by: Maria Laura Viera

The radio piece presented here as a final assingment for the Online Transnational Radio Stories works on a slight comparison between the case of the early years of radio in Germany -Europe- and those in Uruguay -South America.

Just like Knorr mentioned at the end of his essay, I can relate solidly to his idea of the difficulty that ones encounters to find archive and bibliography about the history of radio here as well. Most of the work was made based on websites of other uruguayan radio enthusiasts, such as Horacio Nigro and Tormo, some websites and of course the important book by Mr. Raúl Barbero, “De la galena al satélite”.

The main idea here was to make a parallelism between the early years of an abslutely controlled radio in Germany to a free and private broadcasting system in Uruguay, and in which way, somehow, along the time, things were changing until today, where the spectrum is not as different as it used to be in the beginning.

The historic times were different, in times of poverty on one side of the planet, there was prosperity on this other, in times of democracy somewhere, there was dictatorship elsewhere. This allows us to have a perspective on the changing of situations, politics, economics and also communications in the world.

I found some very rare audio tracks on YouTube to use as reminders of certain old times in Uruguayan radio and advertising, but it is simply almost impossible to name or acknowledge as it belongs to the history and culture of the very people right now.

Some excerpts of the audio piece that can help outline its content are these:
In Uruguay there hasn't been a significant military technology or development in that area, howeveralready in 1866 the telegraphic services had already been oficially inaugurated.

Whilst in Germany in 1923 the country was at the verge of a civil war and inflation, in Uruguay things were significantly different. At the time, Uruguay seized a republican democracy, Mr. Serrato was assuming as the new president and all along the 20s there were economic prosperity and the life conditions were getting better. The capital had installed a lot of asphalt in the streets, new parks were built, as were new hospitals and the new public university of medicine. There was also an important arrival of immigrants coming from Europe.

After WWI the defense industries now had to look where to channel their market during the peace and this was the case for the General Electric Company, founded in 1892 by Thomas Alva Edison. Even before the end of the WWI the company was already established in Montevideo.

During the following years and until 1921. there was nothing but noise from the telegraphs in the very few radio receivers that existed in Uruguay.

In 1920, the first radio station in the world starts to broadcast, and in this very datewe could mark the first pivotal axis in the history of uruguayan broadcasting.

It was a frantic reaction the public manifested when the first radio receivers arrived to the General Electric store and were available to buy. It generated such chaos that the traffic was stopped by the store because of the line of buyers - just like it happens nowadays in front of the Apple stores when a new device is issued.

The technology of radio will also change as times goes by.
It was only in 1984 that the Federal Parliaments of Occidental Germany introduce the dual system, allowing commercial media.

From the unity of Germany until the 21st century the radio market has expanded. It has always been free, from its origins in Uruguay, with a govermental regulation but diverse and polyphonic, allowing the different voices that conform a democracy.

In times of the last militar dictatorship in Uruguay there was some censorship in different manners. However, after 1984, Uruguay has regained its freedom in the practice of the very first principle that rules the National Broadcasters Association: “The existence of a private broadcasting as a way for the free expression of thought whicih guarantees the variety of information and constitutes an essential element for the development of a plural society.”




Sources:

ANDEBU. Asociación Nacional de Broadcasters del Uruguay. Available at: www.andebu.com.uy. [access 11/7/2014]
BARBERO, Raúl E. De la galena al satélite. Ediciones de la Pluma. Montevieo: 1995.
INFO URUGUAY. Historia de la radio en Uruguay. Available at: http://mooc.onlineradiomaster.de/auth/1%3A1%3A0%3A0%3A0/ [access 10/31/2014] http://www.infouruguay.com.uy/HISTORIA-RADIO-URUGUAY.htm [access 10/31/2014]
Instituto Nacional de Estadística. Uruguay en cifras, gráfico. Available at: http://www.ine.gub.uy/biblioteca/uruguayencifras2014/Uruguay_en_cifras_2014_Cap_02.pdf [access 10/8/2014]
NIGRO GEOLKIEWSKI, Horacio. La galena del sur. Available at: https://lagalenadelsur.wordpress.com/ [access 11/1/2014]
ONLINE RADIO MASTER. Week 7. Case studies: Germany. Available at:
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URUGUAY EDUCA. El Uruguay en 1930. Available at: [access 11/3/2014] http://www.uruguayeduca.edu.uy/Userfiles/P0001/File/El%20Uruguay%20en%201930.pdf [access 11/3/2014]
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