The controversy over the closure of Radio Portugal’s International service nearly four years ago seems to be reemerging.
The listeners’ advocate at Portuguese state broadcaster RDP dropped a bombshell on January 30 when she confirmed that the real reason behind the government’s closure of Radio Portugal’s São Gabriel shortwave transmitter site is to sell the land to the private sector.
In her radio program Em Nome do Ouvinte, Paula Cordeiro confirmed the allegations which have been circulating for years following Radio Portugal’s shortwave sign-off in 2011.
A similar complaint made by her predecessor cost him his own job in 2012 as RDP listeners’ advocate, a position which serves as an ombudsman between radio listeners and the corporation, and is appointed by the board at Rádio e Televisão Portugal.
The latest details of this ongoing flack were published by Spanish Listeners Association (AER) on its Facebook page February 13, and taken from a previous post by João Costa of Portugal, on the Facebook page of the O DX Clube Sem Fronteiras, of Brazil.
Apparently, the private sector is interested in the land where the transmitter towers still stand in Pegões, east of Lisbon. For years, however, government officials have reportedly “deceived” the public, according to RDP broadcast employees and listeners, by giving other reasons why they were shutting the São Gabriel Centro Emissor de Ondas Curtas (CEOC).
Among the reasons were that RPD shortwave listeners were diminishing around the world (a claim they failed to back up any audience research figures); the high costs to maintain the center (which were greatly exaggerated in the Portuguese parliament); and work for half the technicians at the site was (even though they had just been hired in 2002).
The São Gabriel site was inaugurated in 1954 with two 100kW transmitters. Even as recently as 2006, two additional high-tech 300kW antennas were unveiled by government officials to cover the United States, Canada and South America.
Cordeiro replaced Mário Figueiredo, whose contract as listener’s advocate was not renewed by the RDP board in 2012. Figueiredo had denounced the restructuring plan that was taking place at RDP, including the plans to sell off the historic CEOC in São Gabriel.
“Without a doubt I was called on the carpet, mainly because of the shortwave issue. But I was in a position and obligated to refute the statements made by the (RTP) president Guilherme Costa,” he recalled in an interview later.
In August 2011, Costa said that maintaining shortwave was “too costly” as well as it was “an obsolete service.”
“Shortwave doesn’t have the audience that is use to have, in addition, those services can be replaced,” adding that he had up until then received 190 letters of protest. “More than half of those came by email from people who can already hear it on the internet.”
(Marty Delfín, Madrid, Spain via dxld yg)
