Radio Nacional de España (acronym RNE, branded rne, "National Radio of Spain") is the national
state-owned
State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public owne ...
public service
A public service is any service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community. Public services are available to people within a government jurisdiction as provided directly through public sector agencies ...
radio broadcaster in Spain.
RNE is the radio division and
Televisión Española
Televisión Española (acronym TVE, branded tve, "Spanish Television") is Spain's national state-owned public television broadcaster and the oldest regular television service in the country. It was also the first regular television service in ...
(TVE) is the television division of
Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE), the public corporation which has the overall responsibility for the national broadcasting public services under a
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
-appointed
president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
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
Prado del Rey is a city located in the province of Cádiz, Spain. According to the 2005 census, the city has a population of 5,968 inhabitants.
History
Human remains have been found dating back to the Paleolithic but the first mention in anci ...
in
Pozuelo de Alarcón
Pozuelo de Alarcón () is a municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Bordering the Moncloa-Aravaca district of Madrid proper to its west, Pozuelo de Alarcón is surrounded by large Mediterranean pine-tree forests: the Casa de Campo, the ...
.
Origins of RNE
RNE officially came into existence in
Salamanca
Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Herit ...
on 19 January 1937, at the height of the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
(1936–39), and was dependent upon the recently created ' (State Delegation for Press and Propaganda). The station's studios were in Palacio de Anaya, the headquarters of the ' (Office for Press and Propaganda), whose first directors were also those of RNE.
RNE's first
transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...
, which had a broadcasting power of 20 kW and was constructed by
Telefunken
Telefunken was a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the ''Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (AEG) ('General electricity company').
The name "Telefunken" ap ...
, was a gift from the government of the
Third Reich
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
to
Francoist Spain
Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spani ...
.
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 ', 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
On 6 October 1939, at the conclusion of the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
, the leader of the victorious
Nationalist forces, General
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and thereafter ruled over Spain from 193 ...
, issued an order subjecting private radio broadcasting to censorship by the official political party of the state, ', and furthermore granting RNE the exclusive right to transmit
news bulletin
Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...
s.
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 '.
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
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and fr ...
, as well as the programmes of Radio España Independiente, which was a radio station established by the Communist Party of Spain in exile in Moscow (although known as ' since it was believed to broadcast from a location somewhere in the Pyrenees).
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
Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 m ...
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
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
.
In 1940, RNE's headquarters were transferred to
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
. During this post-
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
and early
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
era – before the
Allied arrival in Italy in 1943 and the German retreat from
Stalingrad
Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stalingrád, label=none; ) ...
– RNE collaborated with the
Axis powers
The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
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 European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the C ...
.
The end of the 1950s and beginning of the 1960s saw the introduction of advanced technologies such as
frequency modulation
Frequency modulation (FM) is the encoding of information in a carrier wave by varying the instantaneous frequency of the wave. The technology is used in telecommunications, radio broadcasting, signal processing, and computing.
In analog ...
(FM) and transmissions in stereo. A parallel commercial channel, ''Radio Peninsular'', was also created.
The 1960s and 1970s: a time of growth
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
Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the dayt ...
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
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, although provision was made for them to
opt out The term opt-out refers to several methods by which individuals can avoid receiving unsolicited product or service information. This option is usually associated with direct marketing campaigns such as e-mail marketing or direct mail. A list of thos ...
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
Transmission may refer to:
Medicine, science and technology
* Power transmission
** Electric power transmission
** Propulsion transmission, technology allowing controlled application of power
*** Automatic transmission
*** Manual transmission
** ...
. This network eventually became the RNE channel which is today known as
Radio Clásica
Radio Clásica is a Spanish free-to-air radio station owned and operated by Radio Nacional de España (RNE), the radio division of state-owned public broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). It is the corporation's second radio station, a ...
.
In 1971 a new
shortwave
Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...
transmitter was inaugurated at
Noblejas
Noblejas is a municipality of Spain located in the province of Toledo, Castilla–La Mancha. The municipality spans across a total area of 69.67 km2 and, as of 1 January 2021, it has a registered population of 3,721.
Radio Exterior (the Spani ...
in the
province of Toledo
Toledo is a province of central Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. It is bordered by the provinces of Madrid, Cuenca, Ciudad Real, Badajoz, Cáceres, and Ávila. Its capital is the city of Toledo.
...
. Intended for the broadcasting of RNE's external services (now
Radio Exterior
Radio Exterior de España (REE) or simply Radio Exterior is a Spanish free-to-air radio station owned and operated by Radio Nacional de España (RNE), the radio division of state-owned public broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). It is t ...
), 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
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...
, directed at audiences behind the "
iron curtain
The Iron Curtain was the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its ...
", were withdrawn in favour of programmes intended for
Spaniards
Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both ...
and other Spanish-speaking people abroad.
The democratic era
The arrival of
democracy to Spain after the death of
Franco
Franco may refer to:
Name
* Franco (name)
* Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975
* Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître"
Prefix
* Franco, a prefix used when ref ...
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 ' (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 ' (National Confederation of Trade Unions), ', and ' (The Spanish Youth Organisation). These stations were merged in 1978 into ''Radiocadena Española'' (Spanish Radio Network). However, some of the transmitters had to be closed down because their
frequencies
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from ''angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is e ...
were not included in those assigned to Spain in the international agreements covering the distribution of the radio broadcasting spectrum. ''Radiocadena Española'' was merged in 1988 into Radio Nacional de España to form
Ràdio 4 (broadcasting in
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
) and
Radio 5 (All-news radio station broadcasting in
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
).
RNE today
In 1989, ''Radiocadena Española'' and ''Radio Nacional'' were combined to produce the current format of six themed radio channels:
*
Radio Nacional (previously Radio 1) –
Generalist channel
A generalist channel is a television or radio channel whose target audience is not confined to a particular set of people, but instead aims to offer a wide range of programs and program genres to a diverse general public. In radio, this is someti ...
with a broad spectrum of mostly speech-based programming.
*
Radio Clásica
Radio Clásica is a Spanish free-to-air radio station owned and operated by Radio Nacional de España (RNE), the radio division of state-owned public broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). It is the corporation's second radio station, a ...
(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.
*
Ràdio 4 – Regional broadcasting in the
Catalan language
Catalan (; autonym: , ), known in the Valencian Community and Carche as '' Valencian'' (autonym: ), is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern ...
.
*
Radio 5 – 24-hour news.
*
Radio Exterior
Radio Exterior de España (REE) or simply Radio Exterior is a Spanish free-to-air radio station owned and operated by Radio Nacional de España (RNE), the radio division of state-owned public broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). It is t ...
–
International broadcasting
International broadcasting, in a limited extent, began during World War I, when German and British stations broadcast press communiqués using Morse code. With the severing of Germany's undersea cables, the wireless telegraph station in Nauen was ...
service on short wave, with an audience of 80 million listeners (surpassed only by the
BBC and
Vatican Radio
Vatican Radio ( it, Radio Vaticana; la, Statio Radiophonica Vaticana) is the official broadcasting service of Vatican City.
Established in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi, today its programs are offered in 47 languages, and are sent out on short wave, ...
). This station is also transmitted via
DAB
DAB, dab, dabs, or dabbing may refer to:
Dictionaries
* '' Dictionary of American Biography'', published under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies
* ''Dictionary of Australian Biography'', published since 1949
Places
* Dą ...
for Spain and by
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...
. Transmissions are in Spanish, French,
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
,
Ladino,
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
, Russian and English.
These stations are also availabl
onlineand via
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...
(see External Links below).
Integrated into the state public broadcasting body RTVE (Radiotelevisión Española) 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".
Like its television broadcasting sister organisation,
TVE
TVE may stand for:
Television
* Televisión Española, a Spanish state-owned public-service television broadcaster
** TVE HD, a high-definition channel run by Televisión Española
* Televisão Educativa, a defunct Brazilian TV network
* TV Eduk ...
, ' 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
Felipe VI (;,
* eu, Felipe VI.a,
* ca, Felip VI,
* gl, Filipe VI, . Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Grecia; born 30 January 1968) is King of Spain. He is the son of former King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía, and ...
and
Princess Letizia
Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano (; born 15 September 1972) is the Queen of Spain as the wife of King Felipe VI. She came from a middle-class family and worked as a journalist for ''ABC'' and EFE before becoming a news anchor at CNN+ and Televisión ...
.
Logos and identities
RNE (1956-1962).png, Logo of Radio Nacional de España (RNE) between the official birth of TVE in 1956 and 1962.
Logo RNE, años 70.svg, Logo of RNE between the change of RTVE logo in 1962 and 1971.
RNE (1971-1976).png, Logo of RNE between 1971 and 1976.
RNE (1976-1980).png, Logo of RNE between 1971 and 1976.
File:RNE 1978.png, Logo of RNE between 1976 and 1980.
RNE.png, Previous logo, used between 1980 and 2008.
Logo RNE (1989-1991).png, Blue version of the logo, used during the unification of the image of RNE radios, between 1989 and 1991
Logo RNE.svg, Current logo of RNE, used since 2008
Station logos
File:Logo RNE.svg, Radio Nacional
File:Radio Clásica RNE Spain.svg, Radio Clásica
File:Radio 3 RNE Spain.svg, Radio 3
File:Ràdio 4 RNE Spain.svg, Ràdio 4
File:Radio 5 RNE Spain.svg, Radio 5
File:Radio Exterior RNE Spain.svg, Radio Exterior
See also
*
List of radio stations in Spain
This is a list of radio stations broadcast in Spain.
National public radio service
RNE is Spain's national public radio broadcaster and operates six stations:
* Radio Nacional - General service of mostly speech-based programming
* Radio Clásica ...
*
List of public service radio stations
This article contains the names of public service broadcasters and their radio channels. "Public service broadcaster" is a term for a very diverse range of mass media organizations. They are maintained or owned by the government of a country, s ...
Notes
External links
History of radio in Spain from Portalmundos.com (in Spanish)Official website of Radio Nacional de España (in Spanish)*[https://archive.today/20130213044918/http://www.rne.es/FRONT_PROGRAMAS?go=111b735a516af85c434ac767f82084febab4c327bc2b44a18dbab4b238fd3abdfebb3df275811e20aba39ef1821025aa13939f3e5970214b1a0c8a78a7c3fdefbe512f0651108424 RNE podcasts (in Spanish)]
Official website of RTVE (in Spanish)English version of the ''Radio Exterior de España'' website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Radio Nacional de Espana
Radio stations established in 1973
Radio stations in Spain
RTVE