WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News

(R Bulgaria DX px, June 16)
CHAD 6165 RD.Natle. Tchadienne, N'Djamena, heard at the unusual time of
1216-1255 UT, on 15 June, French lang. prgr of Afr. pops, phone-ins;
34333, QRM de HRV.
(Carlos Goncalves-POR, wwdxc BC-DX June 20)
CHILE The National Security Archives at George Washington University
recently released a nice, interesting declassified cable sent in 1974 from
the US embassy in Santiago about Pinochet's Voice of Chile. I wrote a full
report on my madridkid blog site. Check it out!
(Marty Delfin-ESP, dxld June 14)
WHEN THE US EMBASSY PREDICTED THE FAILURE OF PINOCHET'S AMBITIOUS VOICE OF
CHILE SHORTWAVE PROJECT
Just days after dictator Augusto Pinochet inaugurated the powerful Voice
of Chile on January 15, 1974, a U.S. diplomat told his superiors in
Washington that he had reservations about the effectiveness of the SW
radio station and predicted that it would fail because it wouldn't be able
to attract enough listeners.
This revealing appraisal is contained in a recently declassified cable
sent by an American Embassy official in Santiago and obtained by George
Washington University's National Security Archive. The diplomat, who
signed the missive using only his last name Villarreal, described
Pinochet's plans for his station as "grandiose." Just four months earlier,
Pinochet, with the U.S. govt's backing, led a bloody coup that toppled
Marxist President Salvador Allende.
"This is a major propaganda effort by the govt of Chile," Villarreal wrote
Washington on January 17, 1974. "Junta seems determined, however, to fight
critics abroad and attempt to correct what they see as a distorted image
of Chile peddled by former Allende supporters and fellow-travelers."
On the morning of September 11, 1973, Allende was cornered inside La
Moneda Presidential Palace in downtown Santiago just less than two hours
after broadcasting an emotional last-stand speech on Radio Cooperativa. In
another part of the city, a faction of the Chilean army was confiscating
new Soviet-made txs that had been supplied to the Communist-backed Radio
Recabarren and Radio Magallanes, Villarreal's cable explained.
The powerful 70 kilowatt txs were then set up across the street from the
Defense Ministry and put to the Junta's use at Radio Nacional de Chile.
During the inauguration ceremony, Pinochet said the station's purpose was
"to let world know of heroic Chilean struggle to save the country from the
totalitarian claws of Soviet imperialists," the diplomat summarized.
With domestic txions on 1140 kHz, Radio Nacional would begin broadcasting
as the Voice of Chile in several langs including English on SW throughout
the 1970s from Radio Cooperativa's studios. Villarreal identified Col.
Eduardo Sepulveda, "the Junta's prime communications man" who would later
become the Chilean consul in Miami, as head of the station's board of
directors. Station manager Gabor Torey and press officer Francisco
Barahona were both hired from Radio Mineria by the Junta's secretary
general.
"Although plans for Radio Nacional are grandiose, knowledgeable radio
contacts doubt efficacy of international broadcasting effort pointing to
high costs, limited listening audience and past failures to mount SW
efforts from Chile," Villarreal reported.