Radio Mil Diez (or Radio 1010) was a radio station broadcasting from

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.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 ...

, owned by the Popular Socialist Party (PSP). Radio Mil Diez broadcast for five years, between 1943 and 1948, and played an important role in shaping contemporary Cuban music.

Emergence

Following the entry of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in the war against

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

the Cuban communists re-emerged as a legal political party, the PSP. The party purchased Radio Lavín and converted it into Radio Mil Diez in 1943. The first broadcast was made on April 1, 1943. The name reflected the dial sign (1010). Radio Mil Diez became an important propaganda weapon of the party, and one of the foremost communist media outlets in the Caribbean at the time. The slogans of the radio station were ''La emisora del pueblo'' ('The Broadcaster of the People') and ''Todo lo bueno al servicio del pueblo'' ('All the Best to Serve the People').

Frequency

Radio Mil Diez had the most powerful shortwave radio transmitter in Havana. It broadcast on the frequency 1010 kHz on longwave, with the call sign CMX. On shortwave it used a 32-metre band and the callsign COCX. It was the sole international broadcaster in Cuba at the time.

Music

The radio station rarely played prerecorded music, preferring to give opportunities for live bands. It played an important role in developing Cuban Jazz. Radio Mil Diez featured several prominent artists and orchestras, such as Beny Moré's Trío Matamoros, Arcaño y sus Maravillas and Arsenio Rodriguez. Enrique González Mantici directed the orchestra of Radio Mil Diez. Celia Cruz featured as a singer of the Radio Diez Mil orchestra, whilst Mongo Santamaría was part of its rhythm section. The radio station sponsored several tours of Cruz, then a young rising singer, across the country. Adolfo Guzmán was the musical director of Radio Mil Diez. Other musicians that worked at Radio Diez Mil included Elena Burke, Olga Guillot and Bebo Valdés.''El Caribe''.
Cuba pierde al laureado pianista Bebo Valdés
' Through its cultural profile Radio Mil Diez gained a wide audience amongst the black working class.

Truce with Trujillo

Like the PSP party newspaper ''Hoy'' Radio Mil Diez voiced vehement criticisms of the rule of dictator

Rafael Trujillo Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina ( ; ; 24 October 1891 – 30 May 1961), nicknamed ''El Jefe'' (; "the boss"), was a Dominican military officer and dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from August 1930 until Rafael Trujillo#Assassination, ...

in the neighbouring

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 ...

(the airwaves of Radio Mil Diez reached the Dominican Republic). The anti-Trujillo propaganda from Havana prompted Trujillo to send Ramón Marrero Aristy as his envoy to negotiate with the Cuban PSP. The Cuban PSP agreed to cease the attacks on Trujillo in Radio Mil Diez, in exchange for allowing its Dominican sister party to operate openly. The deal between Trujillo and the Cuban PSP initiated a short period of political liberalization in the Dominican Republic.

Closure

In May 1948 Radio Mil Diez was closed down by the Ramón Grau government.

Revolution

From January 1959 Radio Mil Diez reappeared and voiced enthusiastic support for the

Cuban revolution The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...

, whilst remaining close to the PSP party line of reaffirming support for the communist 'old guard' in the labour movement.

References

{{Authority control Radio stations established in 1943 Radio stations disestablished in 1948 Popular Socialist Party (Cuba) Radio stations in Cuba Mass media in Havana