National public-service radio network of Spain
For other uses, see
RNE
.
Radio Nacional de Espana
(acronym
RNE
, branded
rne
,
lit. transl.
"National Radio of Spain") is the national
state-owned
public service
radio broadcaster in Spain.
RNE is the radio division and
Television Espanola
(TVE) is the television division of
Radiotelevision Espanola
(RTVE), the public corporation which has the overall responsibility for the national broadcasting public services under a
Parliament
-appointed
president
who, in addition to being answerable to a board of directors, reports to an all-party committee of the national parliament, as provided for in the Public Radio and Television Law of 2006.
RNE launched its
first station
on 19 January 1937. It is currently headquartered at Casa de la Radio at
Prado del Rey
in
Pozuelo de Alarcon
.
Origins of RNE
[
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]
RNE officially came into existence in
Salamanca
on 19 January 1937, at the height of the
Spanish Civil War
(1936?39), and was dependent upon the recently created
Delegacion 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
Oficina de Prensa y Propaganda
(Office for Press and Propaganda), whose first directors were also those of RNE.
RNE's first
transmitter
, which had a broadcasting power of 20 kW and was constructed by
Telefunken
, was a gift from the government of the
Third Reich
to
Francoist Spain
.
It was at this time that the immense propaganda potential of radio became apparent, and from 14 June 1937 RNE became the nationalists' leading radio station. That distinction had until then been held by
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 were obliged to carry.
After the Spanish Civil War
[
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]
On 6 October 1939, at the conclusion of the
Spanish Civil War
, the leader of the victorious
Nationalist forces
, General
Francisco Franco
, issued an order subjecting private radio broadcasting to censorship by the official political party of the state,
FET y de las JONS
, and furthermore granting RNE the exclusive right to transmit
news bulletins
.
In consequence, all broadcasters (private as well as public) were obliged to connect twice daily with RNE and re-transmit the government-approved news bulletins produced by the official radio channel. These bulletins, normally broadcast in the early afternoon at 14.30 and in the late evening at 22.00, were officially entitled
Diario Hablado
, although ? given their origin in the war dispatches (
partes de guerra
) of 1936?39 and their continued militaristic tone ? they were long popularly referred to as
El Parte
.
The only other sources of information available to radio listeners in Spain at that time were the Spanish-language bulletins broadcast by the
BBC
and by French Radio from
Toulouse
, as well as the programmes of Radio Espana Independiente, which was a radio station established by the Communist Party of Spain in exile in Moscow (although known as
La Pirenaica
since it was believed to broadcast from a location somewhere in the Pyrenees
[1]
).
Although from the time of the Civil War there had already been
foreign broadcasts
in various languages, it was not 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
.
In 1940, RNE's headquarters were transferred to
Madrid
.
[2]
During this post-
Spanish Civil War
and early
Second World War
era ? before the
Allied
arrival in Italy in 1943 and the German retreat from
Stalingrad
? RNE collaborated with the
Axis powers
in retransmitting in Spanish news from the official radio stations of Germany and Italy.
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 1960s and 1970s: a time of growth
[
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]
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 Radio 1 (now
Radio Nacional
).
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 Clasica
.
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
), 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
[
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]
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
Tercer Programa
(now
Radio 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 Francoist Spain a number of semi-official radio stations (
autorizadas
) had functioned in parallel with the private broadcasters and RNE, and belonged to organisations such as
Confederacion Nacional de Sindicatos
(National Confederation of Trade Unions),
Movimiento
, and
Organizacion Juvenil Espanola
(The Spanish Youth Organisation). These stations were merged in 1978 into
Radiocadena Espanola
(Spanish Radio Network). 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.
Radiocadena Espanola
was merged in 1988 into Radio Nacional de Espana to form
Radio 4
(broadcasting in
Catalan
) and
Radio 5
(All-news radio station broadcasting in
Spanish
).
RNE today
[
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]
In 1989,
Radiocadena Espanola
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 Clasica
(previously Radio 2) ? Concerts and classical music in general.
- Radio 3
? RNE's "youth station", concentrating on pop, rock, world music, folk, and related cultural events.
- Radio 4
? Regional broadcasting in the
Catalan language
.
- Radio 5
? 24-hour news.
- Radio Exterior
?
International broadcasting
service on short wave, with an audience of 80 million listeners (surpassed only by the
BBC
and
Vatican Radio
). This station is also transmitted via
DAB
for Spain and by
satellite
. Transmissions are in Spanish, French,
Arabic
,
Ladino
,
Portuguese
, Russian and English.
These stations are also available
online
and via
podcast
(see External Links below).
Integrated into the state public broadcasting body RTVE (Radiotelevision Espanola) 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".
[3]
Like its television broadcasting sister organisation,
TVE
,
Radio Nacional
is wholly financed by public funds and does not air commercials in its programming.
In January 2012, RNE celebrated its 75th anniversary in the presence of
Felipe, Prince of Asturias
and
Princess Letizia
.
[4]
Logos and identities
[
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]
-
Logo of Radio Nacional de Espana (RNE) between the official birth of TVE in 1956 and 1962.
-
Logo of RNE between the change of RTVE logo in 1962 and 1971.
-
Logo of RNE between 1971 and 1976.
-
Logo of RNE between 1971 and 1976.
-
Logo of RNE between 1976 and 1980.
-
Previous logo, used between 1980 and 2008.
-
Blue version of the logo, used during the unification of the image of RNE radios, between 1989 and 1991
-
Current logo of RNE, used since 2008
Station logos
[
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]
- Radio Nacional de Espana (RNE) station logos in 2008
-
Radio Nacional
-
Radio Clasica
-
Radio 3
-
Radio 4
-
Radio 5
-
Radio Exterior
See also
[
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]
Notes
[
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]
External links
[
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]
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Active
members
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Associate
members
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Approved
participants
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International
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National
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Other
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