Radio Nacional de España

" _es. Radio Nacional de España" (RNE) (National Radio of Spain) is Spain's national public radio service. Since 1973 it has formed part of " _es. Radiotelevisión Española" (RTVE), the corporation responsible for the indirect management of the Spanish public radio and television service and which also includes " _es. Televisión Española" (TVE).

Origins of RNE

" _es. Radio Nacional de España" officially came into existence in Salamanca on 19 January 1937, at the height of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), and was dependent on the recently created " _es. Delegación de Estado para Prensa y Propaganda" (State Delegation for Press and Propaganda). The station's studios were in Palacio de Anaya, the headquarters of the " _es. Oficina de Prensa y Propaganda" (Office for Press and Propaganda) whose first directors were also those of RNE.

The first transmitter, made by Telefunken and having a broadcasting power of 20 kW, was a gift from Nazi Germany to the Francoist " _es. Estado Nuevo".

It was then that the immense propaganda potential of radio became apparent, and beginning 14 June 1937 RNE became the nationalist’s radio masthead. Until then, this distinction had been held by " _es. Radio Castilla de Burgos", which produced the information and propaganda that all of the radio stations that had fallen into the hands of the nationalist forces had been obliged to transmit.

During this era and the early years of the Second World War, until the arrival of the Allies in Italy in 1943 and the German retreat from Stalingrad, RNE collaborated with the Axis powers to retransmit in Spanish news from the official radio stations of Germany and Italy.

The post Spanish Civil War era

Once the Spanish Civil War had ended, the leader of the victorious Nationalist forces General Francisco Franco passed an order on 6 October 1939 which subjected private radio broadcasts to censorship by the official political party of the state, " _es. FET y de las JONS", and which furthermore granted RNE exclusive rights to the news bulletin service.

As a consequence of this order, all broadcasters (public as well as private) had to connect with RNE to transmit the daily news bulletins that the official radio channel produced. These news bulletins, normally broadcast at midday and then again in the evening, were known as " _es. el parte" (The [News] Report or Bulletin), and had a militaristic tone.

Apart from these official broadcasts, the only other sources of information available to Spaniards were the Spanish language bulletins of the BBC and Radio France Internationale, and Radio España Independiente (Independent Radio of Spain) which was a radio station created by the Communist Party of Spain that had its headquarters in Moscow (although it was known as " _es. La Pirenaica" as it was thought to broadcast from somewhere in the Pyrenees [ http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Espa%C3%B1a_Independiente] ).

Although from the time of the Civil War there had already been foreign broadcasts in various languages, it wasn’t until April 1945 that the installation of the central short wave transmitter at Arganda del Rey (Madrid) would provide 40 kW of broadcasting power, which was very strong for this period. Foreign broadcasting thus acquired a great importance, with transmissions (in Spanish as much as in English) directed especially at America.

It was from this moment on that the slow journey of Spanish public radio began, motivated by the poor quality of the media on the one hand, and the international block on the other which impeded, until 1955, the entry of RNE into the European Broadcasting Union.

The end of the 1950s and beginning of the 1960s saw the introduction of advanced technologies such as frequency modulation (FM) and transmissions in stereo. A parallel commercial channel, "Radio Peninsular", was also created.

The 60s and 70s: a time of growth

1964 was the first year of a major restructuring exercise at RNE which was to see the establishment of a network of regional broadcasting centres equipped with powerful 250 to 500 kW mediumwave transmitters. These gave RNE full coverage of not just the national territory but a good part, too, of the rest of Europe (especially at night). The regional transmitters normally all broadcast the same signal, relayed from the main studios in Madrid, although provision was made for them to opt out at certain times of day and transmit regional news from their own local studios. This was the foundation of today's RNE Radio 1.

In November 1965 RNE opened a second network, using FM transmitters and specializing in music – taking advantage of the superior sound quality offered by this method of transmission. This network eventually became the RNE channel which is today known as Radio Clásica.

In 1971 a new shortwave transmitter was inaugurated at Noblejas in the province of Toledo. Intended for the broadcasting of RNE's external services (now Radio Exterior de España), this transmitter was much more powerful than its predecessor sited at Arganda del Rey. These services were to undergo a far-reaching reform in 1975 when broadcasts in Russian and other Slavic languages, directed at audiences behind the "iron curtain", were withdrawn in favour of programmes intended for Spaniards and other Spanish-speaking people abroad.

The democratic era

The arrival of democracy to Spain after the death of Franco in 1975 produced several changes. One of these was the end, on 25 October 1977, of the private broadcasters’ obligation to connect with RNE for the transmission of daily news bulletins. From then on, each broadcaster was free to determine the content of its own news programmes.

By the end of the 1970s, the broadcasts of " _es. Tercer Programa" (RNE 3), which until then had only been transmitted in Madrid, were extended to the whole of Spain. RNE 3 offered educational and cultural programming, which was enlarged to include programmes on musical themes.

Throughout the Franco dictatorship a number of semi-official radio stations ("autorizadas") had functioned in parallel with the private broadcasters and RNE, and belonged to organisations such as " _es. Confederación Nacional de Sindicatos" (National Confederation of Trade Unions), " _es. Movimiento", and " _es. Organización Juvenil" (The Youth Organisation). These stations were dissolved and in 1981 their transmitters were incorporated into "Radio Cadena Española" (Spanish Radio Channel). However, some of the transmitters had to be closed down because their frequencies were not included in those assigned to Spain in the international agreements covering the distribution of the radio broadcasting spectrum.

RNE today

In 1989, "Radio Cadena Española" and "Radio Nacional" were combined to produce the current format of six themed radio channels:

* Radio Nacional (previously Radio 1) – Generalist channel with a broad spectrum of mostly speech-based programming.
* Radio Clásica (previously Radio 2) – Concerts and classical music in general.
* Radio 3 – RNE's "young station", concentrating on pop, rock, world music, folk, and allied cultural events.
* Ràdio 4 – Regional broadcasting in the Catalan language.
* Radio 5 Todo Noticias – 24-hour news.
* Radio Exterior de España – International broadcasting service in short wave that has an audience of 80 million listeners (only surpassed by the BBC and Radio Vaticana). This station is also transmitted in DAB for Spain and by satellite.

These stations are also available online at http://www.rtve.es/rne/RNE_Envivo/index.html and via podcast (see External Links below).

Integrated into the state public broadcasting body RTVE (Radiotelevisión Española) in 1973, RNE today has been assigned the role of “state public radio service, which is an essential service for the community and for the cohesion of democratic societies” [ [http://www.rne.es/?go=111b735a516af85c803e604f4546adce4c9885a8e53805c69ad49e29577ac993aa2a0658da481224fd2e9d62b856aaf5e3dd6e57bea805d855d2caf52b30be33937c1a50006cd08f Statement on the function of RNE (last accessed on 16 April 2007) (in Spanish)] ] .

Unlike its television broadcasting sister organisation, TVE, " _es. Radio Nacional" is wholly financed by public funds and does not air commercials in its programming.

ee also

*List of radio stations in Spain
*Public broadcasting
*Radio
*Broadcasting
*Propaganda

Notes

External links

* [http://www.portalmundos.com/mundoradio/historia/historia.htm History of radio in Spain from Portalmundos.com (in Spanish)]
* [http://www.rne.es Official website of Radio Nacional de España (in Spanish)]
* [http://www.rtve.es/rne/RNE_Envivo/index.html Portal for web broadcasts from all RNE channels (in Spanish)]
* [http://www.rne.es/FRONT_PROGRAMAS?go=111b735a516af85c434ac767f82084febab4c327bc2b44a18dbab4b238fd3abdfebb3df275811e20aba39ef1821025aa13939f3e5970214b1a0c8a78a7c3fdefbe512f0651108424 RNE podcasts (in Spanish)]
* [http://www.rtve.es Official website of RTVE (in Spanish)]
* [http://www.rtve.es/?go=111b735a516af85c803e604f4546adce4c9885a8e53805c69ad49e29577ac993aa2a0658da481224fd2e9d62b856aaf5e3dd6e57bea805d86ab6a5a4ed551d8bfcff0d3bc8a04091 English version of the "Radio Exterior de España" website]