Radio Days

Radio Days

A trip to Cuba is like traveling backwards in a time machine. We’ve all seen the old cars still plying the streets of Old Havana and Vedado. But less known, perhaps, is the prominence of radio in the country’s communications. It’s far more patronized and important than television.

Yes, your hotel room in Havana has a TV set, but it is hooked up to satellite receivers unavailable legally to the man in the street. In your hotel room you can even get CNN, but a Havana man depends upon Radio Progreso for most of his news and some of his entertainment. Radio Progreso, owned and operated by the Cuban government presents news, music, talk shows, soap operas, and educational programming. You can listen to it on 630 kilo Hertz in many parts of Florida.

One daily educational show is about farming, and twice a week Nora Garcia presents a program on caring for your dogs and cats. Her shows are popular and heeded by a population that loves their pets but can’t afford veterinarians or prepared dog food.

Nora deals on the radio with timely issues to help pet owners and their animals. For instance, last November we visited Radio Progreso, just around the corner from Havana’s beautiful Hotel Nacional. It was the height of the H1N1 swine flu scare, and a rumor had started that you could catch the deadly flu from your dog or cat. Nora put that rumor to rest in no uncertain terms in her Saturday morning talk. There is no way to measure how many animals were saved from being banished from their homes in a hysterical, rumor-driven wave of fear, but Nora’s voice for the animals is known and respected, and reason prevailed in Cuba as swine flu season passed.

Radio Progreso has a big neon sign (probably straight out of the 1940’s) on its old building, and I had seen it several times before we arranged to watch Nora’s show. On arrival, we had to be admitted by the station manager, who turned out to be a genial host. But, as we entered, we had one more reminder of the old-timey Cuban environment. He apologized, telling us we’d have to use the stairs to the 4th floor studio as the elevator was on the fritz.

It was worth the climb to see another aspect of the tough fight Nora and Aniplant wage to protect animals in Cuba. a fight I’m proud to be a small part of.

Les Inglis