Radio Guarachita was a radio station based in

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

History

Radio Guarachita was founded in 1964 in the

bachata Bachata may refer to: * Bachata (music), a musical genre which originated in the Dominican Republic ** Traditional bachata, a subgenre of bachata music ** Bachata (dance), a dance form * Bachatón, a hybrid bachata/reggaeton music style * "Bach ...

producer and impresario Radhames Aracena. After a year of test runs, Radio Guarachita was launched on the 690 AM frequency in 1965. Along with DJs Cuco Valoy on Radio Tropical and Charlie-Charlie on La Voz del Tropico,

Aracena Aracena () is a town and municipality located in the province of Huelva, southwestern Spain. , the city has a population of 7,814 inhabitants. The town derived its name from the Sierra de Aracena, which is part of the Sierra Morena system. Arac ...

and Radio Guarachita were among the first DJs to play

on the Dominican airwaves. Since Radio Guarachita was on the AM frequency, it had national reach, and appealed to the rural audience of the

. It had interactive programs where the DJ would read listeners’ mail, and the audience also could phone in and make personal announcements at any time of day. These 24/7 public announcements encouraged listeners to tune in all day, on lookout for important news. Usually, whenever people migrated from the rural countryside to

in search of a family member, they would go directly to Radio Guarachita as they didn’t know their address. An announcement would be made and the family members would pick them up at the station. Guarachita became a fixture of life for a large segment of the Dominican population. After a few years, thanks to Radio Guarachita’s success, Radhames Aracena was able to expand his business and create a

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for Sound recording and reproduction, recording and Audio mixing, mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home proje ...

in his home, open a pressing plant, and two record labels, ‘Discos Guarachita’ and ‘Zuni’ (named after his wife Zunilda.) Empresas Guarachita was a staple of the bachata industry in the

. Many of the great

artists got their first break thanks to Radio Guarachita. These include Jose Manuel Calderon,

Leonardo Paniagua Leonardo Paniagua (born August 5, 1945) is one of the Dominican Republic's most popular bachata musicians. He emerged from obscurity to overnight stardom in the 1970s, when he recorded his first 45rpm record, "Amada, Amante" for Discos Guarachita ...

, Blas Duran, Eladio Romero Santos, Edilio Paredes and Ramon Cordero. Merengue tipico artists who have collaborated with Radio Guarachita include Tatico Henriquez, Fefita La Grande, and Guandulito. Radhames Aracena died on December 11, 1999, from an open-heart surgery complication and Radio Guarachita was sold soon after. It now lives in the memory of the Dominican people, and its influence is heard in today’s bachata.

Bibliography

* Deborah Pacini Hernandez,
Bachata: A Social History of Dominican Popular Music
', Temple University Press, USA, 1995.

References

iASO Records - Radhames Aracena and Radio Guarachita
{{Authority control Radio stations in the Dominican Republic Record labels established in 1964 Record labels disestablished in 2000 Defunct record labels Radio stations established in 1965 Radio stations disestablished in 2000 Defunct mass media in the Dominican Republic