio station to begin operations in Venezuela (the first radio station to operate in Venezuela was AYRE, a government-owned station which began operations on 4 April 1926. AYRE ceased operations in 1928 due to political problems).

On 17 December 1930, from the state of Carabobo
Carabobo
Carabobo State is one of the 23 states of Venezuela, located in the north of the country, about two hours by car from Caracas. The capital city of this state is Valencia, which is also the country's main industrial center. The state's area is 4,650 km² and had an estimated population of...

, Broadcasting Caracas made its second remote transmission during the inauguration of the monument commemorating the Battle of Carabobo
Battle of Carabobo
The Battle of Carabobo, 24 June 1821, was fought between independence fighters, led by Simón Bolívar, and the Royalist forces, led by Spanish Field Marshal Miguel de la Torre. Bolívar's decisive victory at Carabobo led to the independence of Venezuela....

.

On 22 March 1931, Broadcasting Caracas made its first sports broadcast, which was narrated by Esteban Ballesté Jr. from the Nuevo Circo de Caracas where the fight for the Welter title was taking place between Peter Martín and the North American Tommy White.

In the beginning, music was aired from 7:00 pm until closing at 10:00 pm, but transmission started at 6:00 pm with El Diario Hablado, which was considered the first Venezuelan radio news broadcast. Also at that hour, the news of the Panorama Universal could be heard, whose slogan "say it on Panorama Universal and all of Venezuela will know" was a success. Months later, the station began broadcasting from the morning until eleven o'clock at night. In those day, it was customary to publish the programming schedule in the newspapers.

On 7 July 1932, the first radio news program was born: El Diario Hablado was broadcast twice daily. The first person in charge of that news program was Mario García Arocha, who was its columnist, narrator, and producer. Later, Alejandro Fuenmayor joined the program. In 1933, Francisco Fossa Andersen was put in charge of El Diario Hablado, where he remained for 15 years and created his own personal style in the narration of news.

YV1BC was the call sign
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...

 of the station. YV, according to the international radio code, corresponds to Venezuela. The number 1 is the first licensed in the country and the following letters are the initials of the station.

Many programs marked the beginning of Broadcasting Caracas. They included La Hora de los Aficionados, which aired Tuesdays to Saturdays from 12:00 pm to 12:30 pm; La Radio Consulta with Francisco Fossa Andersen; Selecciones Deportivas; El Teatro de la Alegría, whose orchestra was conducted by Fortunato Barcarola; Horas del Municipal; La Familia Buchipluma; La Familia Santa Teresa; La Tremenda Jefatura, which began in Radio Caracas and later moved to the Radiodifusora Venezuela station; La Noche Joven; Conferencias Católicas; Sección Femenina; Pepe Alemán; Los Raslalantes Sanjuaneros; El Tío Nicolás; La Marcha del Tiempo and La Hora del Ministerio de Instrucción Pública, a program hosted by Guillermo Fernández de Arcila and Aracelis Cuervo Codazzi, professors at the Academy of Music and Declamation.

In the area of radionovelas, Broadcasting Caracas, a pioneer in the genre, broadcast works that made history and are still remembered by those who heard them. Among them included El Matrimonio Radiotrén, El Misterio de los Ojos Escarlatas, La Herencia del Conde Bermejas, El Tesoro de Sir Walter Raleigh, Los Experimentos del Dr. Hook, El Enigma de los Incas, El Alma del Tirano Aguirre, La Familia Santa Teresa, El Buque Fantasma, La Sayona, El Secreto de Ayarú, El Emir, and Cupertino y sus Maquinistas. It was in 1932 that Alfredo Cortina and Mario García Arocha wrote the very first radionovela: the comedy Santa Teresa, whose quality and humor kept it on the air for four years. The following year, El Misterio de los Ojos Escarlatas marked the beginning of the suspenseful radionovelas. A lot human imagination was put into the story that made history on Broadcasting Caracas in the 1930s. The plot caused so much excitement in the listeners that it was kept on the air for many months, and not only managed to entertain the audience, but described, in the development of each episode, several areas of the country during an era in which only a few people travelled. A star-studded cast protagonized the story written by Alfredo Cortina, most notably Edgar Anzola as Herr Mullernb and Indio Miguel; Margot Antillano as Eulalia; Cecilia Martínez as Alida Palmero; Luis Alfonso Larrain as Jaime, and Francisco Fossa Andersen as Dr. Aular. Also, Mario García Arocha was in charge of the narration. After this experience came El Misterio de las Tres Torres, a radionovela with a political touch written after the fall of the Gómez dictatorship. It contained reflexions on life in the Tres Torres prison of Barquisimeto
Barquisimeto
Barquisimeto is the capital city of the State of Lara located in west central Venezuela, halfway between Caracas and Maracaibo on the Turbio River.-Overview:...

. It starred Antonio José Marcano and Alejandro Arratia Oses and was written by Tulio Flores and Pablo Sosa Guzmán, among others. In 1945, Radio Caracas, with Tomás Henríquez in charge of the department of radionovelas, included this genre in its programming. Titles such as Las Sombras del Otro and Tú también eres mi Hija, caused a big impact on its listeners. Finally, another well-remembered radionovela transmitted by Radio Caracas was Cuatro Horas antes de Morir with Tomás Henríquez. The voices of this production were Carmencita Serrano and the famous actor-narrator Pancho Pepe Cróquer.

Graciela Naranjo
Graciela Naranjo
Graciela Naranjo [nah-rahn'-ho] was a Venezuelan singer and actress. A radio, cinema and television pioneer in her homeland, she made her professional debut as a bolero singer in 1931. From the thirties onward her fame as a singer grew, she appeared in films and had her own TV show in an...

 made her professional debut on Broadcasting Caracas at the age of 15.

In 1933, the first government regulation of communications appeared. It was reformed a year later.

In 1935, following the death of General Juan Vicente Gómez on 17 December, Broadcasting Caracas changed its name to Radio Caracas. By World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Radio Caracas was the main source of news and information in Venezuela.

For the first few years, the main rival of Radio Caracas was the Radiodifusora Venezuela.

In 1942, Radio Caracas launched El Reporter Esso, which in its first years was written by the United Press International news agency
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...

 via teletype
Teleprinter
A teleprinter is a electromechanical typewriter that can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point and point to multipoint over a variety of communication channels that range from a simple electrical connection, such as a pair of wires, to the use of radio and microwave as the...

. This famous news segment gave the rise to big voices such as Amable Espina, Francisco Amado Pernía, and Carlos Quintana Negrón, among others.

In 1945, Renny Ottolina
Renny Ottolina
Renaldo José "Renny" Ottolina Pinto was a Venezuelan-born producer and entertainer. His mother died when he was two years old. At the age of six his father moved him to Caracas with his paternal grandmother, for he was going to Germany...

 began his career on Radio Caracas as a news narrator. The following year, Alfredo Sadel
Alfredo Sadel
Alfredo Sadel was a popular Venezuelan singer and actor. Born Alfredo Sánchez Luna in Caracas, Venezuela, Sadel was affectionately called "The Favorite Tenor of Venezuela" . He adopted his stage name by combining the first syllable of his surname with the last syllable of the surname of his...

 debuted on Radio Caracas, in which he recorded his first song, Desesperanza in 1946. Unfortunately, Desesperanza never went on the air, but Sadel would go on to host popular radio shows such as Caravana Camel, an evening radio program where he made his claim to fame. Other artists, musicians, and personalities that made their debut on Radio Caracas included Eduardo Serrano
Eduardo Serrano
Eduardo Valentín Serrano Torres , was a Venezuelan popular musician, conductor and composer.-Biography:...

 (as an orchestra director), Fedora Alemán, Ángel Sauce
Ángel Sauce
Ángel Sauce, , was a Venezuelan composer, violinist and conductor.his parents were Juan Vicente Sauce and Justa Sauce...

, Pedro Antonio Ríos Reyna
Pedro Antonio Ríos Reyna
Pedro Antonio Ríos Reyna was one of the most important Venezuelan classical musicians.Spent his childhood in Caracas and studied at the Fermín Toro Grammar school...

, Antonio Estévez
Antonio Estévez
Antonio Estévez Aponte , was a Venezuelan musician, composer, and conductor, and founder of the Central University of Venezuela Chorus.Estévez was born to Mariano Estévez and Carmen Aponte...

, and Amador Bendayán
Amador Bendayán
Amador Bendayán [ben-dah-IAN] was a Venezuelan actor and entertainer.The son of Moroccan Jewish immigrants, Bendayán was born in Villa de Cura, Aragua, and was raised and educated in Caracas...

, to name a few.

The best narrators in the nation have come from Radio Caracas, a reason why some people called it the university of radio in Venezuela. Rising stars such as Edgar J. Anzola, Ricardo Espina, Francisco Fossa Andersen, Mario García Arocha, Esteban Ballesté, Oscar Eduardo Rickel, Justo Piñero Rojas, Luis Brito Arocha, Angel Edmundo Brice, Alberto Oyarzábal, Alcides Toro, Enrique Vera Fortique, Antonio Castes, Víctor Saume, Amable Espina, León Bravo, José Matías Rojas, Enrique Ascanio Buróz, Domingo Hurtado, Juan Francisco Rodríguez, Félix Cardona Moreno, Leandro Azuaje, Francisco Amado Pernía, Jesús Maella, Ernesto D' Escrivan, Alberto Blanco Uribe, and Eduardo Martínez Plaza, among others came from here.

In the 1940s, the program Anuncios Féminas, hosted by María Teresa Castillo and Anita Massanett, was created, and was considered the first feminist program on Venezuelan radio. It was a program dedicated to the orientation and general education of ladies which later moved to Radio Continente.

A famous journalist claims that the overthrow of General Isaías Medina Angarita
Isaías Medina Angarita
Isaías Medina Angarita was a Venezuelan military and political leader, president of Venezuela from 1941 until 1945....

 was consolidated when one of the leaders of the civil-military coup of 18 October 1945 spoke on Radio Caracas and made a call to the public to incorporate into the "revolution".

Format changes & recent history

After the inauguration of Radio Caracas Televisiόn on 15 November 1953, Radio Caracas became known as Radio Caracas Radio in order to avoid confusion with its television counterpart.

With the arrival of Peter Bottome as director in 1959, things began to change. The style of the narrators were modified. North American music became a fashion and the transmission of radionovelas, horse races, and other sports were eliminated.

Due to the high listenership from people in their automobiles, Radio Caracas Radio, on 16 November 1969, began airing traffic reports made from the “Tango Tango Fox” airplane. In the beginning, the traffic reports were conducted by Alfredo José Mena and Efraín de la Cerda. Both these men hold the merit of being the first traffic reporters in Venezuela and having created a very peculiar narration style.

The 1970s gave rise to new programs on Radio Caracas Radio: Venezuela Canta Así, hosted by Jorge Galvis; Por el Mundo de la Música, a program dedicated to the broadcast of classical music which was hosted by professor José Antonio Calcaño and aired between 1975 and 1978, a date in which the famous Venezuelan musicologist died; Venezuela en los 750, produced and narrated by William Guzmán; La Gran Consulta Popular, a program produced and hosted by Miguel Toro in which the general public could interrogate the invited guests through telephone calls.

As a result of the "boom" in foreign music, on 3 December 1974, the Ministry of Transportation & Communications, during the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez
Carlos Andrés Pérez
Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez , also known as CAP and often referred to as El Gocho , was a Venezuelan politician, President of Venezuela from 1974 to 1979 and again from 1989 to 1993. His first presidency was known as the Saudi Venezuela due to its economic and social prosperity thanks to...

, issued Decree Nº 598, where it established that radio stations were obligated to include in their daily musical programming a minimum of 50% of Venezuelan music in their distinct manifestations: folklore, typical, or popular. It was known as the famous decree 1x1.

Resolution Nº 703 of 6 March 1979, prohibited, starting on 15 March, all radio stations from offering awards or promoting competitions in their broadcasts and programs unless the contestants can demonstrate cultural knowledge or intellectual capacity. The resolution also stated that the contestants must also be in the studio at the moment that the program is airing.

By the end of the 1980s, after the national government granted the first concessions allowing for the installation of commercial FM stations, a period of segmentation, which had been highly anticipated by publicists, began. From that moment on, a new style in the narration and production of programs came about. Parallel to this, the AM stations began an awakening and started taking new paths; Radio Caracas Radio completely abandoned music and converted into the first radio station dedicated night and day to news.

On 31 March 1995, the current journalism law was approved and published in the Venezuelan extraordinary official gazette number 4,883.

On 12 June 2000, the current telecommunications law was approved and published in the Venezuelan official gazette number 36,970.

On 13 May 2003, Roberto Giusti, host of the program Golpe a Golpe, filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office denouncing the death threats he had been receiving. On 2 May, a group of about ten people entered the studios of Radio Caracas Radio and began shouting offensive slogans at the journalist and calling him a "murderer". The attackers sprayed graffiti on the building’s walls and Giusti’s car. Giusti called for an investigation into the incident and possible links to his reports on the presence of Colombian guerrillas in Venezuela.

On 7 December 2004, the controversial Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television (Ley Resorte) was approved and published in the Venezuelan official gazette number 38,081

On 28 June 2005, Expediente, conducted by Francisco Olivares, won the 2005 Monseñor Pellín Award for best national radio program.

On 7 April 2007, a civil association solicitated to the Venezuelan Cultural Heritage Institute (Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

: Instituto de Patrimonio Cultura) that both Radio Caracas Televisiόn and Radio Caracas Radio be declared a "cultural heritage" of Caracas and all of Venezuela.

After Radio Caracas Televisiόn was taken off the air at 11:59 pm on 27 May 2007, due to the government of Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...

's decision not to renew its broadcast license
Broadcast license
A broadcast license or broadcast license is a specific type of spectrum license that grants the licensee the privilege to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses are generally straddled with additional restrictions that...

, Radio Caracas Radio began transmitting El Observador
El Observador
El Observador is the Spanish language newscast of Radio Caracas Televisión . It is one of the first television news programs in Venezuela.-History:El Observador is one of the first television news programs in Venezuela...

, the newscast of Radio Caracas Televisiόn, until they returned to the air on cable and satellite on 16 July.

As of 2008, Radio Caracas Radio can be heard in Caracas on 750 AM
Amplitude modulation
Amplitude modulation is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave. AM works by varying the strength of the transmitted signal in relation to the information being sent...

. Its programming mostly consists of news and sports. Javiér Perera Díaz is currently the manager of information of Radio Caracas Radio and one of the presenters of the news program Informe RCR.

Programming

  • Informe RCR - on Monday to Friday from 5:00 am to 8:00 am, hosted by Javiér Perera Díaz, Jessica Flores, and Argenis Barreto; 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm, hosted by Laura Cruces; and 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm, hosted by Miguel Angel Rodríguez and Carla Duarte.
  • Golpe a Golpe - on Monday to Friday from 8:00 am to 9:00 am. Hosted by Fausto Masó and Roberto Giusti.
  • Para que te Defiendas - on Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 10:00 am. Hosted by Mónica Fernández.
  • Radar de los Barrios - on Monday to Friday from 10:00 am a 11:00 am. Hosted by Jesús Torrealba.
  • La Bicha y La Cuaima - on Monday to Friday from 11:00 am to 12:00 am. Hosted by sisters Berenice (La Bicha) and Eréndira Gómez (La Cuaima).
  • Plomo Parejo - on Monday to Friday from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Hosted by Iván Ballesteros.
  • La Pelota en VIVO - on whenever there is a baseball game.
  • Grandes Ligas Online - on from Monday to Friday at 7:00 pm. Hosted by Carlos Castillo.
  • Así va el Beisbol - on from Monday to Friday at 1:30pm.
  • La Esquina Caliente - on every Sunday at 6:00 pm. Hosted by Dámaso Blanco
    Dámaso Blanco
    Dámaso Blanco Caripe is a former Major League Baseball third baseman/shortstop and right-handed batter who played for the San Francisco Giants ....

    .
  • Todo Fútbol - on every Sunday at 7:00 pm.
  • Programa Hipico - on every Sunday at 10:00 pm
  • La Hora Magallanera - on every Monday at 7:00 pm. Hosted by Carlitos Feo.

See also

  • Empresas 1BC
    Empresas 1BC
    Empresas 1BC , is a privately owned Venezuelan corporation which operates diverse media enterprises such as Radio Caracas Televisión, Etheron, Radio Caracas Radio, 92.9 tu FM, Sonográfica, FonoVideo, Recordland, and Radionet, to name a few...

  • Radio Caracas Televisión
    RCTV
    Radio Caracas Televisión Internacional is a Venezuelan cable television network headquartered in the Caracas neighborhood of Quinta Crespo. It was sometimes referred to as the Canal de Bárcenas. Owned by Empresas 1BC, RCTV Internacional was inaugurated as Radio Caracas Televisión on 15 November...

  • List of radio stations in Venezuela

External links

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