Radio
Stations in Guatemala
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Guatemala 1963
I
visited Guatemala in mid-1963,
and again in January of 1964 and visited
Quetzaltenango, Tikal, Escuintla,
Guatemala City and
other locations. |
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TGUX - Radio
Panamericana, owned by the legendary Jaime Paniagua |
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10 kw AM
transmitter built by station staff |
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Rear view of TGUX
transmitter on 1020 kcs. |
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TGUX Studios |
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Radio Panamericana
announcer |
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TGUX Control room
from inside |
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Radio 5-60 and
Channel 3 TV
This station was part owned by ABC
Television of the USA at this time. Note that the height of the TV
antenna is about 30 meters above ground level; TV in 1963 was in its
infancy. |
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Studio of Radio
Nuevo Mundo, 880 AM |
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Studio Location of
Radio Columbia, 1240 AM
Note the short antenna on roof... this is the radiator
for this station. |
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Columbia's
Transmitter. At the time, this station was owned by
Paco RodrÃguez, who later did radio traffic reports in Los Angeles
in the
80's and 90s for stations like KHJ and KWIZ. |
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TGW - Radio
Nacional
Gong and Mike in
TGW, the national government station. |
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Main Studio of TGW,
640 AM. |
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Radio Ciro's
850 AM
Building housing
Ciro's, 850 AM Ciro's was one of the leading drama
stations,
featuring many soap operas from Mexico. |
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Studio at Ciro's 850 AM. |
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Emperador 920
AM
Radio Emperador 920
AM... Rooftop antennas
and towers were very common at that time in
Guatemala and throughout Latin America.
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Emperador studio
with one of the ubiquitous Sony 777 tape decks. |
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Emperador studios were in this building where the broadcast antenna
was located on the roof. |
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Radio Quetzal (1270 AM) was
on second floor of this building |
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Quetzal studio |
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Quetzal 1270 AM transmitter... this
transmitter fed a longwire antenna on the roof. Direct coupling to
the antenna without an antenna tuning unit was common with rooftop
AM radio installations in th 60's throughout much of Latin Amrica
except more developed areas such as Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela,
Chile and Argentina. |
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TGY - Radio
Progreso
Master Control of
TGY "Radio Progreso" 580 AM in Guatemala City.
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The marimba is the national
instrument of Guatemala.
In 1963, TGY had a
nightly live marimba show each evening at 1900,
complete with a studio audience. I attended several
times. |
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Announcer on air at
TGY |
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Radio Faro
Aviateca 750 AM. Note broadcast
antenna (longwire) on roof.
Aviateca was the Guatemalan airline; naming stations for sponsors
was rather common.
In Guatemala City there was also a La Voz de la Telefunken.. |
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The construction on
the roof housed La Voz de la Eterna Primeavera, an AM station at 1420 AM
The name honors
Guatemala's nickname of
being the land of eternal
springtime. |
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1420's
state of the art broadcast studio.
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Radio Sonora
1390 AM
Radio Sonora, which
moved form 1390 to 1140 while I was in Guatemala,
had a well-listened to morning news block. |
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Newscasters on the
air at Radio Sonora. Fast paced newscasts where
announcers
either alternated by story or by groups of sentences were common and
a natural
way to inform an audience that had a high incidence of illiteracy.
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TGXA studios |
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Radio Mundial 700 AM |
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Lobby of La Voz de
la Libertad, 620 AM.
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And Libertad's
studio complete with ID chime.
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Radio Universal,
TGHB 760 building and studio.
This station later became Radio Super. |
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Radio
Reloj 1120
Rooftop antenna
(wires that look like a horizontal ladder)
of Radio
Reloj, 1120 AM. |
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Radio Club TGZ 1070 AM |
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Studio of Radio Club with record library in next room. |
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Top-loaded antenna of TGZ on roof of building. |
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Rooftop longwire antenna of Radio Continental 980 AM |
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City of
Escuintla. In the town of
Escuintla, this is Radio Palmera's studio.
The rest
of the station is totally open-air! |
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Radio Palmeras
transmitter on 570 AM. |
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Also in Escuintla,
this building housed either Radio Sur or Radio
Escuintla. |
