RADIO IN MADEIRA
A review by the wireless waffler November 2005 (visited during Summer 2005)
Madeira is a very beautiful country to visit. It is owned by Portugal but set on a very special island some miles from the mainland. The language to an English speaking visitor sounds different. To me it sounded rather like speech being played backwards. I do not mean any offence to the Madeirians by saying this. I found it difficult as well to catch the odd word in English which is normally very easy to do.
The aeroplane landing in Madeira is quite steep and needs a skilled pilot. The airport protrudes out into the sea. We stayed in Funchal which is the capital of the Island and where a high proportion of the Madeirans live and work. The farmers work high up in mountains and have created a network of water conduits to feed the crops etc, these are called levadas. If you go there and think it is an idea to walk these, be warned you have to have a head for heights because these are high up some mountains and some have no rails on the edges of the paths that run alongside them. The farmers work farms on steep hills and ascend up an down these on ropes. In spite of a potential island full of aerial riggers for radio masts, they still have a wide range of masts, mostly FM. Also their telephone service is quite sophisticated and almost all Madeirans use them including the taxi drivers. Taxi fares are incredibly reasonable here but like most countries be sure to negotiate a fare before setting off.
I thoroughly enjoyed the radio stations in Madeira. There are also the national Portuguese stations there Antenna 1, 2 and 3 - more about those in a short while. Here courtesy of Jornal da Madeira is a list of all of the local radio frequencies. The paper is a free hand out in the Portuguese language but was invaluable to me in identifying the stations I was hearing. Also Jornal da Madeira appeared to have its own radio station in Funchal on 88.8 FM.
Working my way through my recordings the stations I heard were as follows:
Radio Jornal de Madeira on 88.8 FM
This was at the top of my radio dial. I heard a mix of music on this station and also late at night a programme which appeared to be coming from a night club or something of that kind. I believe the programme was called Showbiz. I did hear a middle of the road show with some country music, but also a wide range of what I assume was local vocal and instrumental music.
TSF FM on 100 FM
This station did carry an element of speech programming with news. I also heard them playing Rock music.
Antenna 1 is one of the Portuguese national stations on 95.4
This carried a lot sport when I tuned into it. It actually carries a wide range of news, information and features.
Antenna 2 is one of the Portuguese national stations on 102.4
Had programmes of local music. Its brief is to carry a range of Culture and Classical Music.
Antenna 3 is one the Portuguese national stations on 89.8
This carried at night a splendid show of what sound like chill, jazz or lounge music. I made a point of listening to this before our evening meal, relaxing after a long day out on the lovely island. The station's brief is to carry popular and brazilian music. I also heard a programme which covered music connected with films and seemed also to have inteviews and talks about the various films.
Radio Popular 101.1
I heard some splendid shows on this station, but it seemed weaker in Funchal than others, mind you the close proximity and power of most stations sometimes overloaded sets and could blank an adjacent station. One show I heard was very similar to the film show I heard was similar in style to the one described above on Antenna 3. A station which not only played English songs but also some local music.
Radio Clube 106.8
This was one of the liveliest pop music stations with some English oldies thrown in as well.
Posto Emissor Do Funchal
Was the local station with a variety of local and English music.
By pure chance when wandering the attractive streets of the Capital of Madeira, Funchal I found two of the radio stations offices. At the Radio Jornal De Madeira office which was securely locked I successfully attracted the attention of two security guards. I was trying to see if I could get some station stickers. It is at time like this you wish you had command of many local languages. The gentlemen were obviously not familiar with the words stickers. They even opened up the doors in an attempt to satisfy this anoraks enquiry. I wish I had brought some stickers from London. They were very courteous and I left them smiling trying to pronounce the word s..... ttttt.....iii.... cckers! I could not imagine staff in any UK station being as friendly in the same situation.
R Jornal da Madeira office and studios?
TSF Madeira Office
If you are going to Madeira be sure to pack a radio for some superb entertainment. I did not hear any English programmes but I never get disappointed at that fact. All stations carry commercials and from our hotel in Funchal most of the stations were quite close. This resulted in some distortion on a few stations, but careful tuning could lose this. I was using my small Eton radio which is not as smart as a more expensive radio at separating FM stations.
I still have a radio programme with clips recorded in madeira on my sound and vision site click here for audio - later I hope to have some short clips on this site (I am not permitted large audio files on this site)
These World Radio articles in a foreign country take a lot of detective work and I always find it great fun. Madeira posed a challenge because very little is written about it. By coincidence there is another article on dxing in Madeira I have recently seen and the same two radio station offices are pictured there. You should realise that mine are unique by the people in them and the angles of the shots.
I also welcome comment and corrections or additions to this review via our email address of wirewaffle@hotmail.com