Updating history – 100 years of radio in São Paulo: SQIG – Sociedade Rádio Educadora Paulista and PRA-6 Rádio Gazeta

Abstract

We discuss the history of radio, with a focus on SQIG Rádio Educadora Paulista and PRA-6 Rádio Gazeta. The question is about the circumstances and characteristics of the first radio station in São Paulo and the subsequent transfer of the call sign to Gazeta. The objective is to analyze and deepen our knowledge of the history of radio in the state, which celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2023. To achieve this, the methodology involves the analysis of primary memorial sources left by radio broadcaster Mauro Pires and interviews conducted with José Mauro Martins Pires, Mário Fannuchi, among others. The main references include Briggs and Burke, Moura and Nigri, Bosi, and Alberti. SQIG arrives in the city with great importance, boasting an excellent cast, and we conclude that it serves as a significant radio school, influencing generations of professionals and broadcasters.

Keywords
São Paulo radio; Sociedade Rádio Educadora; Paulista; Rádio Gazeta; Radio history; Radio and culture

Resumo

Tratamos da história do rádio, com foco na SQIG Rádio Educadora Paulista e PRA-6 Rádio Gazeta. O problema centra-se nas circunstâncias por que passou e características da primeira emissora de São Paulo e posterior migração do prefixo para a Gazeta. O objetivo é analisar e aprofundar conhecimentos sobre a história do rádio do Estado, que faz 100 anos em 2023 e, para isso, a metodologia parte da análise de fontes primárias memoriais, deixadas pelo radialista Mauro Pires, e entrevistas realizadas com José Mauro Martins Pires, Mário Fannuchi, entre outros. As referências principais são Briggs e Burke; Moura e Nigri; Bosi; Alberti. A SQIG chega com extrema importância na cidade, com cast excelente e concluímos que é uma grande escola de rádio, que influencia gerações de profissionais e emissoras.

Palavras-chave
Rádio paulista; Sociedade Rádio Educadora Paulista; Rádio Gazeta; História do rádio; Rádio e Cultura

Resumen

Nos ocupamos de la historia de la radio, centrándonos en SQIG Rádio Educadora Paulista y PRA-6 Rádio Gazeta. El problema se centra en las circunstancias y características del espíritu pionero de esta emisora, la primera estación en São Paulo y la posterior migración del prefijo a Gazeta. El objetivo es analizar y profundizar el conocimiento sobre la historia de la radio en el Estado, que cumplirá 100 años en 2023 y, para ello, la metodología parte del análisis de fuentes primarias memoriales, dejadas por el locutor de radio Mauro Pires, y entrevistas realizadas a José Mauro Martins Pires, Mario Fannuchi, entre otros. Las principales referencias son Briggs y Burke; Moura y Nigri; Bosi; Alberti. SQIG llegó con extrema importancia a la ciudad, con un excelente elenco y concluimos que fue una gran escuela de radio, que influenció a generaciones de profesionales y estaciones de radio.

Palabras clave:
Radio; Sociedade Rádio Educadora Paulista; Gazeta; Historia de la radio; Radio y Cultura

Introduction

In this article, our goal is to deepen our knowledge of the history of radio in São Paulo, which began on November 30, 1923, with the founding of SQIG Rádio Educadora Paulista. Therefore, we aim to document the content of the programs and their relations and importance in the regional radio culture. From this perspective, the question we seek to answer is how the opening of the first radio station in São Paulo truly took place, the circumstances surrounding it, and the characteristics of SQIG Sociedade Rádio Educadora Paulista. A highly debated topic in the field of communication, quite controversial, is the proliferation of errors on the internet regarding the history of radio, which is a fertile ground for such misinformation. With this proliferation, it has become rare to find new material published with scholarly rigor about the field and accurate data. Hence, we aim to address these issues through research that employs documentary and memorial sources as its method, as oral history can be particularly useful in this type of research. It's worth noting that in this article, we use present tense verbs as a stylistic and discursive device, conveying the idea that the history of radio and the analyzed radio stations endure. Principio del formulario

In the course of almost three decades of research on radio in São Paulo and Brazil, and subsequently on European radio, particularly Spanish broadcasters, we have observed the continuous reproduction of information that has already been published in various journals and congresses about the history of the medium. This even extends to the creation of facts and data that never existed. In light of the centenary of São Paulo radio and with the aim of clarifying these issues, we have decided to reexamine the sources and research methodology that guided us in the past. We seek to deepen and expand our analysis of documents, whether they are in audio, written, or oral form. We will be working with documents left by radio broadcaster Mauro Pires regarding the history of São Paulo radio, as well as other primary memorial sources derived from interviews we have conducted. Among these interviews, we will be using some conducted with radio broadcaster José Mauro Martins Pires, the son of Mauro Pires and the great-nephew of Ariovaldo Pires, also known as Capitão Furtado. To enhance our understanding of sources, Oral History, and the history of radio, we have primarily sought information in works by Figueiredo (2022), Briggs and Burke (2006), Durán and Pulido (2020), Merayo (2007), Sande (2005), Pousa and Yaguana (2013), Moura y Nigri (2003), Bosi (2007), Pires (2000), Alberti (2013), Halbwachs (1990), and others.

About Oral History, Figueiredo (2022, p. 1) writes:

To understand the importance of memory and its close relationship with Oral History, it is necessary, first and foremost, to comprehend what Oral History entails. Oral History is a research methodology used by numerous researchers, notably historians, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, and political scientists. This methodology aims to, through conducting and recording interviews, document, among various possibilities, the experiences and accounts of individuals who have witnessed historical events, social and cultural movements, personal and institutional trajectories. It is a multidisciplinary methodology whose application is not confined solely to professionals in the humanities and social sciences. On the contrary, this method has enriched studies related to the histories of both elites and marginalized groups, including research on gender, sexualities, working classes, religious beliefs, and local traditions.

As for the research method, we have developed it within a theoretical framework, using the instruments and methodological procedures we have adopted, with the aim of comparing different sources of information obtained through interviews, as well as the reading of articles, books, and chapters. Regarding the importance of interviews in the advancement of research, Alberti (2013, pp. 85-89) writes:

The choice of interviewees should not be primarily guided by quantitative criteria or a concern for sampling but rather based on the interviewee's position within the group and the significance of their experience. Therefore, it is advisable to select interviewees from those who participated, lived, witnessed, or were informed about events or situations related to the topic and who can provide meaningful testimonies. The process of selecting interviewees in oral history research thus resembles the choice of “informants” in anthropology, not as statistical units, but as qualitative units based on their relationship with the subject under study, their strategic role, their position within the group, etc.

We believe that it is the researcher's responsibility to constantly ensure the accuracy of their findings and to strive for originality. In order to achieve the objectives outlined in this research, both the bibliography and the interviews are fundamental. When discussing research tools in this study, we have sought theoretical grounding from the authors mentioned earlier. Among them, Durán and Pulido (2020, p. 259) emphasize the importance of understanding the phenomena and processes involved in the research, as well as the integration of the studied reality within its historical and social context. In our case, it pertains to the context of the birth and evolution of radio in São Paulo, which only exists within a historical and social framework, whether it began in the 1920s with the first experiments that enchantedall those who were involved; the 1930s, characterized by the exploration of the medium; the 1940s, a period of linguistic mastery and increased commercial exploration; or the 1950s, marked by absolute consolidation. Radio was present in all these significant social, political, economic, and cultural moments in the decades from the 1920s to the 1950s, as the radio journalism slogan goes, it is the “Eyewitness to history.” Thus, this research is justified by the need not to forget this precious history and the importance of analyzing how the medium emerges in the “Land of Drizzle,” how it evolves, and how certain information is constructed in crucial moments in history. Undoubtedly, as we revisit the history of São Paulo radio over these 100 years, we find it necessary to bridge the gap from the 1920s to the present day as a form of resistance to forgetfulness. We aim to slow down the pace of a media machine that seems intent on not informing, lacking memory, failing to construct an identity, and leaving no traces. On this topic, Bosi, citing Halbwachs (2007, p. 55), writes:”

Most of the time, remembering is not reliving, but rather redoing, reconstructing, and rethinking the experiences of the past with today's images and ideas. Memory is not a dream; it is work. If this is the case, one should doubt the survival of the past “as it was” within the unconscious of each individual. Memory is an image constructed from the materials now available to us, from the set of representations that populate our current consciousness. However vivid the memory of an old event may seem to us, it is not the same image we experienced in childhood, because we are not the same as we were back then, and because our perception has changed, along with our ideas, judgments of reality, and values. The mere act of remembering the past in the present excludes the identity between the images of one and the other and posits their difference in terms of a point of view

Then, radio emerges in the Paulicéia¹: SQIG Rádio Educadora Paulista

There is much discussion surrounding radio and its use for culture, the arts, education, science, entertainment, and information. On the other hand, it has also been used for warfare, bad politics, and the manipulation of the masses. Essentially, radio is a diverse and democratic medium that can be used for various interests, both good and bad. From this perspective, the first decade of radio broadcasting in São Paulo began on November 30, 1923, with the founding of of SQIG - Sociedade Rádio Educadora Paulista. According to the document «Radio-difusão Cultural 1937,” its official installation is considered to be in 1925. However, according to Pires (2000, p. 36), the first broadcast was in February 1924, and on March 6, 1924, they aired the first complete musical performance with a program of great artistic value, featuring works by Chopin, Haydn, among other classical composers. on the program of August 20, 1924, as published in the newspaper “O Estado de S. Paulo,” featured operas and operettas interspersed with the official time and meteorological reports provided by the Astronomical Observatory of São Paulo. The SQIG began with a ceremonial meetingat the São Paulo Engineering Club, presided over by Dr. Belisário Pena, the Director of Rural Sanitation at the National Department of Health.

According to a manuscript left by Mauro Pires, as cited in José Mauro Martins Pires' Master's thesis (2000, pp. 35-36), the initiative to establish the station came from engineers Leonardo Jones Jr., Otávio Ferraz Sampaio, George Corbisier, Luiz Ferraz de Mesquita, and merchant Luiz do Amaral César. The first transmissions were made with a 10-watt Pekam transmitter. On December 10, 1923, the bylaws of the Sociedade Rádio Educadora Paulista were approved, and it operated from one of the towers of the Palácio das Indústrias in Parque D. Pedro II. Regarding this remarkable innovation, Pousa and Yaguana (2013) write:

The relentless drive of human beings for innovation in all areas and fields of science has led to experimentation, discovery, and the improvement of countless inventions. One of these inventions is the transmission of information through electromagnetic waves, a feat directly linked to the evolution of physics, thanks to the discovery of the ionosphere, which aids in propagating signals in the form of waves through space. The materialization of this is that on November 2, 1920, in Pittsburgh, we have the first official broadcast from Radio K.D.K.A, the first station to broadcast scheduled and continuous radio programming.²

Picture 1
Photo of the silver anniversary celebration of the couple Mauro and Celina Pires, with their close friends who were radio broadcasters. From left to right: Dárcio Ferreira, Ivani Ribeiro, the couple Moraes Sarmento, Marilda and Arowaldo Pires, Elói Teixeira, and the couple Italo Izzo. São Paulo, May 10, 1967.

Radio in São Paulo developed under the presidency of Edgard de Souza. It's interesting to note that SQIG operated under the trade name “Rádio Bandeirantes” (clearly not to be confused with PRH-9 Rádio Sociedade Bandeirante de Radiodifusão, which dates to 1937). Even in these early stages of radio's birth in São Paulo, there were questions about radio's use, and society pondered what benefits this medium would bring. Academics were debating its potential for culture, the arts, education, the market, and politics – questions that arose in all countries. In Spain, for example, Sande (2005, p. 23) writes:

Broadcasting emerged as a practical application of radiotelephony. For the early commercial stations to become a genuine means of communication, a vehicle for transmitting information, entertainment, and culture, it required significant prior technological development. The progress of science led, by the end of the 19th century, to the marvelous discovery of signal transmission through waves.³

Even Marconi himself, in the early days of radio, associated it with the need for government communication on a large scale. Radio gained momentum as a medium once technology evolved, allowing for better listening, music, and various forms of entertainment. Regarding this, Briggs and Burke (2006, pp. 156-157) wrote:

Upon returning from England, Marconi was eager for quick results. When he founded the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company in 1897, his primary focus was on planning and selling wireless equipment to large-scale commercial clients and the government. He also had royalty in mind: in 1897, approximately 100 messages were exchanged between Queen Victoria at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight and the royal yacht of the Prince of Wales off Cowes, where he was bedridden due to illness. Marconi did not see radio as a mass medium. In fact, he didn't even use the word “radio.”

In another passage from the book “Uma História Social da Mídia⁴ which continues with Marconi's commercial role of radio, as seen by Brigs and Burk (2006, p. 158), they write that Marconi continued to capture the imagination of both Americans and Europeans when, in 1901, he sent a wireless message over a distance of 3,200 kilometers across the Atlantic, from Newfoundland to Cornwall.

The Anglo-American Telegraph Company had a monopoly on telegraphy in Newfoundland and expelled Marconi's team from the island, which was independent of Canada at the time. Subsequent advertising didn't need to be invented. In 1904, radio transmission made headlines when it was used to report the arrest of Dr. Crippen, a murderer who was fleeing from England to Canada by sea with his lover. Eight years later, it was Marconi's station on Long Island that intercepted the SOS messages from the sinking Titanic and sent the news to the White House. The operator was a man who would later become famous, David Sarnoff (1891-1971).

We can see that radio, from its beginnings in the early 1900s until its official arrival in Brazil in 1922 and in São Paulo in 1923, always had a commercial aspect. However, in those years of “old São Paulo” in 1923, the radio entrepreneurs' interests were primarily cultural and social, with little commercial focus. Nevertheless, already envisioning the commercial potential of radio, the Educadora was the first to broadcast stock market quotations daily at various times during trading hours. The radio was supported by its members' monthly fees, as were many other pioneers, and the broadcasts were not continuous. The limited programming of the early days included operas and concerts, and enthusiasts gathered around the few receiving sets available. In 1925, the broadcasts became continuous, and the station took on a more professional character. Regarding this experimental period, in a special report on the 100 years of radio, Oliveira (2019, no numbered page) writes:

It was on September 7, 1922, on the centenary of Brazilian independence. A speech by the then-president Epitácio Pessoa and the opera “O Guarani” by Carlos Gomes inaugurated the broadcasts. The novelty left the listeners incredulous, as witnessed in a historic testimony by the radio pioneer Renato Murce, who passed away in 1987.

Regarding this moment in history, Oliveira, using Renato Murce's words, writes:

And the people who gathered in the crowd for the centenary, an immeasurable crowd, were even worse than doubting Thomas: they were seeing, hearing, and not believing. It was unbelievable that a small device far away, with nothing, no wires, nothing at all, could be heard from a distance. And they were left dumbfounded.

At SQIG, great artists, technicians, and other professionals who would go on to make radio history were born. On this subject, according to José Mauro Martins Pires (2000, p. 41), citing a statement found in Mauro Pires' documents:

This was the case for Nicolau Tuma, the “speaker metralhadora⁵”, who would popularize a unique way of broadcasting soccer play-by-play; also the announcer (later producer) Raul Duarte, the comedian Gino Cortopassi, known as Zé Fidelis, the “Rei dos Caipiras”⁶ Cornélio Pires, Oduvaldo Vianna, the serenading singer Paraguassú, Walter Forster, Barão Wilson Fittipaldi, Pilé, Raul Torres (a highly regarded hillbilly singer and songwriter, known for “Cavalo zaino”⁷), the pioneering radio conductors Erlon Chaves and Gabriel Migliori, the Ceará-born sambista Hélio Sindô, the novelist Ivani Ribeiro, who at the time was a children's program singer. According to radio broadcaster Mauro Pires, one of the names that worked the most for the station was the maestro and composer Alberto Marino, who was then a modest violinist. Maestro Ítalo Izzo, Osmano Cardoso, singer and radio broadcaster. According to the radio almanac of January 1951, every time he played his violin, he had to face away from the microphone; otherwise, the sound would drown everything out, even causing the station to go off the air.

For those who lived through the 1920s and for those who have learned about and experienced the magic of radio days through research and contacts, the enormous surprise came when Rádio Educadora, already located on Carlos Sampaio Street, built its transmitter tower in the gardens of the station's headquarters and set up one of the best-equipped studios in São Paulo. It was spacious, entirely carpeted, with walls covered in Celotex, large sound-absorbing curtains, and many photos, including pictures of Carlos Gomes, Beethoven, Chopin, Wagner, Brahms, and more. Quoting from a handwritten document left by Mauro Pires undated), regarding Educadora's programming:

In those early years, Educadora broadcast the results of international games held in Europe and Uruguay to the capital and the interior of the State of São Paulo. They also transmitted a concert by maestro Heitor Villa-Lobos at the Municipal Theater on the night of December 5. On June 30, 1926, PRA-6 inaugurated modern facilities with equipment acquired from Western Electric at its new headquarters on 5 Carlos Sampaio Street. On September 27, they began a daily program dedicated to children, presented by Tia Brasília, who was a teacher at the time, titled “Quarto de hora da criança”⁸. On November 25, 1926, the new studio was inaugurated with a joint transmission with Rádio Club do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro, featuring Guiomar Novaes and Bidú Sayão. The new transmitting station had a power of 1,000 watts and two towers, each 55 meters high. This marked the fifth experience of simultaneous transmission by stations located at a long distance.

In January 1929, the radio stations in São Paulo changed their call signs to PRs. Rádio Educadora Paulista then changed from SQIG to PRAE, and on March 17, it broadcast the “Hora Regional” (Regional Hour), hosted by Cornélio Pires, the “King of the Hillbillies”. The program featured a group of people known as “authentic hillbillies” and presented the everyday life of the countryside, imitating rural birds, among other peculiarities with this focus. On September 21 of the same year, Oduvaldo Vianna gave a lecture on “cinema falado” (talking about Cine content on the radio). By the way, Oduvaldo is a unique story in São Paulo's radio history.

Educadora was a pioneer in radio drama

It's interesting to note that Rádio Educadora was the pioneer in launching what would later become “Cinema em Casa” (Cinema at Home), initially on PRF-3 Rádio Difusora de São Paulo, inaugurated on November 24, 1934. Later, with its acquisition by Assis Chateaubriand, the program was broadcast on the most powerful radio station in the state, PRG-2 Rádio Tupi de São Paulo, inaugurated on September 3, 1937. There's no doubt that the “Cinema em Casa” program, created by Otávio Gabus Mendes and directed by the late Walter George Durst after his death, was the precursor of television drama in Brazil. Durst was undoubtedly responsible for the transition from radio drama to television drama. According to Mário Fanucchi in a conversation with this author, this program was revolutionary in its narrative style. The dialogues were concise and made no concessions; the scenes unfolded like cuts in film editing; the sound effects, some produced on the spot and others carefully researched and previously recorded on acetate discs, contributed to enhancing the formula. The result was the total engagement of the listeners, who, even if they didn't fully understand every detail of the plot at first, always managed to grasp the essentials.

We have provided this brief account of “Cinema em Casa”⁹ because we believe that the first experiences of what this program would become originated at Rádio Educadora. The lectures about films directed by Oduvaldo Vianna, in addition to knowledge about certain films, fueled the culture of what would be one of the most important genres, radio drama. We take this part of the text to justify the use of this term, or rather, a radio play, and not radio drama, because we are following the reasoning of George Bernard Sperber (1980, p. 125-126), who writes:

Although the radio play contains dramatic, epic, and lyrical elements, and this is one of its characteristics, one cannot raise objections against its form: for even Attic tragedy could be seen as a mixed form of theater and poetry, of drama and lyric. An aesthetic that works only with the categories of drama, epic, and lyric does not provide an efficient path to the radio play, whose form is sui generis. But neither can nor should a satisfactorily comprehensive characterization of the radio play be given here, let alone a dramaturgy of the radio play. Some of its most important features can, however, be outlined, for example: - the radio play can transform the external time of an action into inner time; - the radio play can unite, drive, and deepen the action associatively; - the action of the radio play takes place on the inner stage.

A special word for the radio host Nicolau Tuma

Nicolau Tuma is one of the brightest names in Brazilian radio. He started out as a police reporter in the early days of radio and won a contest to become a radio announcer at Rádio Educadora Paulista in 1929, at the age of 18. Everything changed on July 19, 1931 when he came up with the idea of narrating the first complete football match on the radio. Until then, football broadcasts only consisted of brief updates on the most important matches. Before the game started, Tuma visited the locker rooms of Floresta's team field in the Ponte Grande neighborhood to identify the players since their uniforms didn't have numbers on the back at the time. The broadcast was a huge success, and it was amplified at Vale do Anhangabaú by Confeitaria Mimi, which set up loudspeakers to replay the broadcast. Tuma narrated the entire game with great detail and speed, earning him the nickname “machine gun speaker”. It's difficult to fully capture the significance of Nicolau Tuma's contribution to São Paulo and Brazilian radio in text, given his pioneering work. He is credited with creating the style of football commentary known today as “live play-by-play.” He also coined the term “radialista” (radio professional) during his time at Rádio Educadora, which later became a widely accepted term. In an interview with José Mauro Martins Pires, who I had the honor of advising, Nicolau Tuma mentioned that he introduced the term “radialista” at a radio congress in Rio de Janeiro, and some questioned its meaning since it wasn't found in the Portuguese dictionary. Tuma explained that “radi” came from “rádio,” and “alista” meant idealist, reflecting the essence of a radio professional. The term quickly became popular.

In the 1940s, precisely on January 25, 1943, the once-declining Rádio Educadora was relaunched under the name Rádio Gazeta, with the same call sign PRA-6 and the slogan “The elite station.” It came with a cultural orientation in its programming, maintaining a fixed cast of great national singers, a large orchestra initially conducted by Maestro Souza Lima and featuring singer Vera Janacopoulos. Later, it was conducted by Maestros Edoardo Di Guarnieri and Armando Abelardi. The station also had an excellent jazz band led by Maestro Totó. During this phase of classical music, which explains the somewhat forced slogan, the station featured programs like “Cortina Lírica”, “Soirée de Gala”, and “Música dos Mestres”¹⁰. As it gradually incorporated popular music into its programming, Rádio Gazeta featured international artists like Ray Ventura and his orchestra, Eva Garza, and El Charro Gil. Among Brazilian musicians, it stood out during the peak of the baião craze with artists like Luiz Gonzaga.

PRA-6 Educadora and Gazeta

It is impossible to analyze the Sociedade Rádio Educadora Paulista without mentioning the equally important Rádio Gazeta because it inherits the prefix from Educadora when the owner, businessman Cásper Líbero, takes over Educadora. Rádio Gazeta truly arrives in grand style with its own building on Conceição Street, later renamed Cásper Líbero Avenue in honor of the radio's founder, who tragically died a few months after Gazeta was founded. This station features an impressive stage-auditorium and a large auditorium hall, along with an excellent restaurant offering international chefs and menus that operated regularly until 1965. At that time, the corporate group, including the radio and newspapers, moved to its current headquarters at Avenida Paulista, 900. With the change in programming and location, Gazeta underwent a transformation and began to appeal to a new audience, offering iconic programs such as “Samburá,” hosted by Fernando Borges and Marlene Magaldi, a winner of a female voice competition, and another highly successful program, “A pedida é bossa,” hosted by Mauro Pires.

Picture 2
Elis Regina being interviewed on the program ‘A pedida é bossa’ on March 12, 1965. In the background, Denis Roberto Martins Pires.

Gazeta is one of the last radio stations to part with its exceptional music collection, promoting artists such as Elis Regina, Amilton Godoy, Paulinho Nogueira, Claudete Soares, Toquinho, Taiguara, among others.

In a conversation with José Mauro Martins Pires in 2012, he recalls that several of the friends mentioned by Mauro Pires worked at Gazeta, such as the producer Aguiar, whose nickname is Dedé, full name José Ogilvy Aguiar; the producer Aurélio, who is Aurélio Belotti Filho; the head of the music library Samuel Hiller; the producer Carlos Roberto da Silveira, and the assistants Fidelis Jacinto and Sérgio Albertini, who is also a great tenor. In addition, the radio station was one of the first to mobilize the student community around music at the Teatro de Cultura Artística in downtown São Paulo, at the beginning of Rua da Consolação, a location with a rich history in São Paulo's communication, as radio stations and major newspapers were all located in that area. Indeed, it is important to highlight the significance of Gazeta, what it was and still is today, however with much more competition and specialization compared to the 1930s and 1940s. All of this owes something to the experience gained when acquiring Educadora, but undoubtedly, Cásper Líbero was one of those visionary individuals who were ahead of their time.

Conclusion

In São Paulo, the beginning of radio broadcasting dates back to the SQIG Sociedade Rádio Educadora Paulista on November 30, 1923. The data collected was based on the analysis of written documents left by radio personality Mauro Pires, which were passed on to his son, José Mauro Martins Pires. Therefore, we used primary sources, memoirs, written records, and oral sources. What's interesting here is that before the book “O Rádio com Sotaque Paulista”¹¹ no one in São Paulo wrote about the pioneering radio stations, or if they did, it was done very vaguely. Mauro Pires lived through the history of radio and meticulously documented it in written texts. He took the time to write the history of radio stations in São Paulo, both in the capital and across the coastal and inland areas of the state, from the early 1920s to the 1950s. He wrote about the establishment of new radio stations year by year over four decades, a level of detail that didn't exist before the publication of the mentioned book. Furthermore, he documented the most important radio program schedules, presenting them organized by date and highlighting the significant figures in radio, especially at SQIG. Figures like Oduvaldo Viana, Nicolau Tuma, Nhô Totico, Walter George Durst, major orchestras, significant works, and memorable moments—all of this is tied to the pioneering Educadora. This valuable documentation provides a rich and comprehensive insight into the early days of radio broadcasting in São Paulo and helps preserve the history of this important medium in Brazil.

One conclusion we can draw is that when Gazeta took over Educadora, the expectation was that Educadora would disappear. However, the opposite happened, and the station continued to grow. Under Cásper Líbero's ownership, the cast expanded, and the station maintained its innovative character. At that time, several other radio stations were already on the air in São Paulo. Nevertheless, Gazeta kept the prefix of Educadora and established some of the most important programs in the Brazilian music scene, such as Cortina Lírica, Soirée de Gala, and Música de Mestres.

Another issue that leads us to the following conclusion is the fact that despite the radios having a significant cultural, artistic, and educational focus, neither Educadora nor the other researched radios make it clear what they intended to achieve. The impression left is that their interests are primarily political and commercial. Entrepreneurs quickly realize the medium's strong commercial potential and know how to leverage it.

We also find it impressive that José Mauro Pires, who was passionate about radio and with significant programs on radio stations in São Paulo, left such precise and historically valuable written documents. Until 2014, when the book “O Rádio com Sotaque Paulista” was published, there were no publications with accurate data. In this regard, José Mauro Pires is an icon in the history of radio in the state, serving as a historian of the medium.

Data availability

The data supporting the research are contained in the article, in supplementary material and in a public repository, with or without DOI.

• 1
  Paulicéia is a poetic term used to refer to the city of Sao Paulo
• 2
  La incesante motivación del ser humano por la innovación en todas las áreas y campos de la ciencia lo ha llevado a experimentar, descubrir y perfeccionar infinidad de inventos. Uno de ellos es la transmisión de información mediante ondas electromagnéticas, hecho que apareció vinculado directamente a la evolución de la física, gracias al descubrimiento de la capa portadora de energía eléctrica llamada ionosfera, la cual ayuda a propagar las señales en forma de ondas por el espacio. Esto se materializó oficialmente el 2 de noviembre de 1920 en Pittsburg, con la emisión de radio K.D.K.A., primera estación difusora de una programación radiofónica programada y continua (no original).
• 3
  La radiodifusión surgió como una aplicación práctica de la radiotelefonía. Para que las primeras emisoras comerciales se convirtiesen en auténtico meio de comunicación, en vehículo de transmisión de información, entretenimiento y cultura, fue necesario todo un desarrollo tecnológico previo. Los avances de la ciencia condujeron a finales del siglo XIX al maravilloso descubrimiento de la transmisión de señales a través de las ondas (no original).
• 4
  In English: A Social History of the Media
• 5
  In English: machine gun speaker
• 6
  In English: King of hillbillies
• 7
  In English: chestnut horse
• 8
  In English: The Child's Quarter (15 minutes)
• 9
  In English: Cinema at home
• 10
  In English: Lyrical Curtain, Gala Evening and Masters of Music
• 11
  In English: The Radio with a Paulista Accent

Referências

• ALBERTI, V. Manual de História Oral Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV, 2013.
• BOSI, E. Memória e sociedade São Paulo: Companhia das Letras: 2007.
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Edited by

Editor: Maria Ataide Malcher

Editorial assistant: Aluzimara Nogueira Diniz, Julia Quemel Matta, Suelen Miyuki A. Guedes and Weverton Raiol

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  08 Dec 2023
• Date of issue
  2023

History

• Received
  30 May 2023
• Accepted
  25 Oct 2023