The ‘Connecting the Wireless World’ research project has provided a great opportunity to learn more about the history of broadcasting in different countries and also cross border broadcasting. In my case, it has also given me important leads to research new topics and search for new archival material dealing with broadcasting transmitters installed in Portugal during the Cold War. This is the case of Radio Free Europe’s shortwave retransmission centre located south of Lisbon (in a village named Glória do Ribatejo). Even though I was aware of its existence, it was during the workshop ‘Knowing your enemy (and your friends): Cultures of radio monitoring and surveillance’, organised at the University of York, that I heard many unexplored stories about how it was set up and managed.
The political issues behind the installation of the retransmission centre in Portugal are of considerable interest for understanding the relationship between Washington and Lisbon in the aftermath of World War II. Portugal was then ruled by an authoritarian regime led by Oliveira Salazar, known as the Estado Novo (New State). Being an anti-communist regime, it opened its doors for the installation of a major retransmission centre of Radio Free Europe in its territory and this became the station’s major broadcasting site and the only one located outside Germany. Known as Raret, the centre entered into operation in 1951 and functioned until 1996, placing Portugal at the centre of American anti-communist broadcasting to the countries behind the Iron Curtain. As early as 1953, Raret was already operating through four different transmitters, a number that would increase to twelve in the early 1960s and that would also lead to an expansion of the staff working in Portugal, namely engineers and translators.
It seems that during the early years a group of Radio Free Europe broadcasters were held in reserve in Portugal in the event that the feed of programmes received from Munich was interrupted for technical reasons. Even though I was aware of the existence of Raret and of its role during the Cold War, it was during a conversation with A. Ross Johnson at the York workshop that I first became aware that Radio Free Europe had broadcasting personnel in Portugal ready to take over programming in case of a failure in the transmissions from Germany.
Following this lead, I have now found a few interesting files at the Oliveira Salazar Archive dealing with the history of Raret, especially how the Lisbon regime struggled to assure that those employed by the American broadcaster were politically aligned with the New State. In fact, it was something of a paradox that the broadcasts aired from Portugal that aimed to counter dictatorships in the East were sent through transmitters installed in a country that was under an authoritarian regime of a fascist nature until 1974.
As the research evolves I hope to answer other questions that have arisen, such as how the US government negotiated with Salazar to gain his support for the anti-communist propaganda effort. Furthermore, bearing in mind that Raret operated until 1996 it will be also very interesting to look into the 1974-1976 period when Portugal, following the Carnation Revolution, was ruled by left wing and pro-communist governments.
As far as I see it, researching the history of the retransmission centre in Portugal will not only unveil details on the everyday routines of those who worked there but it may also bring to light information on the diplomatic relations between the US and Portugal during the time it was ruled by a pro-fascist regime, and later by pro-communist governments. I hope to have more details on this after digging into the archives.
Nelson Ribeiro, co-investigator