MICHAEL B. SALWEN • I Nic .. ..... iMr a. Cuban radio and television before Fidel Castro's revolution were rich with domestically produced soap operas, live sporting events, lavish song-and-dance programs, and raucous political commentators. Cuba's 156 radio stations and 27 television stations sought the best talent from around the world. They paid large sums for exclusive rights to broadcast baseball games and boxing matches. All of these endeavors were overshadowed by Castro's revolution. Radio and Television in Cuba: The Pre-Castro Era describes broadcasting in Cuba during the 40-year period before the Communist government nationalized all mass media in the early 1960s. Micheal Salwen explores some major themes: the alleged corruption of the broadcast media, the eco- nomic conditions in which the media operated, the political conditions in Cuba and issues related to freedom of the press. He brings together documents and interviews with leading Cuban broadcasters from the pre-Castro era to shed some light on Cuban broadcasting during this significant period. Michael B. Salwen is associate professor, Journalism and Photography Program, School of Commu- nication, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. His research has included international mass media and the social effects of mass communication. He is co-author of Latin American Journalism and is the book review editor of World Communication. He has published in Journalism Quarterly, Newspaper Research Journal, Critical Studies in Mass Communica- tion, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, and Gazette. He also has served as head of the International Communication Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Revolutionary change in Cuba is inevi- table, and as has been the case in the past, the electronic media will play an integral role in that change. When looking forward in anticipation of dramatic change, it is usually useful to also look back. Know- ing the history of Cuban radio and television is aprerequisite to understanding what contribution the electronic media will make in the island's future. —John Spicer Nichols From the Foreword ALSO BY IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS Mass Communications in the Caribbean John A. Lent 1990,412 pp., 6x 9, hardcover, ISBN 0-8138-1182-1 The World News Prism: Changing Media of International Communication, Third Edition William A. Hachten 1992, 240 pp., 5 1/2 x8 1/2, paper, ISBN 0-8138-1577-0 .‘ RNALISM BRUJi it RE PLEASE ('ALL 1-M1-862-6657 Unigt 9 '0 Radio and Television in Cuba The Pre-Castro Era MICHAEL B. SALWEN Iowa State University Press /Ames &lichee' B. Salwen is associate professor, Journalism and Photography Program, School of Communication, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. 0 1994 Iowa Stale University Press, Ames, Iowa 50014 All rights reserved Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by Iowa Stale University Press, provided that the base fee of $.10 per copy is paid directly to the Copynght Clearance Center, 27 Congress Street, Salem, MA 01970. For those organizations that have been granted a photocopy license by CCC, aseparate system of payments has been arranged. The fee code for users of the Transactional Reporting Service is 0-8138-2180- 0/94 5.10. tze Printed on acid-free paper in the United States of America First edition, 1994 Library a Congress Cataloging-in-Publicalion Data Salwen, Michael Brian Radio and television in Cuba: the pre-Castro era / Michael B Salwen. — 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8138-2180-0 (alk. paper) 1. Radio broadcasting—Cuba—History. 2 Television broadcasting—Cuba—History. I Title PN1991.3.C8S25 1994 384.54'097291—dc20 94-17023 Contents Foreword by John Spicer Nichols, vii Preface, xiii 1. When It All Began, 3 2. Goar Mestre and CMQ Radio, 19 3. First in Cuban Television, 34 4. Havana's Television Market, 48 5. Transition from Radio to Television, 62 6. TV Comes of Age, 77 7. Batistas Legacy of Censorship, 93 8. The Precarious Years, 108 9. Castro Comes to Power, 122 10. Freedom of the Press in Castro's Cuba, 138 11. The Great Debate over Communism, 152 12. The Omnipresent Microphones, 167 Notes, 171 Index, 201 V INFW•Iffl-" • ____ v1rrJ IMMIffl• à •-• • > • • ad. ear - I. I. e alr 41. i'fir ,11 a •• . ru. ,11•••4 ...••••gg• ••••>• di • ...or. ••P•.• • ••r> • ••• ••• arrr.•••• • — «MI • a. • --II •-• ABM. I.. I mould.' i. airgra, Foreword evolutionary change in Cuba is inevi- table, and as has been the case in the past, the electronic media will play an integral role in that change. When looking forward in anticipation of dramatic change, it is usually useful to also look back. Knowing the history of Cuban radio and television is a prerequisite to understanding what contribution the electronic media will make in the island's future. Radio and Television in Cuba: The Pre-Castro Era is the most complete and, by far, the best history in any language of the broadcast media of pre-revolutionary Cuba. Michael B. Salwen has effectively pulled together the scattered writings on the subject and has greatly expanded the knowledge base with contemporary reporting. Of particular importance are Professor Salwen's extensive interviews with the pioneers of Cuban radio and television, many of whom later contributed to the development of the electronic media in other Latin American countries and the United States or played significant roles in the Byzantine world of anti-Castro politics. Collecting oral histories from the first generation of Cuban broadcasters before these valuable primary sources pass on and publishing the fruits of those interviews at atime of fundamental change in Cuba are major contributions to the field of international communications and Cuban studies. At this writing in late 1993, change in Cuba is not only inevitable but, to a large extent, already under way. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's patron for three decades, the island's economy is in a tailspin and the socialist government of Fidel Castro is in political isolation. In the early 1990s, the national income fell nearly 50 percent. Shortages in food and basic goods have led to significant popular dissatisfaction, alienation and increasing political tension. President Castro's uncompromising rhetoric of "Socialism or Death" notwith- vi viii FOREWORD standing, the country has been rapidly moving toward amixed economy more closely integrated with the Western capitalist system. Some analysts believe that, with these reforms, Castro and Cuban communism might be able to weather this hurricane-force storm but re-emerge badly battered and forever transformed. Others argue that the reforms are too little, too late; that the process probably will turn violent; and that the fall of the Castro regime is imminent.' In either case, Cuba is also on the threshold of radical change in the structure, function and ideology of its print and electronic media. What will this new Cuban media system look like? What role will it play for a transformed Cuban society? The stale, nearly lifeless Leninist model, under which the Cuban media now operate, will almost certainly be rejected. But, by the same token, Cubans are similarly suspicious of the crass U.S. commercial model that preceded it. Therefore, will some new, innovative formula for public communication emerge? Again, understanding the history of the Cuban media is important, perhaps essential, in answering these questions. Salwen details how Cuban entrepreneurs of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s built a technologically modern, advertising-financed, ratings- driven, entertainment-dominated broadcasting system that was largely modeled after that of the United States. With financial programming and logistical support from U.S. networks and advertisers, these Cuban businessmen became wealthy by airing game shows, soap operas and sports to a nation mired in poverty and inequality. Salwen further describes the ham-handed political control of radio and television by the Cuban government and occasionally by the U.S. government. The Cuban Revolution was, in significant part, a nationalistic movement to free the country from the economic and political control of the United States and Cuban oligarchy. Castro, who had successfully used clandestine radio in his guerrilla campaign to overthrow the Batista dictatorship in Cuba, viewed the broadcast media as precious resources for fostering revolution. 2 As Salwen describes in Chapters 9, 10 and 11, all media were under official control within two years after Castro assumed the leadership of Cuba in 1959. The most obvious purpose of government and party control of the media was to eliminate open opposition to the revolution. Castro saw little value in leaving the media in the hands of private owners who undoubtedly would use them to block revolutionary change. However, more important in Castro's view, central control of the media allowed the government to use them to achieve the major revolutionary goals of mass integration, education and mobilization. "If we want to overcome the gap which separates us from the developed world," he said, "... our FOREWORD ix resources [must be] used in a rational, organized way. There is no room for waste. We don't have the luxury of following the path of free competition to achieve economic development." 3 Castro believed that Cuban media resources, which were relatively well developed under private ownership during the pre-revolutionary period, must be used as a government tool for national development. Of particular interest to Castro was the media's potential for fighting widespread illiteracy in Cuba. In the 1950s, at least 24 percent of all Cubans and 42 percent of those living in the grinding poverty of the countryside could neither read nor write a simple declarative sentence.