| Rádio Renascença | |
| Area: | Portugal |
| Language: | Portuguese |
| Owner: | Grupo Renascença Multimédia |
| Sister Stations: | RFM Mega Hits Rádio Sim |
| Webcast: | Emissaopub |
Rádio Renascença, also known as RR or just 'Renascença', is a private, commercial radio station in Portugal, owned by various organizations within the Portuguese Catholic Church: among others, the Patriarchate of Lisbon. Founded in 1934, it began broadcasting in 1936. Renascença owns another three stations: RFM (the most listened-to radio station in the country), Mega Hits FM (most current hit charts), and until 2020, Rádio Sim (a channel aimed at listeners over 55).
Some programs, notably newscasts and religious events, are broadcast simultaneously on both Rádio Renascença and Rádio Sim.
Rádio Renascença is available in mainland Portugal on FM. Rádio Sim was available on medium wave, covering most of mainland Portugal, as well as on FM in some regions.
RR (Rádio Sim)'s most powerful medium-wave transmitter – operating on a frequency of 594 kHz with a power of 100 kW (although currently using 60 to 80 kW) – is situated near the village of Muge, some 75 km north-east of Lisbon. It is a 259-meter-high guyed mast radiator and also Portugal's tallest structure.
Founded by Monsignor Lopes da Cruz, trial broadcasts began in June 1936 with a transmitter installed in Lisbon. Regular broadcasting began on 1 January in the following year.[1] A month after the start of daily broadcasts, the studios were ready at Rua Capelo and Radio Renascença settled there where it still remains. The name Renascença comes from a magazine of the same name (A Renascença), founded on 12 April 1931, which in 1933 demanded the creation of the station thanks to support from its readers.[2]
Prior to 1974, Renascença was Catholic in orientation, but religious programming was limited, with a strong conservative political orientation. The station refused to cover doctrines of the Second Vatican Council, which begged for reforms.[3]
Just after midnight on 25 April 1974 the station broadcast the banned song Grandola, Vila Morena as a signal to the revolutionary Armed Forces Movement (MFA) to commence operations against Portugal's authoritarian government in what became known as the Carnation Revolution: for this reason, the song later became famous as the anthem of the revolution.
In 1975 the radio station was occupied by workers, but in December of the same year it was returned to the Catholic Church and, unlike almost every other radio station in Portugal, Renascença was never nationalized. The station started carrying normal religious events, which the previous management was against, and during the 1975 crisis, was even denounced by Pope Paul VI, owing to concerns facing a potential shutdown which never happened.[3]
In 1986 Radio Renascença began to air two distinct program schedules, 24 hours a day: from Radio Renascença (nationwide on MW and FM) and from RFM (nationwide on FM). More recently, in 1998, Mega FM was created in order to reach a younger target audience.