Radio Mozambique – The History
| This article was originally broadcast over AWR in their “Wavescan” program and now forms part of the Radio Heritage Collection ©. All rights reserved to Ragusa Media Group, PO Box 14339, Wellington, New Zealand. This material is licenced on a non-exclusive basis to South Pacific DX Resource hosted on radiodx.com for a period of five years from May 1 2002. Author: Adrian Peterson |
Radio Mozambique, March 18, 1933
The African nation of Mozamique lies on the south east coast of the continent. It has an area of 300,000 square miles and a frontage on the Indian Ocean of 1,500 miles. The mighty Zambesi River, from which the country takes its name, flows through the center of Mozambique and empties into the Indian Ocean at Chinde.
The Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, visited Mozambique in 1498. At the time, Arabs were living in the area. Today, there are around 10 million people living in Mozambique, most of whom belong to various Bantu tribes, although there are also several thousand Portuguese, Indian and Chinese people living in the country. The national language is Portuguese, though many ethnic languages are in regular usage.
The capital city is Lorenco Marques, as it was known in colonial days, or Maputo, as it it is known today.
As in several other Portuguese countries, the first radio broadcasting service in Mozambique was operated by a radio club, and in this case, the Radio Club of Mozambique. This radio club was a non-profit organization, subsidized by the govemnent and by commercial advertising.
The first broadcast from the new Radio Club of Mozambique went on the air on March 18, 1933, just 69 years ago yesterday. This station was licensed with the callsign CR7AA and it operated with 300 watts on the tropical shortwave channel 3543 kHz.
During the next few years, several additional transmitters were installed until in 1945 there were seven shortwave transmitters on the air; three at 300 watt, three at 600 watt, and one at 10 kW. These transmitters were all on the air under callisgns in the twin series, CR7A & CR7B. The best known outlet was the 10 kW CR7BE, which was heard and verified by many listeners in those days in Australia and New Zealand.
These days, Radio Mozambique is on the air with a nationwide network of mediumwave, FM and shortwave stations. The current edition of the World Radio TV Handbook lists thirteen mediumwave transmitters, mainly at 50 kW, and there are just as many FM stations also.
On the shortwave scene, Radio Mozambique is on the air with eleven outlets at two different locations, Maputo and Beira, and they range in power up to 120 kW.
