1920s: Rádio Sociedade (Society Radio),tuning science into Brazilian homes

1. Rádio Sociedade initiatives

For the first 2 years, the radio transmitted only on certain days and hours. The station offered several courses, ranging from English, French, the history of Brazil, Portuguese-language literature and French literature, to physics, chemistry, radiotelephony, telegraphy, among others. News was broadcast at various times throughout the day and featured information on exchange rates and business news, along with weather forecasts.

Numerous scientific and cultural lectures were given, including topics like “Hygiene,” “Physical states of matter,” “How rivers are born,” “The tides,” and “The physiology of sleep.” News was released about scientific institutions, such as the National Museum and National Observatory, and about professional associations and public agencies. Rádio Sociedade also transmitted a brief talk by Albert Einstein and lectures by Marie Curie on radioactivity when the two scientists were in Brazil, in 1925 and 1926, respectively.

Children had their own programming. After the station had been on the air for about 6 months, João Köpke, a teacher, started a program called “Quarto de Hora Infantil” (The children’s quarter of an hour). It was a weekly program that aired in the late afternoon and covered an assortment of topics; there were storytellers, contests, lessons in basic knowledge (answering in simple terms complicated questions only children ask), and children themselves playing music or reciting poetry. On “Pergunte à tia Beatriz” (Ask Aunt Beatriz), Roquette-Pinto’ daughter replied to questions from young listeners.

Rádio Sociedade at first focused more on “serious” music, as classical music was called back then. Many transmissions were live from its studio, played by an orchestra assembled for this purpose. “Light” or “fast” music, on the other hand—especially jazz and, later, the so-called popular Brazilian music—only earned a spot after 1926, in response to repeated listener requests and overriding the prevailing opinion of the station directors.

In 1929, for instance, 414 scientific, cultural, or artistic lectures and lessons were broadcast, together with 332 vocal or instrumental concerts. ⁷ Rádio Sociedade’s main offices were home not only to the broadcast station itself but likewise housed a library, a room where courses and conferences were conducted, and a laboratory for scientific or technical experiments and tests. ⁸ During a certain period, groups of Boy Scouts were also organized there, engaging young people from Rio de Janeiro. There was, in a way, an entire educational complex for the cultural and scientific engagement initiatives around the radio station.

Rádio Sociedade published two magazines as well. Radio-Revista de divulgação científica was devoted to radio culture. Created in 1923 and published until 1926, it featured radio programming along with texts on radiotelegraphy as well as general science topics. Electron, launched in 1926, presented station programming, sundry articles, and the content of lectures that had been broadcast.

Although Rádio Sociedade never received any official funding but was supported by its several hundred members plus private donors, it expanded considerably from 1923 to 1930. For example, its reports show that the annual budget increased from 33 contos de réis in 1923 to around 300 contos de réis in 1929. ⁹ The station began with a 10 W transmitter, but a new Marconi transmission station was inaugurated in 1924, boosting power more than one hundred times and reaching 2000 W in 1932. For several years, Rádio Sociedade was the country’s most powerful radio station, transmitting at a wavelength of 400 m.

2. High expectations

The arrival of radio to Brazil prompted a wave of excitement in some educational and cultural circles, much like what we can observe, decades later, with television and more recently with the Internet. At that time, many people thought radio would afford a cheap, fast, and efficient way to democratize information and educate the entire nation. In 1923, Roquette-Pinto stated that radiotelephony would be the biggest school in the future:

Those of us now witnessing the dawn of radiotelephony have the same feeling that must have been shared by some of those who possessed and read the first books. What a jolt to our moral world! What an incredible means for transforming man in a few minutes, if used in good faith, with heart and soul! ¹⁰

Almost 3 years later, he still espoused these same beliefs:

The radio is the newspaper of those who don’t know how to read; it is the schoolmaster of those who can’t attend school; it is free entertainment for the poor; it is the spark of new hope, comforter of the ill, guide for the healthy, so long as employed in an altruistic, lofty spirit. Living in the sertão [Brazilian hinterlands] no longer means dying alive . . . ¹¹

Roquette-Pinto said radio broadcasting made it possible to educate, instruct, and delight people—even those who could not read—and so he argued that the government itself should provide incentives for this resource. In 1925, Einstein said in a broadcast from Rádio Sociedade:

After my visit to Rádio Sociedade, I can’t help but yet again admire the splendid results achieved by science coupled with technology, affording the best fruits of civilization to those living in isolation. It is true that books can, and have had, the same effect, but not with the simplicity and security of a presentation curated and pronounced aloud. Books have to be chosen by the reader, which sometimes creates challenges. In the culture conveyed by radiotelephony, so long as those in charge of its releases are qualified, then listeners are the recipients not only of judicious selections but also personal opinions and commentaries that smooth the paths and facilitate comprehension: this is Rádio Sociedade’s great work. ¹²

3. Impacts and the main legacies

The following assessment by Roquette-Pinto (1927: 236) provides an estimate of the number of people reached by Rádio Sociedade programs, although we have no direct way of measuring their true impact on listeners:

Many people feel that the idea of radiotelephony having an educational role is merely some poetic notion, something desirable but difficult or unachievable. Those who feel this way don’t know what the rest of the world is doing and, what’s better, what Brazil is doing. More than three years ago, we began engaging in educational telephony. Despite all the expected and encountered challenges, we now have documents in our hands that prove that Brazil has the perfect potential to execute a great plan in public education and instruction through wireless telephony.

It is estimated that, in 1926, there would be about 30,000 households in the country with radio receivers, mostly in Rio de Janeiro, and in every home the whole families and friend used to listen to radio broadcasts together. The estimated population, at that time, of Rio de Janeiro was around 1.3 million inhabitants and most of the listeners of Rádio Sociedade were domiciled there. Therefore, for many thousands of people, Rádio Sociedade may have been an important communication tool, especially in educational and cultural aspects.

However, it is difficult to assess the real impact Rádio Sociedade had on local society. Its cultural influence, in particular, was significant. It is known that, as it was a pioneer initiative, it aroused a lot of interest, which is reflected in the more than 5,000 stories related to Rádio Sociedade, between the years 1923 and 1929, in newspapers in Rio de Janeiro. ¹³ Even more difficult is to analyze and understand the repercussions of its science communication initiatives. Relevant questions remain unanswered: have children’s programs contributed to attracting children and young people to activities and possible careers in scientific areas? How understandable and attractive were the physics, chemistry, and geology classes to listeners? To what extent was programming able to arouse interest in science topics and to stimulate decision makers for the causes of scientists?

4. The station comes to an end

Brazilian laws had an impact on Rádio Sociedade at several moments, particularly at the outset and end of its life. In 1923, for reasons of national security, radio transmission was banned, and it became a political crime to possess a radio receiver in a private home. Due to a campaign articulated by Rádio Sociedade and under pressure from various sectors, particularly the Brazilian Academy of Science, government leaders gave in and the legislation was changed. In the late 1920s, it likewise became illegal to use shortwaves, which would have greatly expanded the reach of radio. One decade after Rádio Sociedade had opened, new legislation precluded its continued operation.

In the station’s final report, dated 3 September 1936, we read:

Rádio Sociedade cannot continue its radiobroadcasting services without thoroughly remodeling its organization, abandoning the purely educational role it has played and instead shifting to a commercial role, given the demands of current law (Salgado, 1946: 37).

On 7 September 1936, Rádio Sociedade do Rio de Janeiro was donated to the Ministry of Education. The station’s last report ends with this sentence:

“In the absence of funding to increase station power—as required by the government—Rádio Sociedade hereby ends its operations” (Salgado, 1946: 39).

It was the end of Rádio Sociedade. But the station bequeathed Brazil a robust legacy in the realms of communication, science, education, and culture.

We highlight some particularly significant aspects that have marked the trajectory of Rádio Sociedade: (1) the successful creation of the pioneer radio in the country by an independent initiative of a group of scientists and without state support; (2) the belief, from the side of its main creators (and unlikely to had been met), that the new channels of communication could contribute decisively to overcome the educational deficit of the country, in particular illiteracy, in addition to spreading the importance of science and “high” culture; (3) the fact that Radio Sociedade was an innovative science communication experiment in which, due to the nature of the channel, there was a significant interface between science, culture, and art; (4) scientific communication was understood by scientists as a powerful strategy to convince society in general and decision makers in particular that it was worth supporting science. It is difficult to assess how efficient this strategy was, but the infrastructure for the training of scientists in the country began to be built, in fact, in the following years, and it had the participation of some of the social actors involved in the process of creating Rádio Sociedade.