Radio María is one of the most important radio phenomena in Spain. With a community of listeners that are counted by millions worldwide, its history is not exempt from controversies. However, when the entire country succumbed to the blackout last week, Radio María endured firmly without interrupting its programming. This is how this unique dissemination chain of Catholic thought works.
Stop Radio María. The past blackout that left the entire country disconnected did not affect all radio stations, which made the small and outdated transistors in very precious goods. Among the chains that endured the envy with, among other media, electricity generators such as hospitals, were RNE, wave, cope or being. But among all, Radio María highlighted for its apparent modesty: indefatigable, it was still arriving at all points in Spain thanks to its large number of repeaters, 2,000 worldwide. A figure comparable to that of any large radio chain.
Maria for the world. The devotees of the station will not be surprised: Radio María, of Italian origin, is heard in points of Spain where the rest of the chains, even the greats, arrive with difficulty, thanks to the 225 stations that have been distributed throughout the country. And even beyond: it has 93 radio stations in the world, reaching points as remote as Asia or Oceania, which add 11 stations. Radio María presumes 500 million listeners (potential) that are sustained thanks to a network of volunteers who make possible the spread of the radio faith: since 1998, World Family of Radio Maria is a non -profit association that brings together all these stations.
A radio consecrated to faith. Radio María was born in Italy in 1983, as a parish radio in the diocese. Safe and priests wanted to develop an evangelization work with explicitly religious programming. This has been respected in radio growth throughout the world, and is noticed in its Spanish incarnation, where it arrived in 1999. On its grill the religious dissemination programs with all the spasible approaches (Jívenes, elders, marriages, psychology, theology, sacral music, news related to the Pope and the Church) and, of course, the religious acts, with prayer programs and two daily masses.
Armando Lío. One of the aspects that Radio María takes care of is its relationship with younger Catholics. He has a program, in fact, entitled “Armando Lío”, such as Hakuna’s slogan, the Youth Catholic Activism Association that congregated 85,000 people in cyber chanting their religious pop hymns. Although Radio María is little given to facilitate audience figures for its programs, the attention on their grill to spaces oriented to the youngest public, such as ‘Armando Lío’, ‘Breaking molds’ or also the musical ‘sings and walks’ are proof that generating a community that supports the project is an important objective for the survival of the station.
Niche community. Radio María is the perfect example of how beyond the attention of the great media and the general public live very numerous and involved communities, to the point of sustaining one of the most effective and listened radio stations of the country only with donations. “Our goal is to reach everywhere and act to achieve it. It may sound very rare, but we do not move for the number of possible listeners or the possibilities of a station, we have some principles different from those of conventional radio,” said Quintanilla in the confidential.
Undoubtedly, a criterion that has led the station to highlight in a situation as adverse as a national blackout.
How is financed. It is the big question, the great enigma around Radio María. Officially, the station makes it very clear on its website: maintaining the broadcast costs 573 euros at the time, and the options for the faithful are multiple: periodic or punctual donations, income and transfers, checks, bizums .. until the fiscal deductions that correspond by donations are specified, which make up 99% of the income of the issuer. The other leg of support to Radio María is the volunteer network, which also admits multiple variants: in the promotion, in the dioceses, from home …
Currently, they have more than 1,500 volunteers throughout Spain, which generate 90% of the programming. However, doubts also arise.
Recent doubts. Of course, not everything is very clear accounts: yesterday the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León annulled the order by which the Board had awarded 124 radio licenses, 27 of them to Radio María. One of the reasons for the complaint, filed by the being, is that the stations were awarded irregularly: both Radio María and another of the main beneficiaries, the eleventh hour (owned by the Adventist Church), are non -profit stations and the bases of the Award Contest spoke of “provision of commercial audiovisual services.” Radio María and the eleventh hour monopolized 30% of the licenses awarded.
To all parts. Diffusion strategies such as this or how to buy Rodrigo Rato in 2012 six radio licenses for one million euros that assured total coverage in the Balearic Islands are those that have guaranteed their brutal expansion. Although its president, José Manuel Díez Quintanilla, affirms that certain activities that touched the illegality are the thing of the past, Radio María has taken advantage of its non -commercial condition to invade foreign frequencies or expand the power above what is allowed, which earned them in their day some fine as one of 126,000 euros of the Junta de Andalucía in 2012.
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