MADRID, Spain.- José Antonio Alonso Aday, one of the most representative radio announcers and directors of the first half of the Cuban 20th century, passed away on June 10, 1973.
His beginnings in radio happened by chance: One day, in June 1931, he was visiting CMW The Voice of the Antilles, when it comes time for announcements. His friend Chenín Guzmán, who worked at the station, asks him if he would be able to improvise, since the texts had been left at home. Alonso Aday improvised successfully and that was the beginning of a long radio career, which included the founding of Siboney timewith the participation of Ernesto Lecuona and Gustavo Sánchez Galarraga.
José Antonio Alonso was also the presenter of the Informative Hearing of the newspaper The country, via CMQ; star show producer and director Partying with Bacardi, from the CMQ; and had his own show on tv José Antonio Alonso’s programat the end of the 50s.
But, without a doubt, among the most notable of his career is the popular amateur radio contest show La Corte Suprema del Arte, broadcast in Cuba at the end of the 1930s and 1940s, originally hosted by José Antonio Alonso. He contributed a lot to the space, and managed to make his usual phrases transcend: “Who are you going to dedicate it to?” and “Music, teacher!”.
The program, broadcast for the first time in December 1937, in the studios of the CMQ station, came to be considered the most famous contest on Spanish-speaking radio at the time. In The Supreme Court of Art many who would later become great artists took their first steps, among them Rosita FornesCarlos Embale, Tito Gomez, Celia CruzBenny More and Elena Burke.
