Brazil: Radio MEC AM, founded in 1923, is being closed by the Bolsonora government in Brazil. It transmits on medium wave 800 kHz in Rio de Janiero (100 kW re WRTH 2019) and Brasilia (10 kW re WRTH 2019) as well as on FM. This report (translated from Portuguese) is from newspaper Brasil de Fato July 5t edition, and notes the signal will be turned off on 31 July, 2019
(BDXC)
MEC AM radio, founded in 1923, four years after the emergence of Pernambuco Radio Club, the first in the country, was extinguished by the Broadcasting Brazil of Communication (EBC), as part of the changes required by the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PSL).
The signal will be turned off on July 31st, according to Lauro Jardim, d'O Globo's column. The closure, however, has not yet been officially confirmed nor communicated to the station's employees, founded by anthropologist Edgard Roquette-Pinto under the name Radio Society, was donated in 1936 to the federal government. Internal sources heard off by Brazil's Fato report confirm the closure information.
The acronym MEC stands for “Music, Education and Culture” and works in Rio de Janeiro. On its website, the station claims to have “about 50,000 records and productions” and “a heritage of recordings from testimonials ranging from Getúlio Vargas to Monteiro Lobato, through chronicles by Cecília Meireles and Manuel Bandeira”.
“The programming is totally focused on the diffusion of Brazilian culture. It contemplates all the diversity of Brazilian music, from genres such as choro, regional music, instrumental and concert music. It also has programs dedicated to literature, cinema, drama and the arts as a whole ”, states the description of public radio.
Edition: Pedro Ribeiro Nogueira
(Brasil de Fato)
https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2019/07/05/emissora-mais-antiga-na-ativa-do-brasil-radio-mec-e-extinta-por-governo-bolsonaro/