Radio Havana Cuba

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Radio Havana Cuba
Image:Radio Havana Cuba.jpg
Type	Radio network
Country	Cuba
Availability	International
Owner	Government of Cuba
Key people	Luis López López (General Director), Pedro Otero Cabañas (Chief Editor)
Launch date	May 1, 1961
Website	http://www.rhc.cu/

Radio Havana Cuba (Spanish: Radio Habana Cuba, RHC) is the official government-run international broadcasting station of Cuba. It can be heard in many parts of the world including The United States on shortwave at 6.000Mhz and other frequencies. ^[1]

1 Early History (1960s-1980s)
2 Current broadcasting
3 Interval signal
4 RHC Output (1950-1996)
5 References
6 External links

Although RHC was officially inaugurated in May, 1961, the idea of an international Cuban radio station was born in the Sierra Maestra mountains during the final stage of the fight against Fulgencio Batista. After the creation of Radio Rebelde by Ernesto 'Che' Guevara in February, 1958, the leadership of the guerrilla movement began to analyze the possibility of creating a radio station after achieving final victory. This station would be able to communicate news about the Cuban Revolution to countries around the world.

During the Cold War, RHC relayed propaganda broadcasts from North Vietnam and North Korea, and the USSR, as well as its original programming. It was not clear where the broadcasts "relayed" from North Vietnam actually originiated. In the 1960s, Radio Havana Cuba broadcast "Radio Free Dixie" aimed at African-Americans struggling against segregation and Jim Crow in the southern United States.

At times in the 1980s, in order to protest the Reagan administration's Cuba policy and its instigation of the anti-Castro Radio Martí program from the Voice of America, Radio Habana Cuba broadcast briefly on mediumwave frequencies at a greatly boosted power allowing the station to be heard on American AM radios and overwhelming local American AM stations broadcasting on that frequency, including clear channel station WHO in Des Moines, Iowa on 1040 kHz. RHC no longer transmits on medium waves (see schedule at RHC's Web site), even though Radio Martí still transmits from the United States to Cuba on 1180 kHz.

Located on Havana's Avenida Infanta, the offices of Radio Havana Cuba share a facility with two other renowned national stations that have contributed greatly to the history of Cuban radio broadcasting: Radio Progreso and CMBF, Radio Musical Nacional. Currently, RHC broadcasts in nine languages: Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Quechua, Guarani, Creole and Esperanto, 24 hours a day, with a varied programming that includes news, music and features. RHC's English-language broadcasts are heavily centered on the U.S.A and feature news items that uniformly adversely reflect upon the U.S. government and the current administration, especially its foreign policies.

In 2004, RHC and related mediumwave transmitters, such as Radio Rebelde, broadcast speeches by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez as well as Castro.

RHC was off the air temporarily in late August 2004 due to damage caused by Hurricane Charley.

The station broadcasts Cuban popular music frequently, as well as radio hobbyist tips from announcer Arnie Coro.

Code number, or 'numbers stations' have been linked to RHC radio transmissions equipment. In these shortwave transmissions, a series of seemingly meaningless numbers are read out over the air, either in English or Spanish. These audible transmission of numbers are believed to be one-time coded messages to espionage agents residing in the targeted country. Numbers station monitors have noted that on occasion RHC interval signals have been heard at the beginning or end of intelligence-related transmissions.

The station's interval signal is the tune La Bayamesa.

For a comparison of RHC to other broadcasters see

Estimated total direct programme hours per week of some external radio broadcasters
Broadcaster	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990	1996^[1]
VOA, RFE/RL & Radio Marti	497	1,495	1,907	1,901	2,611	1,821
China Radio International	66	687	1,267	1,350	1,515	1,620
BBC World Service	643	589	723	719	796	1,036
Radio Moscow / Voice of Russia^[2]	533	1,015	1,908	2,094	1,876	726
Deutsche Welle	0	315	779	804	848	655
Radio Cairo / ERTU	0	301	540	546	605	604
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting	12	24	155	175	400	575
All India Radio	116	157	271	389	456	500
NHK World Radio Japan	0	203	259	259	343	468
Radio France Internationale	198	326	200	125	379	459
Radio Netherlands	127	178	335	289	323	392
Israel Radio International	0	91	158	210	253	365
Voice of Turkey	40	77	88	199	322	364
Radio Pyongyang / Voice of Korea	0	159	330	597	534	364
Radio Bulgaria	30	117	164	236	320	338
Radio Australia	181	257	350	333	330	307
Radio Tirana	26	63	487	560	451	303
Radio Romania International	30	159	185	198	199	298
Radio Exterior de España	68	202	251	239	403	270
Radiodifusão Portuguesa Internacional	46	133	295	214	203	226
Radio Havana Cub	0	0	320	424	352	203
Radio RAI International	170	205	165	169	181	203
Radio Canada International	85	80	98	134	195	175
Radio Polonia	131	232	334	337	292	171
Radio RSA / Channel Africa	0	63	150	183	156	159
Sveriges Radio International	28	114	140	155	167	149
Magyar Rádió	76	120	105	127	102	144
Radio Prague^[3]	119	196	202	255	131	131
Voice of Nigeria^[4]	0	0	62	170	120	127
Radio Belgrade	80	70	76	72	96	68
Source: International Broadcast Audience Research, June 1996 The list includes about a quarter of the world's external broadcasters whose output is both publicly funded and worldwide. Among those excluded are Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea and various international commercial and religious stations. Notes: 1996 figures as at June; all other years as at December. Before 1991, broadcasting for the former USSR. Before 1996, broadcasting for the former Czechoslovakia. Nigeria's external service is now off air.