When radio-drama was King... 1960s Radio in São Paulo

Isis de Oliveira, a big star of Brazilian radio-drama in 1941.

Em 1952, a grade de novelas da PRA-5, Radio São Paulo era de 31 novelas diferentes sendo irradiadas simultâneamente... Haja história! Haja drama! Alguns nomes conhecidos entre os autores são: Fred Jorge, futuro versionista de 'Estúpido cupido' e outros sucessos de Celly Campello; Odair Marzano, versionista de 'Hino ao amor'; Dias Gomes, dramaturgo que criou 'O pagador de promessas'; Ivany Ribeiro, que teve muito sucesso na TV Excelsior e Oduvaldo Vianna, cujo filho Vianinha foi famoso nos anos 1960. 

A Radio Bandeirantes tinha 5 novelas distribuidas entre 3 no período da manhã e 2 à noite.

A Radio Tupi irradiava a versão paulista de 'O direito de nascer' às 3as., 5as. e sábados às 20 horas. 'O direito de nascer' irradiada pela Radio Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, a mais popular do país, ia ao ar às 2as, 4as. e 6as. às 20 horas.

'Radiolândia' #200, 1958, shows how Radio São Paulo ruled the radio-drama waves...

playwright Oduvaldo Vianna in his hey-days...

Augusto Barone, Radio São Paulo's artistic director reminisces about its glory...

'Radiolândia', 1958.

As late as 25 March 1962, OESP published this note about a new radio-drama (novela) on Radio São Paulo.

Radio in São Paulo in the 1960s

Radio Cultura S.A., PRE-4, Avenida São João, 2248 - Radio Nacional Paulista, PRG-9, rua Sebastião Pereira, 218, Organização Victor Costa. 

Radio Excelsior, ZYR-56, rua 24 de Maio, 208, 2o. andar, Organização Victor Costa. 

I arrived in São Paulo one week before Christmas 1960, when I was 11 years old. The first thing that struck me the most besides the tall skyscrapers and the red tram-cars on the streets was the great variety of radio stations and its non-stop playing of hits.

Having grown up in a town 500 km west of the capital city I was used to listen to no more than two radio stations at a time and bear up with commercial interruptions and a lot of talk from the DJs. São Paulo was a different cup of tea. Radio was really dinamic and they played a lot of music. It was Hit Parade galore! All of a sudden I found myself in paradise because I loved listening to hit parades with its ups and downs. 

My family shared a house in Vila Madelana, a working class suburb, with another family that had migrated from Uruguayana, a city in the deep south just before one crosses the frontier into Argentina. They listened to radio the whole day. That was something new to me too, as my Mother would not allow us to keep the radio on more than 2 or 3 hours at a time.

Listening to the radio the whole day was a dream come true. Me and my sister Lucia would listen to a new song and learn the lyrics by heart in no time. By the end of 1961 I had a lyrics scrap-book with more than 100 songs I had copied straight from just listening to the radio.

Hit Parades were usually presented on Sundays at different radio stations and so I learned that there was competition in the musical world. I looked forward to Sunday mornings when I listened to 'Grande Parada Nacional' on Radio Nacional paulista (not the powerful broadcasting station from Rio de Janeiro but the one in São Paulo) from 8:00 to 10:00 AM; then 'As 25 mais' on Radio Bandeirantes from 10:00 to Noon.

Starting at 5:00 PM I listened to Radio Cultura's 'Hit Parade' which presented not only the best selling 25 singles but also the 5 best selling albums and 5 best selling extended-plays.

On Saturday evenings, Radio Bandeirantes used to broadcast 'As 25 mais há um ano atráz' (25 best-selling hits from a year back) which was fantastic because one realized how fickle smash-hits were. After one year you could hardly recognize what had been a 'sensation' only 365 days before.

Here's a list of some São Paulo's DJs published on the back-cover of  a 1961's album 'Gostoso de dançar':

Radio America:   Clemar de Oliveira; Alvaro Campos; Nassin Filho

Radio Bandeirantes:  Henrique Lôbo; Walter Silva; Enzo de Almeida Passos; Sergio Galvão; José Carlos Romeu.

Radio Cometa:  Batista Linardi; Coronel Cuco; Domingos Mantelli; Remo Wagner; Julio.... ; Edson Nanartavis; Odete Faria (the only woman DJ so far).

Radio Cultura:  Waldir Santos: Magno Salerno; Francisco Sandi; Arcy Angrisani; Bernardo Federowsky.

Radio Difusora:  José Claudio; Daniel Magalhães; Neyde Garcia; Lima Duarte.

Radio Eldorado:  Antonio de Vicenzo.

Radio Excelsior:  Ricardo Macedo; Fausto Macedo; Paulo Rogério.

Radio Nacional:  Neylor de Oliveira; Helio de Araujo; Helio de Alencar; Maria Aparecida Alves; Teixeira Filho.

Radio Piratininga:  Bob Junior; Euzébio Rei; Reinaldo Santos; Maria José; J.C. de Souza.

Radio Record:  Irvando Luiz; Lupe Ferreira; Virginia de Moraes; Cesar Medeiros; Walter Seissel (Pimentinha).

Radio Tupi:  Kahlil Filho; Franco Neto.

'Parada de Sucessos' (Hit Parade) sponsored by Lojas Assumpção had DJ Helio de Alencar lilting voice announcing the best selling records daily at Noon on Radio Nacional paulista - having 'Saint Louis Blues March' by Glenn Miller's orchestra in the back ground.

Henrique Lobo, filho do maestro Elias Lobo, neto do maestro Jerônimo Lobo, pianista tendo estudado com a tia Menininha Lobo.

Programmes on the 16 São Paulo radio stations at exactly 6:30 PM in 3rd September 1959.