IACS, New York, March 15

1. Sports broadcasts
on Portuguese radio
 Commentaries, interviews and reporting were the
genres used in the press and the radio for a long time.
Live sports transmission was a special genre much
favoured by radio, with commentaries by announcers
and specialists.
 In Portugal, the main sports events were soccer
(football), cycling, and roller hockey, the first two in
terms of national competition and the last in
international competitions.
Rogério Santos (Catholic University of Portugal) 1

2. Sports broadcasts
on Portuguese radio
 It would be after the launching of Emissora Nacional
[the public broadcasting service] in 1935 and the
1938/1939 national soccer championship that the radio
became more enthusiastic about sports.
Rogério Santos (Catholic University of Portugal) 2

3. Sports broadcasts
on Portuguese radio
 At that time, it was usual to give a summary of the first
part and a full commentary of the second part of the
game.
 Clubs were afraid that commentaries from stadium
would mean losing fans due to those commentaries.
 The first official match totally transmitted took place
on January 1938.
Rogério Santos (Catholic University of Portugal) 3

4. Sports broadcasts
on Portuguese radio
 It was a time when announcers and technicians
commentated close to the sideline and exposed to the
wind and the cold or hot weather.
 In the photograph above, we can see Alfredo Quádrio
Raposo, at the beginning of 1943. He was sitting on an
uncomfortable chair commentating a soccer match, with
a ribbon microphone, allowing him his hands free, with
no headphones, reading from a notebook. At his side,
the sound operator, with headphones, controlled a
portable technical suitcase.
Rogério Santos (Catholic University of Portugal) 4

5. Sports broadcasts
on Portuguese radio
 Sports made the radio very valuable as a medium of
proximity. Sports and radio produced popular heroes
who became national symbols, based on a mixture of
narratives of pedagogy and expansion of sucess.
 In Portugal, roller hockey, cycling, and soccer
increased the number of supporters thanks to the
radio. However, boxing, bullfighting and motor racing
transmissions had a shorter radio life and handball,
basketball or tennis were never successful through
radio.
Rogério Santos (Catholic University of Portugal) 5