RÁDIO NACIONAL
Address: Praça Mauá, 7, Centro, Rio de Janeiro
Themes: The 1964 Coup D’état
Translated from the Portuguese by Lara Norgaard
The National Radio, which began functioning in Rio de Janeiro in 1936, was hit heavily by the 1964 military coup. It lost important journalists, all of whom were accused of membership in the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB).
It was during the Estado Novo dictatorship (1937-1945) that the São Paulo-Rio Grande Railroad Company handed ownership of the National Radio to the state. In March 1940, president Getúlio Vargas nationalized all companies that belonged to the São Paulo-Rio Grande Railroad Company on the grounds of the debts the company had accumulated, its role in national heritage, the relevance of the companies to public utility, and their importance to national interests.
In the 1960s, Brazil experienced a transition from radio to television. The National Radio was modern with national reach and transmitted by short and medium wave. Its varied programming included popular Brazilian music (MPB) and discussions about the country’s current events. It continued to have high ratings, drawing an audience from “radionovelas” – serial soap operas – and talk shows.
In the early morning of April 1, 1964, Representative Rubens Paiva from São Paulo made a live statement on National Radio defending the legality of president João Goulart’s administration. Paiva would be removed from his position in congress on April 10 after the First Insitutional Act (AI-1) was established and, in 1971, state agents would kidnap, torture, and kill him, according to testimonies in the National Truth Commission (CNV). In his public radio statement, the Representative called students and workers to listen to the National Radio, which was one media institution that defended the legal system of governance.
Pay attention to the message that the National Radio transmits here, and to messages from the other radios in this network of legality. We see it as essential that the people come together peacefully to defend the legality of the reforms João Goulart has taken on, whose administration is, at this moment, listening to the demands of the Brazilian people (Rubens Paiva. Áudio em defesa do governo Jango no dia do golpe de 1964, in Melito, 2014).
In the hours following the military coup, the National Radio gave airtime to other speeches defending legality. Radio actor Gerdal dos Santos remembers that he was at the radio early on April 1 and listening to “Legality Network,” led by Abelardo Jurema, Minister of Justice under João Goulart (“Jango”). That afternoon, various individuals and union leaders took the microphone to defend Jango, and army soldiers and marines had to come take control of the network. When they arrived, the opposition to the military coup had already left the National Radio building on the advice of Maoel Barcelos, president of the Brazilian Radio Broadcast Association.
On April 2, 1964, Mário Neiva Filho was named the new director of the National Radio. From then on, programming would operate under his supervision. An investigative commission was immediately arranged and a process of political persecution against many employees at the radio began. On July 23, 1964, a decree fired the following staff from the National Radio: Heitor dos Prazeres, Dalísio Machado, Edmo do Vale, Elias Haddad, Gerdal Renner dos Santos, Iracema Ferreira Maia, Jorge Neves Bastos, José Rodrigues Calasans (the Jararaca), José Marque Gomez, Mário Lago, Penha Marion Pereira, Rodnei Gomes, Severino do Brasil Manique Júnior, Antônio Ivan Gonzaga de Faria, Adelaide Andrade Teixeira, Epaminondas Xavier Gracindo (Paulo Gracindo), Fernando Barros da Silva, Francisco de Assis Pires, José Palmeira Guimarãesm Jairo Argileu de Carmo e Silva, José Geraldo da Luz, João Anastácio Garreta prates, Jorge Viana da Silva, Mário Farias Brasini, Newton Marin da Mata, Oduvaldo Viana, Ovídio Chaves, Paulo Grazioli, Sérgio Moura Bicca, Vanda Lacerda, Alfredo de Freitas Dias Gomes, Antônio Teixeira Filho, José Gomes Talarico, João de Sousa Lima, João Fagundes de Meneses, and Helmicio José Fróis.
Television would grow in reach in the following years, absorbing many of employees who had been fired from the National Radio. TV Globo, established in 1965, hired writers Dias Gomes and Mário Brasini, actors Mário Lago and Paulo Gracindo, and host Paulo Roberto.
By the time the Military Police Investigation (IPM) was complete, a total of 67 employees were suspended and 81 were fired. The IPM was closed due to lack of evidence, but the broadcaster did not immediately re-hire the accused employees.
In 1975, Decree-Law no. 6,301 established the Brazilian Radio Broadcasting Company (Radiobras), which would manage a range of state broadcasters, including the National Radio. The Radiobras administrative headquarters was located in Brasília, and a manager was selected from each of the broadcast systems scattered around the country.
As part of the struggle for amnesty at the end of the 1970s, those who had been purged from the National Radio formed a commission led by Mário Lago. The amnesty decree was issued in 1979, but it was only in 1980 after a long process that a limited group of punished employees were reintegrated to the National Radio’s staff: 12 could return to work and 14 retired. Though they received amnesty, there was no compensation for the loss of salary from the 16 years in which the employees could not work at the broadcast network – even with proof that the firing had no cause. When the staff rejoined the radio, the National Radio had changed its programming significantly, which meant that only a select few of the former employees could remain at that broadcast service. The others were sent to different companies within the Radiobras umbrella.
A process to revitalize the National Radio began recently, in 2003, through renovations of its facilities and new public positions opened to fill its staff. The Brazilian Communication Company (EBC) came to manage the broadcast network in 2007. Since that date, the radio has functioned out of a new address in the center of Rio de Janeiro: 474 Gomes Freire. The National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute (IPHAN) named the original National Radio site in the Mauá Plaza a national heritage site, but the radio can only return to the building once it undergoes renovations. The 22-floor building was erected in September 1929 and, as the first skyscraper in Rio, was considered a tourist site in the city for many years.