On air during the validity of the last five Brazilian Constitutions, the program The Voice of Brazil – oldest radio newscast in the Southern Hemisphere – turns 87 today (22).
For the special anniversary edition, The Voice of Brazil received the Special Secretary for Social Communication of the Presidency of the Republic, André Costa. THE Brazil Communication Company (EBC), which produces the program on a daily basis, is directly linked to the Federal Government’s Secretariat of Communication (Secom).
Inauguration of the broadcast of the program A Voz do Brasil, Brasília, DF. – National Archive
“Radio speaks to people’s hearts. This is a very privileged space, which takes to the most distant places of this country true information, what are the policies that the government is making available to the people as a return for the investment that the citizen makes in each of us for the public service. ,” said Costa.
Considered a heritage of public communication and intimately connected to the affective memory of residents from all regions of the country, the iconic daily newsletter adds stories and testimonies from citizens who had access to information through the program. “Since I was a teenager, I followed my father in the car, always listening to The Voice of Brazil. It is very gratifying to hear this kind of testimony. People gather around the radio to listen to the Voicethat is, we give voice to Brazilians”, declared the secretary.
In addition to news from federal government palaces, The Voice of Brazil brought listeners information about the Second World War (1939-1945). The program narrated the country’s achievements in five World Cup editions and the defeat in two – the most traumatic in 1950. Voice recorded the inauguration of Brasília (1960) and covered the death of idols such as Carmen Miranda (1955) and Ayrton Senna (1994).
On the radio, and on the The Voice of Brazilmany Brazilians learned about the birth control pill (1960), man’s arrival on the moon (1969), the first steps of mobile telephony (1973), the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the cloning of Dolly the sheep (1998).
