This is the Uruguayan History section of
The Broadcast Archive

Maintained by:

Barry Mishkind - The Eclectic Engineer

Uruguayan Broadcasting:

  • History
  • Regulation
  • Station Identifications

Uruguay Broadcast History:

Early in 1921 the General Electric Co. in Montevideo started to sell galena radio receivers. Of course, at that time, there were no radio transmitters on air aside from the government telegraph station. So, the listeners were hearing the magic of dots and dashes ... and nothing else.

Then in the spring of 1922 General Electric put a 10 Watt transmitter on air in order to provide something for the receiver buyers to listen to. There is no specific data for the precise date, but it is accepted that it was few days before the BBC was on air in April 1922. 

By October 1, 1922, the first soccer radio transmission was on air. Some have suggested it is the first soccer game to be broadcast in the world ...

In 1923 this station became CWOS, "Radio Sud América General Electric," with a powerful 1 kW transmitter.

On May 15, 1931, the station changed its name to the current one, "Radio El Espectador", on 810 kHz.

On May 2, 1960, the first FM broadcasting, "Radio Rio de la Plata", was on air in Montevideo. Its official name is "Del Plata FM, 95.5 MHz".

Today there are about 100 AM and 100 FM stations in the country.  The official governmental broadcasting service is SODRE (Servicio Oficial de Difusión, Radiotelevisión y Espectáculos. Formerly, it meant Servicio Oficial de Difusión Radio Eléctrica.) It runs the stations on 650, 1050 and 1290 in Montevideo, as well as an FM at 97.1 and TV Channel 5. 

Among the more popular programs on Uruguayan radio are the Football (Soccer) matches. 

Stay tuned for more!

Regulation: Uruguay is a a republican country, divided into 19 "Departamentos". It is not a Federal country, so each "Departamento" has a great dependence for the Central Government. There is no Federal Laws. Montevideo is one of the 19 "Departamentos" and it is the capital city.

Early regulation of broadcasting

The current regulatory body is the DNC (Dirección Nacional de Comunicaciones).

Station Identification:

 

My sincere thanks to Jose Vargues for his kind assistance information on this page.

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We have used many sources, including FCC files, university lecturers, historical publications and more, and have tried to be as accurate as possible, not repeating many of the myths of the industry (such as the Uncle Don Story) nor histories "manufactured" by promotion departments. However, I am not perfect, and may well have overlooked something. If you do see an error or omission, please let me know.

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