"Radio Nacional de Chile": The Chilean civic-military dictatorship and its battle over the national radio

Abstract

This article exposes the development of the first state radio station in the country, Radio Nacional de Chile, during the dictatorship (1973-1990). Created by the Military Junta, it seeks to describe the use made of this station for government communications, as well as its influence on the national radio during this period. With a theoretical framework of a flexible nature, with contributions from communications, aesthetics and history, and a mixed methodology, an object of study unpublished until now is realized. Despite the progressive distancing that the state apparatus took from culture during the military regime, mainly due to the growing influence of neoliberalism, this was not complete, as demonstrated in the case of radio communications. These would have been quickly used as strategic pieces by the authorities, for their exercise of power and governability of the population, as well as for their own image, both inside and outside the country.