Radio Martí
Encyclopedia
Radio y Televisión Martí is a radio and television broadcaster based in Miami, Florida
, financed by the United States
government (Broadcasting Board of Governors
), which transmits Spanish
radio broadcasts to Cuba
. Its broadcasts can also be heard in the United States.
, at the urging of Jorge Mas Canosa
, with the mission of fighting communism
. Today, it broadcasts a 24-hour radio program on short and medium wave
.
In the early 1980s, the U.S. Government planned to create a radio station to be known as Radio Free Cuba, modeled on Radio Free Europe
/Radio Liberty, with the hopes of hastening the fall of Cuban president Fidel Castro
. Existing North American broadcasters objected strenuously to these plans, fearing that they would lead Cuba to retaliate by jamming
existing commercial medium-wave broadcasts from Florida
. These fears proved true in 1985, when Cuba-based transmitters briefly broadcast powerful signals on the medium wave band, disrupting U.S. AM radio station broadcasts in several states. Cuba continues to broadcast interference with U.S. broadcasts specifically directed to Cuba, in attempts to prevent them from being received within Cuba.
On May 20, 1985, broadcasts to Cuba from the United States began. The first day of broadcasting was chosen to commemorate the anniversary of Cuba's independence from United States
rule, May 20, 1902. The station came to be named Radio Martí after Cuban writer José Martí
, who had fought for Cuba's independence from Spain and against U.S. influence in the Americas.
In 1990, TV Marti
was created to broadcast television programming to Cuba.
Today, Radio Marti transmits over shortwave
transmitters in Delano, California
and Greenville, North Carolina
and a medium-wave transmitter in Marathon, Florida
(GC: 24°41′58"N 81°5′19"W). Cuba jams both the medium-wave and shortwave signals, but the shortwave program is heard in Canada and throughout Central and South America. On occasion, the medium wave transmitter at 1180 kHz can be heard as far north as Washington, D.C.
An hour of Radio Martí's news programs are carried each night, midnight to 1:00AM, by Miami's most popular Spanish language station, Radio Mambi (WAQI
-710AM), which blankets the island of Cuba with its 50,000 watt signal, although it is jammed in Havana.http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/newsroom/pdblog_detail070104_tv_radio_marti_boost_their_volume_to_cuba_expanding_their_services/
Radio Martí operates with about 100 employees and a budget of $15 million. Its mission, in its own words, is to provide "a contrast to Cuban media and provide its listeners with an uncensored view of current events." Former prisoners in Cuba and Cuban exile
s often speak on Radio Martí; and on Saturdays a Spanish version of the U.S. president's weekly radio address, as well as the opposition's response, are transmitted.
There is much debate about the effectiveness of these broadcasts. As with Radio Free Europe during the Cold War
, there is no way to judge the station's true audience through the usual listener surveys. Thus, the actual number of listeners is open to speculation. However, after the fall of the Soviet Union and the satellite communist governments of Eastern Europe, a Hoover Institution conference reviewing reports from citizens in newly independent Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and other countries tended to substantiate the effectiveness of RFE and U.S. Voice of America broadcasts both in providing information and bolstering democratic movements within those countries, despite attempts at electronic jamming and counter-propaganda.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the budget for all U.S. government-run foreign broadcasters, with the exception of Radio Martí, was sharply reduced. In 1996, its studios were moved to Miami, Florida
from Washington, D.C.
The move, in addition to placing the station's studios closer to its target audience, also underscored its growing independence from the Voice of America
, another government-run foreign broadcaster with which Radio Martí had previously shared studios.
The Radio Martí broadcasts are directed to Cuba, and can be picked up throughout North, Central and South America when not being jammed. However, Radio Martí programs cannot be specifically directed to U.S. citizens under the same law that restricts Voice of America broadcasts.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5329394.stm
On November 15, 2007, delegates to the World Radiocommunication Conference 2007 declared illegal the U.S. government's use of airplanes to beam the signals of Washington-funded Radio and Television Marti into Cuba, stating
"A radio broadcasting station that functions on board an aircraft and transmits only to the territory of another administration without its agreement cannot be considered in conformity with the radio communications regulations." http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/825879/ http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B4FDFDE06-BB12-49C5-8BAE-EA1D06B8E794%7D)&language=EN
In February 2009, it was revealed that the station's TV and radio broadcasts reach less than 1% of Cuban population, resulting in calls to shut the company down due to ineffectiveness. A report by the Government Accountability Office
accuses the station of engaging in political propaganda in the forms of editorializing, use of offensive and incendiary language in broadcasts, use of unsubstantiated reports coming from Cuba, and presentation of individual views as news. The claims of unprofessionalism are strongly rejected by the station's management.
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, financed by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
government (Broadcasting Board of Governors
Broadcasting Board of Governors
The Broadcasting Board of Governors is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for all non-military, international broadcasting sponsored by the U.S government. It was previously a department within the United States Information Agency until 1999.-Origins:Starting in...
), which transmits 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...
radio broadcasts to Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. Its broadcasts can also be heard in the United States.
History
Radio Martí was established in 1983 by President Ronald ReaganRonald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, at the urging of Jorge Mas Canosa
Jorge Mas Canosa
Jorge Mass Canosa was a Cuban-American activist best known for his strong opposition to Fidel Castro and his leadership of the Cuban American National Foundation. He was considered by some to be the leading figure in the Cuban exile community in Miami, Florida...
, with the mission of fighting communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. Today, it broadcasts a 24-hour radio program on short and medium wave
Mediumwave
Medium wave is the part of the medium frequency radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. For Europe the MW band ranges from 526.5 kHz to 1606.5 kHz...
.
In the early 1980s, the U.S. Government planned to create a radio station to be known as Radio Free Cuba, modeled on Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed"...
/Radio Liberty, with the hopes of hastening the fall of Cuban president Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
. Existing North American broadcasters objected strenuously to these plans, fearing that they would lead Cuba to retaliate by jamming
Radio jamming
Radio jamming is the transmission of radio signals that disrupt communications by decreasing the signal to noise ratio. Unintentional jamming occurs when an operator transmits on a busy frequency without first checking whether it is in use, or without being able to hear stations using the frequency...
existing commercial medium-wave broadcasts from Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. These fears proved true in 1985, when Cuba-based transmitters briefly broadcast powerful signals on the medium wave band, disrupting U.S. AM radio station broadcasts in several states. Cuba continues to broadcast interference with U.S. broadcasts specifically directed to Cuba, in attempts to prevent them from being received within Cuba.
On May 20, 1985, broadcasts to Cuba from the United States began. The first day of broadcasting was chosen to commemorate the anniversary of Cuba's independence from United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
rule, May 20, 1902. The station came to be named Radio Martí after Cuban writer José Martí
José Martí
José Julián Martí Pérez was a Cuban national hero and an important figure in Latin American literature. In his short life he was a poet, an essayist, a journalist, a revolutionary philosopher, a translator, a professor, a publisher, and a political theorist. He was also a part of the Cuban...
, who had fought for Cuba's independence from Spain and against U.S. influence in the Americas.
In 1990, TV Marti
TV Martí
TV Martí was created by the US government to provide news and current affairs programming to Cuba. It is named after Cuban independence leader José Martí, and is the television equivalent to Radio Marti.-History:...
was created to broadcast television programming to Cuba.
Radio Martí today
Shortwave
Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...
transmitters in Delano, California
Delano, California
Delano's climate is characteristic of the San Joaquin Valley. The weather is hot and dry during the summer and cool and damp in winter. Frequent ground fog known regionally as "tule fog" can obscure vision. Record temperatures range between 115°F and 14°F...
and Greenville, North Carolina
Greenville, North Carolina
Greenville is the county seat of Pitt County and principal city of the Greenville, North Carolina metropolitan area. Greenville is the health, entertainment, and educational hub of North Carolina's Tidewater and Coastal Plain and in 2008 was listed as the Tenth Largest City in North Carolina...
and a medium-wave transmitter in Marathon, Florida
Marathon, Florida
Marathon is a city on Knight's Key, Boot Key, Key Vaca, Fat Deer Key, Long Point Key, Crawl Key and Grassy Key islands in the middle Florida Keys, in Monroe County, Florida, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 10,255. As of 2005, the population estimated...
(GC: 24°41′58"N 81°5′19"W). Cuba jams both the medium-wave and shortwave signals, but the shortwave program is heard in Canada and throughout Central and South America. On occasion, the medium wave transmitter at 1180 kHz can be heard as far north as Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
An hour of Radio Martí's news programs are carried each night, midnight to 1:00AM, by Miami's most popular Spanish language station, Radio Mambi (WAQI
WAQI
Radio Mambi is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish News/Talk format. Licensed to Miami, Florida, USA, the station is currently owned by Univision Communications....
-710AM), which blankets the island of Cuba with its 50,000 watt signal, although it is jammed in Havana.http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/newsroom/pdblog_detail070104_tv_radio_marti_boost_their_volume_to_cuba_expanding_their_services/
Radio Martí operates with about 100 employees and a budget of $15 million. Its mission, in its own words, is to provide "a contrast to Cuban media and provide its listeners with an uncensored view of current events." Former prisoners in Cuba and Cuban exile
Cuban exile
The term "Cuban exile" refers to the many Cubans who have sought alternative political or economic conditions outside the island, dating back to the Ten Years' War and the struggle for Cuban independence during the 19th century...
s often speak on Radio Martí; and on Saturdays a Spanish version of the U.S. president's weekly radio address, as well as the opposition's response, are transmitted.
There is much debate about the effectiveness of these broadcasts. As with Radio Free Europe during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, there is no way to judge the station's true audience through the usual listener surveys. Thus, the actual number of listeners is open to speculation. However, after the fall of the Soviet Union and the satellite communist governments of Eastern Europe, a Hoover Institution conference reviewing reports from citizens in newly independent Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and other countries tended to substantiate the effectiveness of RFE and U.S. Voice of America broadcasts both in providing information and bolstering democratic movements within those countries, despite attempts at electronic jamming and counter-propaganda.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the budget for all U.S. government-run foreign broadcasters, with the exception of Radio Martí, was sharply reduced. In 1996, its studios were moved to Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
from Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
The move, in addition to placing the station's studios closer to its target audience, also underscored its growing independence from the Voice of America
Voice of America
Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
, another government-run foreign broadcaster with which Radio Martí had previously shared studios.
Controversy and legality
Fabio Leite, director of the Radiocommunications Office of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), has condemned radio and television transmissions to Cuba from the United States as illegal and inadmissible and more so when they are designed to foment internal subversion on the island. The director emphasized that this constant U.S. attack is in violation of ITU regulations, which stipulate that radio transmissions within commercial broadcasting on medium wave, modulated frequency or television must be conceived of as a good quality national service within the limits of the country concerned. http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/febrero/mier14/07conden-i.htmlThe Radio Martí broadcasts are directed to Cuba, and can be picked up throughout North, Central and South America when not being jammed. However, Radio Martí programs cannot be specifically directed to U.S. citizens under the same law that restricts Voice of America broadcasts.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5329394.stm
On November 15, 2007, delegates to the World Radiocommunication Conference 2007 declared illegal the U.S. government's use of airplanes to beam the signals of Washington-funded Radio and Television Marti into Cuba, stating
"A radio broadcasting station that functions on board an aircraft and transmits only to the territory of another administration without its agreement cannot be considered in conformity with the radio communications regulations." http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/825879/ http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B4FDFDE06-BB12-49C5-8BAE-EA1D06B8E794%7D)&language=EN
In February 2009, it was revealed that the station's TV and radio broadcasts reach less than 1% of Cuban population, resulting in calls to shut the company down due to ineffectiveness. A report by the Government Accountability Office
Government Accountability Office
The Government Accountability Office is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the United States Congress. It is located in the legislative branch of the United States government.-History:...
accuses the station of engaging in political propaganda in the forms of editorializing, use of offensive and incendiary language in broadcasts, use of unsubstantiated reports coming from Cuba, and presentation of individual views as news. The claims of unprofessionalism are strongly rejected by the station's management.