Information / Radiohistory for Brazil

HISTORY OF RADIO IN BRAZIL

The radio history in Brazil officially begins in 1923, April, when there was the first broadcast of the Radio Sociedade do Rio de Janeiro station, still in the air, now under the name of Radio MEC.
In the same year began the transmissions of Radio Clube de Pernambuco, with a modest 10 Watts transmitter. From this beginning the stations have been multiplying throughout the country. Below is a short timeline of the major events of Brazilian broadcasting

1948 - in the air the transmitter of Radio Record (50 kW)
1948 - start transmissions of Radio Tupi in São Paulo with 25 KW
1950 - start transmissions of TV Tupi in Sao Paulo, channel 3, the first of Latin America (RCA transmitter)
1951 - start transmissions of TV Tupi in Rio de Janeiro
1952 - start transmissions of TV Paulista channel 5 in São Paulo
1953 - start transmissions of TV Record channel 7 in São Paulo
1960 - first live broadcast covering the inauguration of Brasilia.
In the absence of terrestrial links 3 aircraft were used as links
1963 - first color TV transmission (experimentally)
1965 - first TV satellite broadcasts
1965 - first broadcast on TV Globo in Rio
1967 - First transmission of TV Bandeirantes channel 13


In present days:
2007 - 2nd Dec. Start of digital TV transmissions
2013 - there are more than 9,400 radio stations in the country (MW + FM + SW).


INDUSTRY
The local industry closely followed the sector's needs, but it was only during WWII they took a big jump. The sudden reduction in the availability of imported equipment incentivated entrepreneurs and importers to invest in local production. This also stimulated the emergence of an industrial park of components and radio parts.
After WWII the big European and North American groups settled in Brasil, like Philips, RCA, Siemens, GE, etc. with their finished products and component's divisions.

An interesting fact that deserves to be highlighted was, in the 40s and 50s, the presence of a huge number of "assemblers." Brazil has a large land area with a big number of small towns with, at that time, difficult logistical access. Thus radios produced by large companies located mainly in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, were virtually inaccessible in small towns. The need for receivers was supplied by technicians who assembled receivers upon request. It can be seen in advertisements of the time a large number of shops selling components by mail. Also for this reason several companies offered their products assembled and as kits.

TV
Entrepreneurs of communication are closely monitored what happened to the television in the USA and drew plans for Brazil. The first TV broadcast took place in September 1950 with the TV Tupi, channel 3, in São Paulo. Since then other stations quickly settled. To access the interior of the country was formed a network of repeaters, many in UHF, which required external converter connected to the TV. In small communities and farms was common the presence of homemade relays, with few watts output, usually using a 6J6 as output tube.

To give an idea of the importance of radio in Brazil is enough to mention that official reports indicates that there are currently about 200 million sets with radio function, which gives a saturation ratio close to 100%.

2012 data shows that the number of radio stations in the country is
FM = 2664
MW = 1785
SW = 140
Comunity + educative radios = 4890