It was back in the year 1906 that the longwave communication station CWA was inaugurated with German Telefunken equipment near the coastal town of Cerrito on the southern coast of the South American country of Uruguay. This station was installed for communication with nearby shipping, and it was subsequently taken into use for international communication across the Rio de la Plata Estuary with nearby Buenos Aires in Argentina.
Some time after the end of World War 1, the electrical equipment at station CWA was discarded and replaced by electronic equipment that subsequently permitted international voice transmissions on shortwave. The main international radio station with which CWA communicated was the huge wireless station on the other side of the Rio Plata Estuary, station LPZ at Monte Grande, a southern suburb of the Argentine capital city, Buenos Aires. Station CWA also communicated with mobile and fixed wireless stations in several of the rural areas within Uruguay.
It was during the early 1930's that international radio broadcasting on shortwave really began to flourish in many countries around the world, and the first known program broadcasts on shortwave from Uruguay were transmitted from this coastal station, CWA at Cerrito. For example in June 1933, station CWA was heard in the United States with news broadcasts under the callsign CWG on 26.39 metres (11367 kHz). Shortwave channel CWG was in reality a subsidiary callsign that was in use for coastal communications, and also for the occasional part time broadcast of information and entertainment programming.
Back in those days, the shortwave stations in many countries were required to register a separate callsign for each different shortwave channel. In the mid 1930s, the Cerrito station CWA was registered with subsidiary callsigns in the alphabetic series ranging from CWA to CWI. The transmitter power was rated at 1½ kW (probably input), thus with an output power of a little under 1 kW.
That was the very beginning of shortwave broadcasting in Uruguay, back in the early 1930s. The second occasion for shortwave broadcasting in Uruguay began in the year 1936 when the government operated SODRE station, Radio Electrico, inaugurated a 3 kW transmitter on 6125 kHz under the callsign CXA4. As in all South American radio stations, the station slogan was more significant than the registered callsign.
During the following year (1937), an additional 20 kW transmitter was taken into service for Radio Electrico, and either of the two transmitters, 3 kW or 20 kW, could be used on any of five different shortwave channels, each under its own separate callsign. Programming on shortwave was always a relay of their mediumwave programming, and their best known shortwave channels were 9570 kHz, and also another around 6 MHz.
The studio address for Radio Electrico SODRE was at 823 Calle Mercedes in Montevideo. SODRE radio issued an attractive QSL booklet in response to listener reception reports.
The third shortwave station in Uruguay was the original, and rather controversial, Radio Continental CXA2 which was inaugurated with a special opening ceremony at 9 pm on Friday evening February 19, 1937. Programming for this new station was produced and presented specifically for broadcast on shortwave; there was no counterpart station on mediumwave for Radio Continental in Uruguay as is frequently the case in South America.
Initial plans for this new shortwave station indicated that widespread coverage in Spanish was intended; throughout Uruguay, Paraguay, and northern Argentina. Their printed program schedule showed that they were presenting news, music and advertisements, much of which was on relay from Radio Prieto LS2 in nearby Buenos Aires, Argentina. Even though they had no mediumwave counterpart in Montevideo, yet contemporary assessments back then did indicate that they were performing adequately on shortwave.
Their first temporary studio was installed at 631 Rio Negro Street in Montevideo, and their first temporary shortwave transmitter, rated at 300 watts, was installed at a temporary location in suburban Sayago. Later in that same year (1937), the studios were transferred to 1431 Calle Juan Carlos Gomez, and the transmitter was transferred into a small building at the Deus Brick Factory at 5151 Camino Carrasco in suburban La Cruz de Carrasco. A new 5 kW shortwave transmitter was also installed at this new location.
The total lifespan of shortwave Radio Continental CXA2 in Montevideo Uruguay was rather brief. The political polarization of the various countries in continental Europe during World War 2 was reflected to a certain extent in some of the countries of South America, and it was suspected that Radio Continental favored the Axis powers.
During the early hours of Wednesday morning August 5, 1942, a powerful explosion completely destroyed Radio Continental CXA2. The culprits were never apprehended, and the station was never rebuilt.
In April 1938, as the American radio magazine Radio News informs us, a total of 18 new shortwave stations with a power of 2½ kW were licensed by the Uruguayan government, and each was owned by a mediumwave radio station located in neighboring Argentina. The sudden influx of Argentine shortwave stations into Uruguay was because the Argentine government simply refused to license any new shortwave stations in their own country.
In June 1939, another new shortwave station was inaugurated at Colonia on the Uruguayan southwest coast. This station, Radio Real de San Carlos CXA8, also took a program relay from neighboring Buenos Aires; Radio Belgrano. Radio Real CXA8 operated with 5 kW on 9640 kHz, and its secondary callsign CXA14 operated on 11825 kHz.
Five months later (November 1939), Radio El Espectador CXA9 in Montevideo appeared on 9440 kHz with 5 kW, taking a program relay from their own mediumwave station CX14. Then in mid 1940, another new one CXA7 was expected to make its appearance on 11480 kHz. Then, we should also remember that the American Press Wireless also operated their own shortwave station in Uruguay in the pre-war era, and it was tucked in somewhere around an outer suburban area of the capital city Montevideo.
(AWR-Wavescan/NWS 570)