All for Cuba from all over Cuba: Radio Rebelde vs Covid-19

Given their immediate and effective value, the media must know how to take advantage of their effectiveness in promoting their messages to thus achieve better social education. However, among the urgent battles that have emerged in the last two years, it is unquestionable that the fight against Covid, though not the only one, has burst all over the planet, and its victory depends on how each and every one of us is prepared. 

It is not exclusive to Cuba: In a speech addressed on the occasion of the World Day of the Radio ( February 13, 2016)  Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, described this media as a lifesaver in times of crises and emergencies by contaminating emotions, and later with its rebuilding impetus, in the most remote corners of the planet.  Professor José María Legorburu (2017) had the same opinion and said that the radio has given “a voice to moments of anguish”; it has been asylum, refuge, the sole company of so many people, “it offers focus and context, accompanies without disturbing, consoles helps, reassures, amuses, relieves”, it makes the imagination fly and so on. 

In Cuba, radio is at the forefront and thus, the special program “Todos por Cuba” began its daily transmission of timely messages on the national network as of  March 19, 2020, Day of the Listener and the Radio Family, when the pandemic seemed to many Cubans a distant threat; its first merit is the necessary foresight it envisages, turning into a pioneer in this still ongoing feat. 

Todos por Cuba has its matrix at Radio Rebelde “Emisora ​​de la Revolución” (“since 1958 we have been working with you in mind”, says its slogan), and its digital platforms (www.radiorebelde.cu) through the frequencies of national, provincial and municipal stations, except those with a specialized profile.

Mediates or broadcasts for 20 minutes as of 7 a.m. as part of the newscast Haciendo Radio ( slogan: “We make of the information, a weapon; we make of life, joy”), from Monday to Friday; nowadays including Saturdays and alternating with other spaces. Heading into the first century of Cuban radio, with about one hundred stations throughout Cuba, its service vocation and its commitment to its public are ratified as healthy traditions of such a permanent and current means, which is part of the Cuban radio communication system to guarantee the precise orientation and update the radio-audience in actions to prevent and control COVID-19, and in the progress of the economic and social strategy, unavoidable in its system. 

All of our communication media fulfill this task regarding the pandemic inside and outside Cuba, by facing it with a conscious, disciplined, and serene attitude. This program is distinguished by the truly systemic operation of Cuban radio, a chorus of voices from each and every one of the most distant communities. 

Logically, this informational space on the Radio is also the ideal scenario to congratulate the 24 years of Radio Victoria de Girón in Jagüey Grande, Matanzas. 

Timely information also promotes what is news in relation to the battle against the pandemic, so we can hear Demetrio Villaurrutia reporting on the government visit made to the Margarita citadel (Tamarindo council, Diez de Octubre municipality), and the dialogues of the government authorities with Evelín Arango (neighbor), and Damián Cardonet (Mayor). Another significant aspect of the contents in Todos por Cuba is the one contributed in this case, by journalist Angélica Paredes López, who takes us on a tour with the President,  through the community of El Fanguito, and thereby emphasizes how the structures of the neighborhood, entities, government, and community (Popular Council) operate and thus confirms what Cuba does for the health and well-being of its people in the voices of its true protagonists. 

Produced by Guillermo Piñeiro García, Gabdiel Silva, Manuel Ramírez Heras, and occasionally, Sandra Pol, with the voice of Pedro Martínez Arcos (alternating with Magdiel Pérez), this informative program constitutes an azimuth for other projections in content management that encompass the work of the whole nation. 

It is necessary to open more the informational scope and also listen to the voices of our communicators from the most remote municipalities, where the Radio also reaches, or in its absence, at least with Territorial Studies or correspondents offices.  The battle against and facing-up to the pandemic in Cuba, as part of the universe, needs to raise awareness about the disease, and in one of her reports the journalist Angélica Paredes confirmed it: “individual responsibility is key to winning this collective battle.” 

An audible light bulb is activated every morning to tell us what we are doing, but also what we need to do to overcome the levels of contagion of the Sars-Cov-2 virus that causes  Covid-19. It is the concert of all the stations in the country that, as a “great Radio Rebelde”, rises as a system so that it reaches us all across Cuba, from all over Cuba, and in the voice of all Cuba.