Radio GTMO
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Radio GTMO, officially titled AFN Guantanamo Bay, is the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
military radio station at
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (), officially known as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or NSGB, (also called GTMO, pronounced Gitmo as jargon by the U.S. military) is a United States military base located on of land and water on the shore of Guant ...
(GTMO), in
Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
. Operated locally by
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and Interior Communications Electrician sailors of the
U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...
assigned to the
American Forces Network The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the United States Armed Forces provides to soldiers stationed or assigned overseas, and is headquartered at Fort Meade in Maryland. AFN comprises two sub ...
Europe, the station serves approximately 6,000 American service personnel and their families stationed at the military base. Three different radio programs are broadcast simultaneously, carried on one AM frequency and two FM, but the transmitters situated at 19.941530 N 75.115691 W are only strong enough to cover the base, and are not heard in the rest of Cuba. The station is known for its collection of 22,000 vinyl records and reel-to-reel tapes, kept in place despite orders to the contrary.


History and mission

American military radio has been in operation in Cuba since 1940. The first AFN radio station in Cuba, the precursor to Radio GTMO, was WGBY in 1947, broadcasting from a different location. Radio GTMO moved to its current building in 1964. The mission of the radio station is to entertain and inform the Americans who are stationed at the base. The radio signals transmit throughout the base but they are not strong enough to reach other parts of Cuba, which means that Radio GTMO is not used for US propaganda aimed at Cubans. That specific mission is carried instead by ''
Radio y Televisión Martí Radio y Televisión Martí is an American state-run radio and television international broadcaster based in Miami, Florida, financed by the federal government of the United States through the U.S. Agency for Global Media (formerly Broadcasting ...
'' based in Miami, operating under the umbrella of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, part of the executive branch of the US government. Radio GTMO broadcasts a mix of news and various talk radio programs selected from the continental US on the AM frequency 1340 kHz. AM listeners can hear
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,
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,
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and other American talk shows. Top 40, modern urban music, classic rock and base information announcements are broadcast on the FM band on 102.1 MHz, and
country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
on 103.1 MHz. Most of the music heard on the air is from
digital audio Digital audio is a representation of sound recorded in, or converted into, digital signal (signal processing), digital form. In digital audio, the sound wave of the audio signal is typically encoded as numerical sampling (signal processing), ...
sources, but the vinyl titles may be played on special occasions. The unofficial radio station tag line is "Rockin' in Fidel's Backyard."


Collection of vinyl and tape

The large collection of records and tapes at Radio GTMO was amassed from the 1940s to the 1990s. Most have labels stating they are special Armed Forces issue, not the common retail product. Every item is indexed in a
card catalog A library catalog (or library catalogue in British English) is a register of all bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations. A catalog for a group of libraries is also ...
. Estimates of the value of the collection vary from a speculative $3 million down to $1 million, but many of the titles cannot be sold because they are government property, released by the various record companies to the US military only for radio broadcast, with resale not allowed. A 2007 estimate by AFN concluded that $2 million might be collected if each title could be auctioned online, at an average price of about $100, but for most of the titles there is no method of legal sale. The collection is unique; it is the only intact, active record collection in the
US Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...
. In the 1990s when the US military transitioned to
digital audio Digital audio is a representation of sound recorded in, or converted into, digital signal (signal processing), digital form. In digital audio, the sound wave of the audio signal is typically encoded as numerical sampling (signal processing), ...
, AFN ordered its stations to destroy their vinyl record collections or turn them in to the AFN Broadcast Center in
Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. As of the 2020 census, the city has a population of 314,998. It is the most populous city in th ...
. The Riverside office placed a full set of vinyl records in long-term storage, and sent another complete set to the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
. Stations were also allowed to keep some analog recordings and playback equipment for historical purposes. While the various AFN stations were clearing their shelves of vinyl, Radio GTMO ignored the order and kept their collection. Another attempt by civilian staffers with no authority at the
Defense Media Activity The Defense Media Activity (DMA) is a United States Department of Defense (DoD) field activity. It provides a range of media and services to that aim to "inform, educate, and entertain Department of Defense audiences around the world." The Defen ...
to have the collection destroyed in 2022 was likewise ignored and thwarted by AFN Europe and AFN Headquarters leadership. The collection may eventually end up in a museum, but for now is safe and secure inside Radio GTMO.


References


External links

* {{coord, 19.9195, -75.1472, display=title American Forces Network Guantanamo Bay detention camp Radio stations in Cuba Radio stations established in 1947 Military communications units and formations of the United States English-language radio stations International broadcasters Mass media of the military of the United States Military units and formations established in 1947