Today marks the centenary of radio in Cuba. On August 22, 1922, Luís Casas Romero began to carry out the systematic transmissions of the station that he identified as 2LC.

About this fact, the researcher, broadcaster, writer and program director Oscar Luís López specified in his book La Radio en Cuba:

"A remarkable Cuban musician creator of the Creole genre", Luís Casas Romero (at that time lieutenant and deputy director of the Cuban Band of the Army General Staff), was one of the first to take an interest in the curious electrical phenomena associated with music. Together with his son, Luís Casas Rodríguez, he wanted to take a more advanced step: build a signal-emitting team. ”

Oscar Luís López explained that already in 1920 he installed an amateur plant and later built a small station that, with the permission of the Secretary of Communications, went on the air with the acronym 2LC.

And he added: "It began its transmissions on August 22, 1922, although it was not officially inaugurated until April 16, 1923, operating in the 360-meter band."

Oscar Luís López also pointed out in his book La Radio en Cuba when referring to the characteristics of the initial programming of 2LC that went on the air shortly before nine at night.

And he also explained:

“With a small toy bugle, Casas himself played a wake-up call. Afterwards, an identification signal was maintained, giving rhythmic blows on the metal of the small cornet(an effect similar to the tick-tock of the Radio Reloj plant), until the traditional cannon shot from La Cabaña Fortress indicated to the habaneros that they had given the nine hours past the meridian.”

He explained that Luís Casas would then play a chord on the little cornet and give the following message: "It's nine o'clock."

The researcher Oscar Luís López specified that a bulletin on the state of the weather was immediately offered.

And it also meant: “This is how the first radio news program was born in our country.”

He also assured that 2LC was the first station that put its signal in the ether from Cuban soil, giving the time with the cannon shot at nine and the part of the National Observatory on a regular basis.

Between 1922 and 1928, when 2LC ceased, this station expanded its live programming and even maintained six hours of daily transmission.

A century after systematic radio transmissions began in Cuba, our country has a system made up of 100 stations, one that emerged in 1961 with an international projection, another group of national stations, Radio Rebelde, Radio Progreso, Radio Reloj, Radio Taino, Radio Popular Encyclopedia and CMBF National Musical Radio.

There are also two others that, although they do not cover the entire national territory, but can be heard in several provinces, such as Radio Cadena Habana, and Habana Radio.

Also in all the capital cities of the provinces there are stations whose signal covers the entire corresponding territory and there are also several dozen stations with a territorial scope, there are even some that carry out important work in somewhat remote areas or communities.

Most of the stations also have web pages and participate very actively in social networks.

In Havana there are three provincial stations: Radio Ciudad, COCO and Radio Metropolitana.

In the context of the activities for the centenary of Cuban Radio, Josefa Bracero Torres gave a master conference entitled "Historic Evolution of Radio in Cuba", in the Che Guevara room, of Casa de las Américas, this March 28.

The 2004 National Radio Award winner recounted the evolution of Cuban Radio in these hundred years of creation, based on some personal experiences that began her journey in Camagüey, the hometown of the radio host and writer, whose research led her to capture the issue in several volumes.

«The radio is the set of those voices that we do not know where they come from, but feel very close, surround us, enslave and make families sigh in total silence, only with the voices as witnesses».

«The radio is enchanting and one of its great merits is to make one dream of a teaching profession dependent on voices and their domain. It is a group made up of announcers, actors and actresses, and sometimes journalists, and although it may seem like a contradiction, by not having an image, it allows the listener to make the judgment only of what is heard, "emphasized the also journalist.

On the occasion of the centenary of radio in Cuba, we send our greetings and recognition to all those who have contributed to the development of this important means of dissemination of our country that serves as a vehicle for information, orientation and recreation in the life of our people.