Havana, May 1 (RHC) -- Radio is the most universal means of communication. Commanders Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara understood this very well when they created Radio Rebelde in the Sierra Maestra in 1958 and inaugurated on May 1, 1961, 63 years ago, the first Cuban shortwave station, Radio Habana Cuba.

The leadership of the Revolution understood the need, once victory was achieved, to create a radio station with sufficient reach to make known to all countries in the world the truth of the Cuban revolutionary process in the face of disinformation campaigns and harassment from the United States.

In January 1959, with the overthrow of the tyranny of Fulgencio Batista, the U.S. news agencies launched a fierce campaign of slander against Cuba, distorting reality, misinforming and, at the same time, determined to isolate the Revolution from its Latin American and Caribbean environment. 

For this reason, Operation Truth was carried out in mid-1959 and more than 300 progressive journalists from around the world agreed to propose to Commander in Chief Fidel Castro the need to create an international news agency and a radio station with international reach.

Thus, the Prensa Latina International News Agency emerged from the hands of Fidel and Che on June 16, 1959 and on February 24, 1961, with the provisional name of “Onda Corta Experimental Cubana”, the station went on air. which months later would be called Radio Havana Cuba (RHC), with a small transmitter and its first programs in Spanish for Central America.

On April 16, 1961, the station was replicated around the world by transmitting the words of Commander Fidel Castro in farewell to the victims of the bombings that preceded the mercenary invasion in Playa Girón, an occasion in which he proclaimed the socialist character of the Revolution. Cuban.

By broadcasting the victory ceremony in Playa Girón, held in the Plaza de la Revolución on May 1, 1961, the shortwave station Radio Habana Cuba (RHC) was officially inaugurated, which was born as a necessity of the Revolution. Cuban to break the information blockade, spread its popular achievements, and support the progressive forces of the world.

RHC's first transmitter equipment was purchased in Switzerland and consisted of two 10-kilowatt transmitters, two other 100-kilowatt transmitters, and several antenna systems. The transmitting station was located near the town of Bauta, in the Ariguanabo lagoon, and telephone and ultra-high frequency links were installed using the studios of the Radio Progreso Cadena Nacional station.

Currently, the station has its own studios in a building located on Infanta Street, Centro Habana municipality.

Its broadcasts today reach the world in six languages: Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Creole and Esperanto. It carries out more than 30 hours a day of programming, essentially news, although it also dedicates important spaces to the most representative of national musical production and has a sound library of extraordinary heritage value.

The programming is broadcast through its international shortwave broadcasting bands aimed at the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and also over the Internet from its website.

In 1992, Radio Havana Cuba began to disseminate information on social networks, when its English department began to collaborate with sites in the United States, sending them daily all the news, both national and international, written in that language.

On May 1, 1997, the first website that Radio Havana Cuba had was inaugurated, in commemoration of the station's anniversary. That same year the station created its website, based in Cuba with the domain, www.radiohc.cu and new sections, services and real audio on the Internet, so it can be listened to from any latitude on the planet.

Radio Havana Cuba and its hard-working group of excellent journalists, managers, translators, announcers, technicians and administrators have always been on the frontlines in all the battles of the Cuban Revolution and their voice, which is that of Cuba, has been multiplied by their friends. during these first 63 years around the world.  (Source: Granma)