Spanish
Santo Domingo.- Today, April 18th, in the Dominican Republic, National Announcer's Day is commemorated, a date established on April 2, 1974, by decree No. 4476 by order of then-President Joaquín Balaguer.
The commemoration seeks to highlight the work that communicators do through radio, today in a world that has modernized the way of making radio with new technological elements that have allowed to integrate the visual part.
A broadcaster covers functions from presenting programs and narrating different texts (news, reports, documentaries, etc.), to being the voice-over for commercials; they also include hosting important events and ceremonies.
Broadcasting in DR
Dominican Broadcasting began in 1926 when Engineer Frank Hatton Guerrero, as President of the Santo Domingo Radio Club, built a small Amplitude Modulation (AM) transmitter of a few watts to create what would be the first broadcasting signal in the country, later naming it with the initials HIRC.
On April 8, 1928, station HIX, the official station of the Dominican state with 250 watts of power, went on the air. Placing the Dominican Republic as one of the first countries in Latin America to join international broadcasting. From those years and 1940, other stations appear in the country. On May 17, 1946, the state broadcaster goes on the air with a 10,000-watt RCA transmitter on Medium Wave and another 7-watt transmitter on Short Wave. Currently, the country has more than 350 assignments in the AM and FM bands, for a territorial area of approximately 48,000 square kilometers.Dominican Announcers Circle
The Dominican Announcers Circle is the official institution that brings together the professional men and women of the microphone in the Dominican Republic. It was founded on July 17, 1972 and seeks to increase the human, professional and social training of Dominican announcers. Its ideologue was the announcer Mario Báez Asunción, who, along with prominent voices of Dominican announcing, gathered at the Hotel Napolitano, and under the sponsorship of Don Manuel María Pimentel, then owner of said hotel, proceeded to establish the bases to give life to this noble institution. The first 40 founders of the circle should have at least 10 years of professional experience. Among these were J. A. Bruno Pimentel, Rafael Gomez. Acevedo, Oscar Iglesias, Luis Armando Asunción, Jaime López B., Enriquillo Batista, Luis Alfredo Morales, Darío Aracena, Carmen Alonso, María Cristina Camilo, Buenaventura Bueno Torres, Homero León Díaz, Joaquín Jiménez Maxwell, Negro Martínez, Thelma Núriz Espinosa and others. The first president of the Circle was J. Bruno Pimentel. Rubén Darío Aponte, a glory of Dominican broadcasting and past president of the CLD, points out that the first formal meeting of the Circle once founded was held on September 21, 1972.The Golden Microphone
The "Golden Microphone" award is one of the highest distinctions awarded by the Dominican Announcers Circle (CLD) to microphone professionals, which aims to annually recognize the outstanding work carried out by Dominican announcers in the different areas of announcing.You may be interested in: Actions that the best CEOs are taking in 2023
This award ceremony was held for the first time by the announcer José Rafael Dorville and a group of collaborators, on December 15, 1979, at the Fuente Nigth Club (former Hotel Jaragua). In the same Special award "Golden Microphone", recognition was given in different categories and with their respective "Golden Brooches" to announcers Pedro Julio Santana, Homero León Díaz, Milagros Gómez Vda. Cuervo, Oscar Iglesias Baehr, Rodolfo Espinal, among other renowned microphone professionals.On April 16, 1983, the first general awards ceremony "Golden Microphone" was held, which was celebrated in the Caonabo hall of the Santo Domingo Hotel; in which the work done by the announcers during the year 1982 was awarded. Over time the award evolved and went from being a GOLD Brooch to a statuette, with the image of a microphone.
