| 3 Antena | |
| Location: | Rio de Janeiro |
| Country: | Brazil |
| Analog: | 8 (VHF) |
| Language: | Portuguese |
3 Antena was a Brazilian clandestine television station based in Rio de Janeiro, capital of the homonymous state. It operated on VHF channel 8. It was part of a movement that encouraged the operation of several clandestine television stations between the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s in the Rio-São Paulo axis.
The appearance of a clandestine television station in Rio de Janeiro had already happened in 1986, through the creation of TVento Levou, which operated on VHF channel 3. The station debuted on November 1, when it inserted an interference in the audio of TV Globo Rio de Janeiro during the broadcast of Jornal Nacional that announced an "emergency situation" and asked viewers to tune in to channel 3, where it broadcast a protest against the station's "monopoly".[1] The station had a team of 15 people and a signal that initially reached two streets in Copacabana. Shortly after, the installation of a more powerful transmitter allowed the expansion of coverage to the entire South Zone of the municipality.[2]
At 8:00pm on Christmas Eve 1986 (December 24) TVento Levou went on air on channel 13 (previously occupied by the then-defunct TV Rio), showing parodies of Roberto Carlos' year-end specials on Rede Globo and of then-president José Sarney.[3] After the transmission, the National Telecommunications Department (DENTEL) went looking for the station's transmitters, which would be in apartments in the South Zone of Rio, but was unsuccessful.[4] The last recordings of TVento Levou's transmission occurred in April 1987, in joint transmissions with TV Cubo, from São Paulo.[5]
On June 5, 1990, two months after the extinction of DENTEL, 3 Antena went on the air, operating on channel 8, from equipment installed in the South Zone of Rio.[6] The transmission included obscene images, a dubbed video where the entrepreneur and founder of Rede Globo, Roberto Marinho, taught how to set up a mini clandestine station and a "tribute" to President Fernando Collor for the end of the activities of the body that prevented clandestine transmissions.[7]
From the 10th to the 14th of July of the same year, 3 Antena operated daily for two hours.[8] On the first day, a group of people who watched the transmission on a television installed in a bar located in the Flamengo neighborhood were taken by the Federal Police to testify.[9] Among them, former congressman Liszt Vieira (PT), considered the spokesperson for the clandestine TV movement.[10] The police action was truculent, leading to the fracture of journalist Rose Gomes' wrist. Her husband, Derilson Melo, was taken in handcuffs to the organ's headquarters, in Praça Mauá.
In August 1990, 3 Antena and TV Cubo, a pirate station based in the city of São Paulo, planned a joint transmission of programs produced by both. The action, however, was canceled due to a disagreement by the São Paulo broadcaster regarding the content produced by the cariocas, considered "scatological", in contrast to the community and local content that was produced by TV Cubo.[11]
On the 29th of the same month, in the midst of the 1990 elections, the station broadcast a program that parodied the electoral advertisements of the candidates for deputy in Rio de Janeiro, in addition to conducting interviews with the population on the subject. In an excerpt of the report, the team even influenced the interviewees to say words of support for a false candidacy of Iraqi politician Saddam Hussein. This was the last recorded transmission from 3 Antena.[12]