Radio Stations in Guatemala

Guatemala 1963

I visited Guatemala in mid-1963,
and again in January of 1964 and visited Quetzaltenango, Tikal, Escuintla,
Guatemala City and other locations.

TGUX - Radio Panamericana, owned by the legendary Jaime Paniagua

10 kw AM transmitter built by station staff

Rear view of TGUX transmitter on 1020 kcs.

TGUX Studios

Radio Panamericana announcer

 

TGUX Control room from inside

 

Radio 5-60 and Channel 3 TV
This station was part owned by ABC Television of the USA at this time. Note that the height of the TV antenna is about 30 meters above ground level; TV in 1963 was in its infancy.

 

Studio of Radio Nuevo Mundo, 880 AM

 
Studio Location of Radio Columbia, 1240 AM
Note the short antenna on roof... this is the radiator for this station.
 
Columbia's Transmitter. At the time, this station was owned by Paco Rodríguez, who later did radio traffic reports in Los Angeles in the
80's and 90s for stations like KHJ and KWIZ.

TGW - Radio Nacional
Gong and Mike in TGW, the national government station.

Main Studio of TGW, 640 AM.

Radio Ciro's 850 AM
Building housing Ciro's, 850 AM Ciro's was one of the leading drama stations,
featuring many soap operas from Mexico.

Studio at Ciro's 850 AM.

Emperador 920 AM
Radio Emperador 920 AM...  Rooftop antennas and towers were very common at that time in Guatemala and throughout Latin America.

Emperador studio with one of the ubiquitous Sony 777 tape decks.
Emperador studios were in this building where the broadcast antenna was located on the roof.
Radio Quetzal (1270 AM) was on second floor of this building
Quetzal studio
Quetzal 1270 AM transmitter... this transmitter fed a longwire antenna on the roof. Direct coupling to the antenna without an antenna tuning unit was common with rooftop AM radio installations in th 60's throughout much of Latin Amrica except more developed areas such as Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile and Argentina.

TGY - Radio Progreso
Master Control of TGY "Radio Progreso" 580 AM in Guatemala City. 

The marimba is the national instrument of Guatemala.
In 1963, TGY had a nightly live marimba show each evening at 1900,
complete with a studio audience. I attended several times.

Announcer on air at TGY

Radio Faro Aviateca 750 AM. Note broadcast antenna (longwire) on roof.
Aviateca was the Guatemalan airline; naming stations for sponsors was rather common. In Guatemala City there was also a La Voz de la Telefunken..

The construction on the roof housed La Voz de la Eterna Primeavera, an AM station at 1420 AM The name honors Guatemala's nickname of
being the land of eternal springtime.

1420's state of the art broadcast studio.
 

Radio Sonora 1390 AM
Radio Sonora, which moved form 1390 to 1140 while I was in Guatemala,
had a well-listened to morning news block.

Newscasters on the air at Radio Sonora. Fast paced newscasts where announcers
either alternated by story or by groups of sentences were common and a natural
way to inform an audience that had a high incidence of illiteracy.

TGXA studios

Radio Mundial 700 AM

Lobby of La Voz de la Libertad, 620 AM.

And Libertad's studio complete with ID chime.

    

Radio Universal, TGHB 760 building and studio.
 This station later became Radio Super.

Radio Reloj 1120
Rooftop antenna (wires that look like a horizontal ladder)
of Radio Reloj, 1120 AM.

Radio Club TGZ 1070 AM
Studio of Radio Club with record library in next room.
Top-loaded antenna of TGZ on roof of building.
Rooftop longwire antenna of Radio Continental 980 AM

City of Escuintla. In the town of Escuintla, this is Radio Palmera's studio.
The rest of the station is totally open-air!

Radio Palmeras transmitter on 570 AM.

Also in Escuintla, this building housed either Radio Sur or Radio Escuintla.