On February 19, 1924, the National Radio Broadcasting Association (ANR) was established in Barcelona, ??made up of technicians, industrialists and businessmen with the proposal of putting into operation a stable radio station, as had already been done in some European cities and of the world. This historic initiative, carried out next Monday, which will mark the 100th anniversary, marked the starting point of the arrival of radio broadcasting to Catalonia.
Only a few months later, during the Primo de Rivera dictatorship, this association managed to inaugurate the first stable radio station and was awarded the EAJ1 Ràdio Barcelona badge. On November 14, at half past six in the afternoon and from the Hotel Colón in Plaza de Catalunya, the first radio broadcast to Catalonia and, subsequently, to all of Spain took place.
This station presented initial programming that included live music, reading of conferences and advertisements, music criticism, social chronicle, fashion, sports chronicle and reading of children’s stories. In December, what is considered the first news program was broadcast: Crónica, a ten-minute space broadcast daily at 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
In 1926, due to a political decision of the Spanish government, Ràdio Barcelona became dependent on Unión Radio Madrid, while the ANR continued to bring together the members and listeners who supported the station. “Three years later, the association completely disassociated itself from the management of the station due to pressure and disagreement with a broadcasting philosophy that did not conform to the initial ideology by which it was founded,” says Margarida Moles, head of communications and secretary of the governing council of Ràdio Associació de Catalunya.
The pioneers of radio in Catalonia reorganized and later obtained a new broadcasting license, although they could not broadcast the hours that Ràdio Barcelona broadcast and were relegated to hours with low audiences. This situation of testimony ended with the end of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera.
In 1933 the National Broadcasting Association (ANR) catalanized its name and changed it to Ràdio Associació de Catalunya (RAC). With the arrival of the republic, president Francesc Macià granted free broadcast time to EAJ15 Ràdio Associació, “continuing the initial spirit of the pioneers and using Catalan as the vehicular language, a fact that will not abandon until the entry of Franco’s troops into the facilities in 1939,” continues Moles.
During that time and organized in the form of a cooperative, Ràdio Associació adapted the lexicon to the needs and demands of the moment. “Current events, culture, territorial decentralization with the creation of Ràdio Girona, Ràdio Lleida, and the agreements in Ràdio Tarragona and the different solidarity campaigns that are proposed, led it to be a reference for the country,” highlights Moles.
In 1941, in a controversial assembly of the RAC cooperative, the sale and change of name to Radio España de Barcelona was resolved. The Catalan language would have to wait a long time to return to the airwaves.
