In this calendar, with 68 years in the soul, it beats with a different force; much solid and appreciated when the battle for life marks every bit, every transmission of sounds, signals, and feelings across multiple platforms. Because the Radio has also found ways to circumvent geographic and technological gaps.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- Radio Victoria station looks to this September 20, the date of its anniversary, with a new light, the same that shines in each of the listeners and workers of the station who, from their position as patients or convalescents from COVID-19, and information mediators, have stayed to take their impressions and those of others for 24 hours on the air.
"I was in the red zone, unfortunately not as a reporter, but as a patient," journalist Luisa Elena Rivera Curbelo says. In the Los Cocos isolation center, I realized that there was a lot to write and dissimilar stories to tell.
"I could not do it through traditional Radio as I would have liked, but I used social media. I took photos of some of the workers, wrote something about them, and posted them to the digital platforms. The publications received a lot of comments, and a few people also wrote to me privately, thanked me for what I was doing.
"It was the way I found to highlight the work of the personnel working there. It was the commitment to my profession, to those people I saw there every day; my commitment to the audience, my Radio Victoria, and to those who follow me on social media.
Reporter Ordey Díaz Escalona recognizes that the final product that the listener receives “drinks” from everyone's daily effort.
"We have been in this battle against the pandemic for more than a year and a half, and journalists have given themselves a lot. In general, the station has had to inform, publicize, entertain; the Radio does not stop.
"We must recognize the work of our announcers, sound designers, administrators, cleaning assistants; because Radio is a work of continuous production," he affirms.
“Announcers, directors, scriptwriters, consultants, the artists behind the sound or the imaginary staging of a dramatic program have a heavy burden on their shoulders, a double routine, and the human improvement of each one.” This is how Yurisleydis Díaz (Yurita) perceives it.
"These times have been very difficult, and not only for us who are on the Radio. We have had to change habits of life, customs, also weigh a little how much we have done as human beings.
"I think it has been a time of much reflection, and adapting to this new reality is very complex. Radio does not stop, we cannot go home and stop producing; we have to be here facing this battle, advising people, showing them the right path, always seeking discipline and everyone's responsibility, starting by us."
His vocal cords do not denote any effort: "Well, here we are, as always, with the same spirit of work; and more so now that this pandemic is hitting us hard.
"In this part that corresponds to us, we are going to be through programming, we are going to arrive, we are going to succeed and fulfill our mission: to guide, inform and educate the people through Radio Victoria programming, which has already accumulated 68 years in the air.”
An essential voice for the Radio in Las Tunas, Jorge Carbonell López, ensures the triumph of those who give themselves to the audience every day, almost seven decades after that September 20, in 1953, when the first signal of Radio Victoria began to trace a walk in the ether and the preference of listeners of this province and a little beyond.
When the battle for survival also advocates the construction of a better human being and the need to raise solidarity as a flag, our sound comes with the contribution of many essential people who have left part of their lives in these corridors; but not for taking away moments but to add to the good that they give every minute.