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"Wavescan" is a weekly program for long distance radio hobbyists produced by Dr. Adrian M. Peterson, Coordinator of International Relations for Adventist World Radio. AWR carries the program over many of its stations (including shortwave). Adrian Peterson is a highly regarded DXer and radio historian, and often includes features on radio history in his program. We are reproducing those features below, with Dr. Peterson's permission and assistance.
Wavescan N606, October 4, 2020
A Hundred Years of Radio Broadcasting in Argentina: The Radio Scene During the Malvinas War
Written in Spanish by Arnaldo Slaen, well-known international radio monitor and DX Editor, RAI; translation into English by Fernando Farias, English Service, RAI; edited for broadcast on shortwave radio by Dr. Adrian Peterson.
During the year 2020, Argentina is celebrating its centenary of radio broadcasting, and there are several important and interesting milestones along this century of radio in our country, says Arnaldo Slaen in Buenos Aires. On this occasion, he continues, we focus on the radio events that were associated with the 1982 Malvinas War, a conflict that was waged on various fields: military, economic, diplomatic, and, of course, radio communication.
Up until April 2, 1982, the Malvinas Islands had one radio broadcasting station; the Falkland Islands Radio Service (FIBS), with its broadcasts entirely in English. Programming content aired included locally-produced programs as well as news services from the BBC London. FIBS broadcasts were noted on two channels, on 536 kHz mediumwave and on 2370 kHz, 120 m, in the tropical shortwave. The AM frequency was intended for coverage of the Port Stanley area, though the shortwave transmissions extended the signal a little further.
From mainland South America, English-language broadcasts from Radio Argentina al Exterior (RAE) and Radio Noticias Argentinas also targeted the archipelago. In addition, there was also a special service on shortwave from the BBC in London aimed at the Malvinas Islanders who were known locally as "Kelpers." On television, Channel 9 in Río Gallegos could be picked up on the Islands every now and then.
After Argentine troops seized the archipelago on April 2, 1982, the local radio landscape changed dramatically. The FIBS plant was captured by the Argentine military, and its radio facilities were converted into the studios of the newly-designated LRA60, Radio Nacional Islas Malvinas, and it joined the national network of Radio Nacional Argentina.
During this era, the radio station was manned by several Argentine personnel, including sound engineer Ernesto Manuel Dalmau, operator Fernando Héctor Péndola, and presenter Norman Carlos Powell.
During the war, FIBS presenter Patrick Watts continued as a speaker on the radio, as the new Argentine authorities thought it was a good idea to take advantage of his knowledge of the local environment and his fluent command of the English language as spoken in the Malvinas. This proved subsequently to be a gross miscalculation by the Argentine Armed Forces, since Watts covertly provided valuable military and strategic information to the British, such as, for example, saying on air that the airport remained operational, despite British bombardment.
During the war and until it ended, LRA60 Islas Malvinas transmitted programs also via a cable system in Puerto Argentino, as Port Stanley was renamed by the military authorities, in addition to 536 kHz on mediumwave and on 2370 kHz on shortwave. Programs were also retransmitted on other shortwave frequencies as a relay to the South American mainland, and in this way its programming was received and retransmitted by other radio stations throughout Argentina. On several occasions, LRA60 was the head for the entire Argentine network of stations that integrated the now defunct FIBS National Broadcasting Service.
Additional frequencies that were used as relays from the Malvinas Islands to mainland Argentina were 15890 KHz and 24146 KHz, and these were transmitted from station VPC, the communication radio station which was previously installed by Cable & Wireless. Station VPC operated in upper single sideband mode (USB) and it had been previously in use as the point-to-point communication link from the islands to the United Kingdom, up until the outbreak of the conflict.
The programming from the Argentine-operated LRA60 was quite varied, and it included music in English and Spanish, sports broadcasts picked up directly from the BBC, and community announcements for rural and city dwellers. Regular broadcasts specially prepared for the rural population in estancias and farms across the archipelago continued also.
During those feverish days, broadcasts to the Malvinas from the mainland intensified. Special programs were put on the air by RAE and Radio Noticias in Argentina, on shortwave (6060 kHz). In addition, program content aired by LRA11, Radio Nacional Comodoro Rivadavia, in Chubut, and LRA24, Radio Nacional Rio Grande, in the province of Tierra del Fuego, were also beamed to the Malvinas Islands.
The LRA60 medium wave signal in Puerto Argentino (Port Stanley) was also used to announce and to coordinate inbound flights with the rural population of the two most important islands of the archipelago, which the Argentinians called Gran Malvina and Soledad, and the British called simply East Falkland and West Falkland. These flights were bringing mail and medications from the mainland whenever British bombing of the runway didn't make that impossible. On some occasions, cargo was otherwise dropped from the air.
After May 1, 1982, mediumwave and shortwave signals from the Malvinas were frequently silenced intentionally, since the information given on air was picked up by radio monitors in Chile who were working with the British. These radio transmissions therefore became intermittent, often without any programming content, so that the signal could be used as a homing beacon by incoming Argentine aircraft. The one major exception was the broadcast of the visit by Pope John Paul II to Argentina, which occurred near the end of the conflict. However, throughout the rest of the conflict LRA60 continued to broadcast via the cable system in Port Stanley itself.
A few days before June 14 (1982), when the British recaptured the islands, LRA60, Radio Nacional Islas Malvinas, went off the air due to a power outage as a result of heavy British bombing. Amid the heavy fighting, the station's medium wave antenna and its transmitter were destroyed also.
However, let's go back now to the early days of the conflict. When the United Kingdom announced it was sending a massive "Task Force" with the aim of retaking the islands, the Argentine government launched a propaganda radio station which was identified on air as "Liberty." This shortwave radio station, which aired its messages in English, was aimed at British troops on their way across the Atlantic on board dozens of warships and support ships.
Radio "Liberty" in Argentina transmitted on shortwave, on the 16 meter band frequency of 17,740 kHz, and its goal was to discourage British soldiers and sailors by telling them that they were making a "useless sacrifice for a distant territory that was unknown to them." "Liberty" was personified by a sweet and friendly female voice (known among the British troops as Argentine Annie) that asked listeners, "would they not rather be at home, watching a football game, cheering for their teams," or telling them, "you have written to your girlfriend. I know you are dying to see her again."
In her programming, Radio Liberty would say that her voice could be heard every day in a beautiful house in Belgrave Square (London, England), or in a boat sailing on the sea (Atlantic Ocean). "Hello I am Liberty. I myself decided to show to the whole world what life is like in a place that is far away from you; in the Malvinas, in the Sandwich Islands, in South Georgia. I am a voice, a life, a country" were her words, with the song "Yesterday" by the Beatles playing in the background.
Many years after the end of the war, it was revealed that journalist Silvia Fernández Barrios was the voice of Liberty. At the time, she was an announcer for Argentina Televisora Color (LS82 TV, Channel 7). Reporter Enrique Alejandro Mancini collaborated on the content production for her programming.
In addition to Radio Liberty, Argentine military authorities at the time sought to offer entertainment options for Argentine troops in the Malvinas and in Patagonia, by retransmitting on shortwave three of the most popular stations of the time: LS10, Radio del Plata (very popular among young people for its music); LS5, Radio Rivadavia's sports programs; and LS4, Radio Continental.
It is essential to point out that all these radio stations, with a few exceptions, had been under military management since 1976, and their programming was strictly censored.
For their part, the British government also operated their own clandestine station called Radio Atlantico del Sur that broadcast to the occupation forces in Spanish from shortwave transmitters on Ascensions Island, some 4,000 miles to the north east.
This report would be incomplete if we did not point out that on the international level, all the major international broadcasters in the world devoted extensive space to events ongoing on the islands in the South Atlantic. During the Falklands, or Malvinas, conflict, the BBC increased the length of their transmissions in Spanish for Latin America, and as well they added more broadcasts in English aimed at the inhabitants of the islands.
After May 1, 1982, this war of "the airwaves" intensified. While the BBC complained that the transmissions of its Latin American Service were being interfered with by Argentina, the authorities of Radio Nacional in Buenos Aires informed conversely that their shortwave services were being jammed from North America.
On the auspicious occasion of commemorating such a special date as the centenary of radio broadcasting in Argentina, we cannot fail to recall the role of radio in particular during what they called in 1982 the Malvinas War.
Malvinas War Audio-1.mp3