RADIO

In the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, newspapers circulated among the literate elite, leaving it to radio to become Mexico’s first mass media. It could fill this role since it was free (except for the set) and it did not require literacy or the land distribution channels that newspapers used.316

Commercial radio first appeared in Mexico in the 1920s. Early on, the government decided to follow the U. S. model, that is, to have programming paid for by selling ads. Some of the early stations were owned by the companies that sought to market their products. El Buen Tono, a cigarette manufacturer, owned a station and then created a cigarette brand, El Radio, to market on the air. Radio came of age in 1930 with the inauguration of XEW, a 200-kilowatt station, the most powerful in the western hemisphere. This station, owned by Emilio Azcarraga Vidaurreta, was known as “The Voice of Latin America.” Azcarraga used his business talents and his marriage into the Monterrey industrial elite, which gave him access to capital, to build a radio-based media Empire.

During the 1930s, radio became increasingly influential. By 1935, there were eighty radio stations and 250,000 sets. In 1937, the government began to produce a weekly program, which it mandated that all stations play at the same time. This program, known as “La Hora Nacional” (“The National Hour”), combined government messages and, to attract listeners, music. It was one of the first cultural phenomena to link the entire nation. Cardenas effectively used radio to broadcast his speeches and rallies and even announced the nationalization of the oil industry on the radio.318