New Book on Santiago de Cuba’s Radio Hits the Stands

Journalist and producer Eric Caraballoso’s book, entitled “The Word on the Air (La palabra en el aire)”, has been recently launched in Santiago de Cuba City. The book was put on the map during a moving activity held at the Hall of Stained-glass Windows, thanks to the joint actions carried out by the Caguayo Foundation and Editorial Oriente.

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This volume is part of the collection named: “The Artistic and Literary Culture in Santiago de Cuba. Half a Millennium (La cultura artística y literaria en Santiago de Cuba. Medio milenio)”. In 271 pages, "The Word..." reflects a part of the radio’s history in the city and includes representative moments of the mean in the easternmost region and Cuba.

The Excelencias Group invites you to enjoy writer Reynaldo Cedeño’s introduction words:
“García Márquez says that his grandmother never took her clothes off in front of the radio… just in case there was somebody watching. Remember the huge size of radio receivers at the time. As we all know, throughout the years the radio has been miniaturized and it has gone global.

When the television was put on the map, many people labeled the radio a little sister or stepsister. Therefore, they thought it would pass away. The same happened with the Internet; but the radio stands firm, loyal, omnipresent, accompanying people, capable of going where nothing or nobody can going. Voice, sound, effects, silence: there is something special about all of them.

Who could say how many hours have the Santiago radio stations been on the air? From the experimental ones back in the 1920s or 30s, to those that have accompanies the people of the easternmost region of Cuba for several decades.

Nevertheless, the radio has suffered from a scandalous lack of memory. Who deals with its analysis, systematization and study, finds more memories than samples, more names and anecdotes than scripts and recordings, dates hanging on the air. That’s a handicap, which is usually insuperable.   

(…)The Word on the Air. Memories of the Santiago Radio brings back such pioneers as Arturo C. de Ribas and the CMKA broadcasting from the basement of his house —a place that presently houses the Sonrisas al mundo kindergarten at Vista Alegre neighborhood—, CMKD and the Palace of the Tower, Félix B. Caignet and his Chan Li Po, actress Lupe Suárez, the indomitable memory of Cliserio Romero and the teachings of the quasi-forgotten CMKR.
 
Likewise, it tackles the marketing stage and the ups and downs of Cadena Oriental de Radio. It goes over the steps of singular Radio Valpín and CMKC, the presence of Luis Carbonell or strategies to support the Revolution with such figures as Gloria Cuadras and Noel Pérez.

In the 264 pages of The Word on the Air. Memories of the Santiago Radio, Eric Caraballoso Díaz revisits the words and faces of some of the pillars of the radio in Santiago de Cuba. It’s moving.

Some of them have already passed away; there are others who are pushing the dreaming. Ruperto Pérez López and Ernesto Medialdea come to our mind; Nilda G. Alemán, a great formative influence on radio enthusiasts; the nubile face of Mrs. Ileana Navarro and the multifaceted Ado Sanz Milá; master José Julián Padilla, and Rolando González. Journalist Nereyda Barceló once said that it has never been the same without him.
 
Antonio Lloga, the magician of drama; Soler Puig without minimizing the radio, the incombustible Raúl Ibarra and the gallant writer of Objetivo X, Emilio Tamayo. The talk with Maricela Carbonell and Jorge Luis Colomé is a delicate piece of work.
 
The author reviews the parallel careers of both Radio Mambí and Radio Siboney, like a bet on passion. I look at Consuelo Almaguer and I recall her profound spirit, capable of conquering Santiago; María Elena Pineda, with her radio stories or Iván Clavería, who generously writes pieces of history on a daily basis.

Like a spell, the book comes to an end with interviews to the Radio National Award winners Julián Ercilio Navarro Coello—with his unique and deep voice—, José Armando Guzmán Cabrales — my close neighbor—; the unforgettable Noel Pérez Batista, actress Rebeca Hung, and Juan Antonio Balbuena Céspedes, the most courteous operator I’ve ever met. This is just a glimpse.

Eric Caraballoso has a special sense to write these lines, great capacity to make up the mosaic and string together the ideas, his tact to value the contributions of these people. These features made him include details that would have been skipped by other people, figures like effects specialist Gerardo Gómez Mederos, Yayo, or the radio broadcasted from Cauto River or the mountain.

The Word in the Air. Memories of the Santiago Radio is, undoubtedly, a substantial book; although the rich of Santiago seems to be boundless. My guess is that the author will unveil other pages in the future. I hope other people dare to organize their own memories.

The author expresses in the first line: “This is not the history of the radio in Santiago de Cuba; it’s just an outline, an accelerated panorama”. A panorama to be celebrated, that’s for sure.

Look at these faces, look inside and take a closer look. Radio is unbeatable.