radio_newscast_cuba

Radio Newscast in Cuba: Past and Present Challenges

“A radio news programs follows the same principles of a show or a movie; only the content changes, but it uses the same mechanisms to attract audiences,” says Ismael Rensoli, director of “Haciendo Radio,” one of the most listened radio news program countrywide that is broadcasted Radio Rebelde station.

“Putting together a newscast is really hard work,” says Demetrio Villaurrutia, head of the National Radio Newscast. “It includes discussing the mistakes made in previous programs with all the staff. We cannot think that today’s newscast will be similar to that of tomorrow. Every program is unique in content and in the challenges they may entail, even when they are done with similar techniques.”

Journalism professor at the Complutense University of Madrid Mariano Cebrián says that the Radio should base its success in intimacy, by creating a close relation between the listener and the person at the other end of the wave.

Experts point out that presently radio professionals show little interest in the radio, its programming, its content and its audience. However; Cuban radio workers advocate for the radio newscasts and think that they will go on forever.

“Although internet and audiovisual media are gaining ground, the radio newscasts will always exist because it has specific features that guarantee its survival,” Renaldo Infante notes.

Cubans like to be informed all the time and through different media, whether it s the TV, the newspapers or the radio. “The key is not to discard any media, but to incorporate other ways of making the information pass through.”

Translated by: Silke Paez