Radio España Independiente – the Cold War "Pyrenean station" broadcasting from Eastern Europe

This is a look at what must have been the world's longest running clandestine radio station. It was active without a break for 36 years (22 July 1941 to 14 July 1977).

In contrast to Oggi in Italia, the Italian Communist Party's radio station which has become largely forgotten, even in Italy, despite broadcasting to substantial audiences for two decades during the Cold War, a large amount of material about Radio España Independiente is available online. However, almost all of it is in Spanish and I wanted to write something of its story in English. I also wanted to contribute to the documentation of its story by recording some of the details of its transmission arrangements and broadcasting schedules. 

Broadcasting to Spain from exile

Radio España Independiente – better known to many listeners as La Pirenaica (referring to the Pyrenees) – was the exiled station of the Spanish Communist Party, the PCE, during the Franco era. [1]

It was based, first, in the Soviet Union and, from 1955, in Romania. 

The station's operations are well documented. The scripts of all the 108,360 programmes it broadcast are held in the PCE's archives, in 3,000 volumes, and several members of the station's staff left their memories of working for it. (108,360 programmes over the course of 36 years works out to about eight a day.) 

In particular, Ramón Mendezona (1913-2001), the station's director between 1951 and 1977, who used the on-air name Pedro Aldámiz, spent his retirement writing and talking about it. 

Mendezona appears in this photo of the station's staff fourth from the right (with both hands on the shoulders of the man in front). The photo is said by some sources to have been taken on the last day of broadcasting in 1977 but that cannot be confirmed. It's likely that it was taken outside the station's HQ in central Bucharest.

Radio España Independiente developed an extensive broadcasting schedule and was on the air for much of the day on several shortwave frequencies. 

In its latter years, it used transmitters in Bulgaria and Hungary, as well as in its host country, Romania.

The Franco regime made substantial efforts to jam its signals, in September 1941 creating the Servicio de Interferencia Radiada (SIR - Radiated Interference Service) for this purpose.

The station closed after Spain's transition to democracy and the PCE was again able to operate legally there.

Names, slogans and music

Throughout its history, the station was known formally as Radio España Independiente (Radio Independent Spain). From its early days it was also known as Estación Pirenaica (the "Pyrenean Station"), Radio Pirenaica, La Pirenaica or simply La Pire as a way of sounding closer to its audience by suggesting that it might be based in those mountains. Apparently, many listeners did indeed believe that the station was broadcasting from the Pyrenees, Andorra or the French city of Toulouse. [2]

A common on-air identification announcement was: "Habla Radio España Independiente, estación pirenaica."

The "Pyrenean" name was also used by the Franco regime when referring to the station. As early as January 1943, the regime's Radio Falange in Valladolid used a commentary, mainly concerned with denouncing the BBC, to mock "other clandestine stations under stupid names like Radio Pirenaica and [sic] Radio España Independiente, as if we could be deceived by such nonsense". 

The station also regularly used the slogan "the only Spanish station without Franco's censorship" (la única emisora española sin censura de Franco).

Radio España Independiente's tuning signal at the start of transmissions was a brief tune played on ethereal-sounding chimes. 

The opening of the pasodoble Suspiros de España (Sighs of Spain), which became popular among Spanish exiles for evoking nostalgia for their homeland, was played before news bulletins.

It is also said that Himno de Riego, the national anthem of the 1931-1939 Spanish Republic, was played at the start of broadcasts. [3]

The early days: broadcasting to Spain from the USSR 

Following the defeat in April 1939 of the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, many PCE activists fled abroad, most initially to France or Algeria, but also to the Soviet Union. Those who went to the USSR were placed in a difficult position by the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939, but became useful to Stalin after the German invasion of June 1941. The following month, the Soviet leader ordered the start of covert broadcasts to Spain, and Radio España Independiente went on the air on 22 July.

The station was based in a large building close to Kursky railway station in central Moscow. 

As German forces advanced rapidly on Moscow in the autumn of 1941, the station's staff were evacuated to the city of Ufa, more than 700 miles to the east. 

At that time, Radio España Independiente may have used transmitters in Kuybyshev (the name used for the city of Samara between 1935 and 1991). Spanish monitoring reports from 1942 referred to it as "the Kuybyshev station". [4]

In 1943, the retreat of the German army allowed Radio España Independiente to return to Moscow.

The end of the war in 1945 saw an expansion in broadcasting time. Other clandestine stations, perhaps as many as 12, that the USSR had run for audiences in various European countries were closed, freeing transmitters for more airtime for Radio España Independiente. One member of its staff, Josefina López, later recalled that this allowed the station to broadcast from 8am and into the night. [5]

The move to Romania

In January 1955, Radio España Independiente moved to Bucharest. The Romanian capital would be its home for the rest of its life.

The move appears to have been a result of a decision by the Soviet leadership, after Stalin's death in 1953, that covert propaganda work in support of communist parties in the West should be moved to Eastern Europe, in order to distance the USSR from such activity. This move also saw the closure in 1956 of the Moscow-led propaganda coordination body, the Cominform. [6] 

As a result, at various points from the 1950s onwards, all the East European countries in the Soviet empire – Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania – hosted and/or transmitted a variety of clandestine radio stations broadcasting to Portugal, Spain, France, West Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Iraq and Iran. 

In the case of Radio España Independiente, its programmes were produced at a villa in central Bucharest next to what was a museum dedicated to the history of the Romanian Communist Party (now the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant). The museum is on Kiseleff Road, but the villa (in a similar architectural style to the museum) was at the rear, backing onto 1st May Boulevard, now Ion Mihalache Boulevard. The villa is still standing and can be seen on Google Maps. 

The villa in central Bucharest, photographed in 2025 (Creative Commons photo from Wikipedia) 

The broadcasts were aired by the shortwave transmitting station at Saftica, immediately to the north of Bucharest, which had been built after the Second World War. A CIA report in April 1951 said that Saftica was "the largest and most modern" transmitting station in Romania and was "to be used for propaganda broadcasts", though construction was reportedly still in progress in 1953-1954. CIA documents from 1956-1958 said that Radio Bucharest began using a 100 kW and a 50 kW transmitter at Saftica at the end of 1953. 

During the Cold War, the Saftica station reportedly also had two 18 kW shortwave transmitters. 

The Saftica station is also said to have been used to jam Western broadcasts.

Romania - a centre for clandestine broadcasting from the late 1940s

By the time Radio España Independiente moved to Romania in 1955, the country had already become a centre for such broadcasts on behalf of various pro-Soviet groups.

The CIA said in December 1953 that Romania was transmitting both Radio Free Yugoslavia and Free Greece Radio, with the two stations sharing transmitters. The Yugoslav station was on the air for about 30 hours a week on 6282, 6887 and 7445 kHz, while the Greek one broadcast for about 14 hours a week on 6399, 6968 and 9455 kHz. 

BBC Monitoring's archives show that Radio Free Yugoslavia (known initially as Station of Yugoslav Revolutionary Emigres and then Station of the Union of Yugoslav Patriots) operated between August 1949 and September 1954. This followed the Yugoslav split from Moscow in 1948. 

BBC Monitoring reported that Free Greece Radio was launched in July 1947 as Greek Democratic Army Radio, changing its name to Free Greece Radio in December of that year. It supported the communist-run "Democratic Army" in the Greek Civil War of 1946 to 1949.

When Radio España Independiente began broadcasting from Romania in 1955, BBC Monitoring reported that it sometimes shared frequencies with Free Greece Radio, until the latter station ceased operations at the end of that year.

BBC Monitoring reported in early January 1956 that Radio España Independiente had started using two frequencies (6400 and 6960 kHz) that had been used by the Greek station. 

By the 1960s, along with Radio España Independiente, shortwave transmitters in Romania were carrying at least four other clandestine stations:

Voice of Truth ("I Foni tis Alithias") for Greece and Our Radio ("Bizim Radyo") for Turkey. Both these stations began broadcasting in March 1958 from a shortwave transmitter in East Germany. Both later used Romanian transmitters.

Radio Free Portugal ("Radio Portugal Livre"), first heard in March 1962. 

Today in Italy ("Oggi in Italia"). This was based in Prague and initially carried by transmitters in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland when it launched a full broadcasting schedule in 1951. From 1952, it also used a transmitter in East Germany. By the 1960s it was also being aired by a mediumwave transmitter (755 kHz) in Romania.

In addition, two stations broadcasting to the Middle East, Radio Iran Courier and Voice of the Iraqi People, may have used transmitters in Romania, in addition to those possibly in Bulgaria and East Germany. 

These clandestine transmissions from Romania could generally be identified by their use of frequencies outside the recognised shortwave broadcast bands, and often those that were not in the usual multiples of 5 kHz. 

For example, over its lifetime, frequencies used by Radio Free Portugal included 6995, 7410, 8332, 9452, 9455, 11505, 11510, 12005, 14440, 14995, 15483 and 15500 kHz, Voice of Truth used 8070 and 9932, and Our Radio used 5914. Frequencies used by Radio Iran Courier and Voice of the Iraqi People included 11410 and 11695. All of the above frequencies were outside the international broadcast bands as they were defined at the time. [7]

As explained below, Radio España Independiente used multiple irregular out-of-band frequencies. 

The clandestine stations had to dovetail their broadcasting hours. Voice of Truth and Our Radio shared the same transmitter as they were never heard on the air at the same time. 

Sometimes those responsible for the transmissions got these stations muddled up. 

For example, on 24 January 1964, BBC Monitoring tuned to 9932 kHz at 1630 GMT expecting to hear the scheduled broadcast at that time by the Greek station Voice of Truth. Instead, they heard Radio España Independiente on that frequency.

Two days later, BBCM wanted to monitor the daily broadcast at 2000 GMT of the Turkish station Our Radio on 5914 kHz. But they found the transmitter carrying Radio Bucharest's Portuguese service instead. 

Further evidence for the shared use of the Saftica transmitters is in the 1968 edition of the World Radio TV Handbook. This shows that, even during the peak broadcasting hours during the European evening, Radio Bucharest never used more than four shortwave frequencies at any one time. But later in the night, after Radio España Independiente had closed, Radio Bucharest used up to seven frequencies simultaneously for its services to the Americas. 

Transmission schedules over the years

The use by Radio España Independiente of 6400 and 6960 kHz in 1956 was noted above. 

A recording from 1959 includes the station announcing that it is broadcasting on three frequencies. "This is Radio España Independiente, Pyrenean Station, speaking as usual on our usual wavelengths of 19, 25 and 26 metres, transmitting every day through our flying waves without interference." ("Flying waves" - ondas volantes - referred to the use of frequencies that varied slightly in a bid to evade jamming.)

A BBC Monitoring schedule of March 1963 showed the following daily broadcasts (all times below have been converted to Spanish local time: [8] 

0700-0730 on 10110, 10658 and 11260 kHz 

1330-1430 (only on Sundays and public holidays) on 10110, 10658 and 11260 kHz

1730-0030 on 6950, 7602 and 10110 kHz

By September 1963 there had been an expansion of broadcast hours, the early afternoon programme had become daily and a fourth frequency had been added to each broadcast: 

0700-0755 on 10110, 11265, 12140 and 14480 kHz 

1315-1425 on 10110, 11265, 12140 and 14480 kHz

1700-0030 on 6950, 7602, 10110 and 11265 kHz 

In November 1963, BBC Monitoring heard the station announce that, from 1 December, for its evening broadcast, 11265 kHz (which it referred to as "27 metres") would be replaced by "48 metres", which BBCM confirmed to be 6290 kHz, and the schedule for the winter of 1963-1964 became:

0700-0755 on 6290, 6950, 7600 and 10110 kHz

1400-1500 on 10110, 11265, 12140 and 14480 kHz

1700-0030 on 6290, 6950, 7602 and 10110 kHz

Radio España Independiente said at that time that it particularly recommended "43 metres" (meaning 6950 kHz) for evening reception.

In October 1965, the station announced the addition of a fifth frequency for the early morning and evening transmissions. 

Addition of transmissions from Bulgaria and Hungary

By 1967, the station had added an extra daily transmission, at 1335-1355 Spanish time on 15365 kHz. It was thought later that this came from Bulgaria. 

The full schedule in January 1967 was: 

0700-0755 on 6950, 10110, 12140 and 15505 kHz (from Romania)

1335-1355 on 15365 kHz (from Bulgaria)

1400-1500 on 12140, 14480, 15165, 15505 and 17693 kHz (from Romania) 

1700-0030 on 6950, 7000, 9430, 9955 and 10110 kHz (from Romania)

BBC Monitoring reported that transmissions from Hungary were added in 1970, but these were moved later to Bulgaria. 

Schedule in the final years

In 1975, the schedule was as follows: [9] 

From Romanian transmitters (Spanish local times):

0700-0755 on 7690, 10110, 12140 and 14482 kHz

1400-1500 on 10110, 12140, 14482 and 15505 kHz

1700-0013 (sic) on 7690, 10110, 12140 and 14482 kHz

From Bulgarian transmitters (Spanish local times): 

1335-1355 on 15365 kHz

2105-2125 on 15185 kHz (Tuesdays to Saturdays only) 

Other frequencies reported included 9833, in use in 1972. 

Final years and closure

Ageing and ill, Franco made his last public appearance on 1 October 1975. 

With Franco out of view, on 24 October, Radio España Independiente announced that as the Spanish media were not telling the public what was happening, it would remain on the air continuously for 18 hours each day, between 0700 and 0100 Spanish time, to keep listeners informed of developments. 

Franco died on 20 November 1975.

The PCE was legalised in April 1977 and took part in the Spanish general election on 15 June.

The Spanish Republican Government-in-Exile was formally dissolved on 1 July 1977. On 13 July, the newly elected Cortes (parliament) was opened.

Radio España Independiente closed the following day.

At the time of its closure, BBC Monitoring reported that the station had been on the air from Romanian transmitters for 11.5 hours a day: at 0800-1000, 1400-1600 and 1800-0130 Spanish times. These were in general an hour later (in Spanish time) than in previous schedules. This is because Spain adopted summer time in 1974 but Romania did not do so until 1979 and the Bucharest-based Radio España Independiente stuck to Romanian local time for its operations, meaning that during summer, transmissions were an hour later by Spanish time. [10] 

There were also the two 20-minute broadcasts each day from Bulgarian transmitters (at 1235-1255 and 2005-2025 GMT on 15365 and 15185 respectively). 

After the station closed on 14 July 1977, BBC Monitoring heard these Bulgarian transmitters (presumably operated by those in ignorance of the station's closure) continue for some days to air taped non-topical Radio España Independiente programmes at the scheduled times. 

Listeners' letters

The archives of the PCE contain more than 15,000 of the hundreds of thousands of letters received by the station from its listeners between 1959 and 1977. The peak period is said to have been between 1960 and 1965, when more than 1,200 letters were received a week.

In 1965, a private survey by the Franco regime is said to have found that between 35 and 40% of urban households listened to foreign radio stations, mainly Radio Pirenaica and the BBC's Spanish service. [11] 

The main address for letters to the station was PO Box 359, Prague 1. However, film of envelopes sent to the station shows that many were simply addressed to "Radio España Independiente, Prague". 

Others were sent to the station via the offices of the French communist newspaper L'Humanité and the Italian communist newspaper L'Unità, in Paris and Rome respectively. Film of envelopes sent from Spain to L'Humanité showed "Paris, Francia" written very clearly, but the name of the newspaper scribbled barely legibly, presumably as a device to trick Spanish postal staff into sending the letters to France without examining them. 

QSL card

The station replied to radio hobbyists who wrote to report their reception with the "verification" (QSL) card below. Such replies are said to have been postmarked Paris, even when the original report had been sent to Prague.

APPENDIX: THE FINAL BROADCAST

These are excerpts from an announcement in the final broadcast by Radio Espana Independiente ("La Pirenaica") on 14 July 1977. It was made by Ramón Mendezona, who was the station's director for the last 25 years of its station's life. He used the on-air name Pedro Aldámiz.

Yesterday, when we read out over these microphones the reports of the first session of the Spanish parliament, it seemed almost unbelievable. This was to be the constituent Cortes [parliament] in charge of burying the last remains of Francoism, and it opened under the sign of national reconciliation.

In the chamber were two communists - our president, Dolores Ibarruri, and our great poet, Rafael Albertí - both tireless architects of reconciliation among Spaniards.

[...]

At this historic moment, the leadership of the Spanish Communist Party has decided that Radio España Independiente should suspend its broadcasts because it considers that its mission has been accomplished.

With this, by ending the last vestige of a secrecy that we never wanted, that was imposed by the fascist dictatorship, the Spanish Communist Party gives, if it were needed, further, conclusive proof of its willingness to abide by the rules of the democratic game, on equal terms with other parties.

[...]

And now, dear listeners of La Pirenaica, allow me to say a few simple and heartfelt words as a farewell.

Thirty-six years ago, there came an independent Spanish voice, a voice that brought a ray of hope to the tormented homeland.

I do not need to remind you, as so many of you have suffered it, that it was the endless Francoist night of executions, of torture, of iniquity set up as a norm of government. 

[...]

The 108,300 broadcasts that we are ending today make up national episodes of the Spanish resistance to Francoism, an anthology of the struggle of our people to achieve the democracy that dawns today.

[...]

At this time of farewell, we want to express our gratitude to all those who with their selfless help have made it possible. The thousands of anonymous collaborators who have spread the truth of what was happening in Spain. To the comrades who from the prison of Burgos [where Franco held his political prisoners], risking so much in the endeavour, assured for eight years the weekly broadcast of the programme Antena de Burgos, an unparalleled example in the global history of clandestine anti-fascist radio stations.

[...]

Goodbye, friends. Pedro Aldámiz gives you a big hug through the ether.

NOTES AND SOURCES

[1] PCE – literally, the "Communist Party of Spain" (Partido Comunista de España) but commonly known in English as the Spanish Communist Party.

[2] In Spanish, the noun is Pirineos and the adjective Pirenaica.

[3] Source: Clandestine Broadcasting in 1975, an article by Larry Magne in the 1976 edition of the World Radio TV Handbook.

[4] Further support for the suggestion that it used transmitters there came after the station moved to Romania in 1955, when the CIA identified the new transmitter location, also noting that during the Second World War it had transmitted from Kuybyshev.

[5] Josefina López (1919-1989) worked at the station between 1943 and 1968, using the on-air name Pilar Aragón. In the post-Franco era, she became a member of the Spanish Senate.

[6] The Cominform's full name was the Information Bureau of Communist and Workers' Parties.

[7] The recognised international shortwave broadcasting bands at that time were: 3900-4000, 5950-6200, 7100-7300, 9500-9775, 11700-11975, 15100-15450, 17700-17900, 21450-21750, and 25600-26100 kHz. 

[8] Spain moved to the GMT+1 time zone in 1940. It did not observe summer time between 1950 and 1973. The USSR, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary did not observe summer time throughout the years they hosted REI's transmissions.

[9] Source: Clandestine Broadcasting in 1975, an article by Larry Magne in the 1976 edition of the World Radio TV Handbook.

[10] Spain moved to the GMT+1 time zone in 1940. It did not observe summer time between 1950 and 1973. The Soviet Union, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary did not observe summer time throughout the years when they hosted REI's transmissions.

[11] Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfXhHeKIv6k&t 

Sources for this article

An excellent three-part documentary, Radio Pirenaica. Aventura de una radio clandestina, was broadcast by Spanish TV (TVE) in early 1989. Each part is at least 50 minutes long:

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IuzKb5Jfn4 

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf3Lbe0WAfc&t 

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsTXresWZDI 

There are numerous articles, etc online about Radio España Independiente. 

Along with those at the links given in the article above, see also the following (this is just a small selection of what is available online):

Article in 2011 by Antón Saavedra Aqui Radio España Independiente, Estacion Pirenaica 

Article in 2016 by "Acebedo" La emisora comunista Radio España Independiente, la memoria del antifranquismo

Article in 2025 by Javier Pardo Aquí Radio España Independiente, estación pirenaica, la única emisora española sin censura de Franco

Undated article by Radio España Independiente

 

I have also used material in BBC Monitoring's archive.

IF YOU ENJOYED READING THIS ARTICLE...

… you may be interested in others that I’ve written about radio stations that were run as exercises in political or military influence in the second half of the 20th century (listed in approximate chronological order of their activity):

Oggi in Italia: This was the name used by the Italian Communist Party, the PCI, for its extensive broadcasts between 1950 and 1971. Programmes were prepared by a team of PCI members in Prague, and aired over transmitters in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, East Germany and Romania.

Voice of the Coast: This soft-sell British station targeted Arabic listeners in the 1960s, wooing them away from listening to the anti-Western broadcasts of Voice of the Arabs from Nasser's Egypt.

Radio Spark: A fully "black" (that is, falsely attributed) CIA-run station that sought to exploit the turmoil in China during the Cultural Revolution of the second half of the 1960s.

Radio Vltava: This clandestine station was run by East Germany in support of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Its inept output failed to win over listeners to accept the invasion.

First August Radio: Another pure "black" station, this one was part of Soviet "active measures" targeting the Chinese army between 1979 and 1986.

Radio Truth: A look at this and other covert stations – such as Voice of the Resistance of the Black Cockerel – run by apartheid South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s to undermine neighbouring countries.

Radio Atlantico del Sur: Britain’s Spanish-language station for Argentine troops during the 1982 Falklands War, known within the MOD as Project Moonshine. It had as many enemies in Whitehall as in Argentina.

Al-Quds Palestinian Arab Radio: The "intifada station" – funded by Libya and broadcasting from southern Syria between 1988 and the early 21st century.

© Chris Greenway 2026

Oggi in Italia — the Cold War radio station with a mass audience

This article was originally published in May 2026. It was updated in July 2026 to correct details of the Berlin postal address and add information about the Oggi nel Mondo programme and the use of a shortwave transmitter in East Germany in the 1950s.

 

Accounts of clandestine political radio activity in the second half of the 20th century tend to focus on Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. But in the 1950s and 1960s, such stations based east of the Iron Curtain targeted several European countries, including Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and West Germany.

This article looks at one of the longest-running of these European operations: Oggi in Italia (Today in Italy).

All the major published accounts of Oggi in Italia's operations are in Italian. I wanted to tell at least a small part of its interesting story in English, including some confirmed details of its transmission schedules over the years. 

Summary and background

Oggi in Italia was the name used by the Italian Communist Party, the PCI, for its extensive radio broadcasts between 1950 and 1971. Throughout that time, the programmes were prepared by a team of PCI members in Prague, and broadcast from studios there. They were aired over transmitters in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, East Germany and Romania.

The political background to the station was the dominance of the Christian Democratic (DC) party, for decades after the parliamentary election of 1948. For most of that time, the communists were the DC's main opponents, and complained that Italy's national broadcaster RAI, which held a legal monopoly on the airwaves, favoured the DC. This motivated the PCI to run their own broadcasts.

Oggi in Italia was a substantial affair, on the air for several hours a day, and appears to have had a large listenership. Its operations can be seen as mirroring those of Radio Free Europe in that it was not a conventional international broadcaster but one that sought to act as a surrogate domestic service for its audience.

Its downfall came when the PCI's policy diverged from that of its hosts in the repressive atmosphere in Czechoslovakia after 1968. 

 

Broadcasting from Prague to Italy

Based in Prague, Oggi in Italia was staffed by exiled members of the PCI. Its production team was entirely separate from Radio Prague, the multilingual external service of the state broadcaster Československý Rozhlas (CR), which also broadcast in Italian.

Initially, however, Oggi in Italia did not have its own studios or offices and so used those of CR. Its first broadcasts reportedly came from a studio on the fifth floor of the CR building.

Except for seeing each other in the CR canteen, the separate teams of Oggi in Italia and Radio Prague's Italian service apparently had little to do with each other. The Oggi in Italia staff were keen to maintain their editorial independence from their Czechoslovak hosts, answering only to PCI HQ in Rome, albeit only being able to operate with the agreement of the Prague authorities.

They produced their own programmes and had their own sources of information. Every afternoon, they called the Rome offices of the PCI newspaper l'Unità for the latest news.

Later, Oggi in Italia moved into its own premises in Prague, a villa at 7, Nad Nuslemi Street in the residential district of Nusle.

In 2025, historian Claudio Caprara posted then-and-now photos of the site of the villa. 

Start of the broadcasts

Oggi in Italia made its first experimental broadcast on 28 December 1950. 

The following month, the PCI newspaper l’Unità began advertising Oggi in Italia, saying it was on the air every day at 2230-2300 on 243.5 metres mediumwave (1232 kHz). 

(All times in this article are Italian local time. Italy did not observe summer time until 1966 while Czechoslovakia did not use summer time throughout the lifetime of Oggi in Italia.)

The broadcasts were quickly spotted by the Italian secret services. In a report on 16 January 1951, they said the station's purpose was "coordinating in code the movements of communist saboteurs in Italy". 

A second evening broadcast and a regular schedule of programmes were introduced in March 1951. Initially, there were two daily evening broadcasts, at 2030 and 2200, and an extra broadcast at 1245 on Sundays, dedicated to farmers and a sports review. The Sunday broadcast was carried on 11900 kHz shortwave. Another shortwave frequency, 9500 kHz, was used for one of the evening programmes. Both of the evening broadcasts were carried on 1232 kHz mediumwave. 

At the launch of this regular schedule, Oggi in Italia advertised its news output along with programmes dedicated to the arts, literature, women listeners and "the glorious history of the PCI", along with reviews of the Italian press, and denunciations of the Yugoslav leader Tito and the "lies" of the Italian national radio RAI. [1] 

Over the following months, additional frequencies were added from transmitters in Hungary and Poland. In August 1951, BBC Monitoring reported the transmission schedule of Oggi in Italia's two evening transmissions as:

• 2030-2100 on 1232 mediumwave and 11875 shortwave (both from Czechoslovak transmitters), on 1187 mediumwave (from Hungary) and on 7205 and 9525 shortwave (from Poland)

• 2205-2230 on 1232 mediumwave from a Czechoslovak transmitter

Row between Italy and Czechoslovakia

Also in August 1951, the Italian government made an official complaint to the authorities in Prague about Oggi in Italia, making clear that it held Czechoslovakia, rather than the PCI, responsible for the content of the broadcasts.

RAI reported on 14 August that "the Italian government protests against the offensive tone and language of these broadcasts and the fact that certain programmes of Czechoslovak state radio are broadcast in such a way as to make listeners believe that the transmissions come from Italy".

Commenting on the Italian complaint, the Rome newspaper Il Messagero said on 15 August that the government's protest to Czechoslovakia was "justified and necessary" as the broadcasts from Prague "go beyond the extreme permissible limit"

"They do not stop at falsifying the truth, hurling abuse and threatening civil commotion," the paper said. 

Oggi in Italia responded to the Italian complaints on 17 August, saying: "Italian listeners have chosen our broadcasts because we show them every day how RAI has lied, reveal secret treaties, and prevent the Italian government from conceding further territories to the Americans and dragging Italy into another war."

This war of words between RAI and Oggi in Italia continued. The latter had a regular slot, Questa è la RAI (This is RAI), which usually aired twice a week. Sometimes, it would respond directly to a news item broadcast in RAI's main evening radio news bulletin, which went out at 2000, just before Oggi in Italia's main evening programme at 2030. 

In turn, RAI responded by countering accusations made by Oggi in Italia and reporting in detail on the row between Rome and Prague provoked by the PCI's broadcasts.

This diplomatic dispute was prolonged. In December 1954, the Italian government even threatened to break off diplomatic relations with Czechoslovakia over the broadcasts. There was another unsuccessful attempt to stop Oggi in Italia's transmissions through diplomatic channels in 1958.

Further expansion of the broadcasts

In September 1951, a third evening transmission was added, at 2315-2345, under the title Questa sera in Italia ("This evening in Italy"), using a Polish mediumwave frequency, 1079 kHz. 

Also in September 1951, Oggi in Italia rebranded the Thursday and Sunday editions of its 2030 programme as La Voce di Trieste (Voice of Trieste). (Between 1947 and 1954, the Free Territory of Trieste existed as a notionally independent territory under the UN. In practice, it was run by British, American and Yugoslav military governors. In 1954, the territory was divided between Italy and Yugoslavia.)

In February 1952, a new daily programme was introduced, Oggi nel Mondo (Today in the World), broadcast at 1930-2000 on 9730 kHz shortwave. It was later established that this came from a transmitter in East Germany. 

In January 1953, BBC Monitoring reported that there were now six 30-minute broadcasts a day, using the names Oggi in Italia (at 1245, 2030, 2200 and 2230), Oggi nel Mondo (at 1930) and Questa sera in Italia (at 2330), variously using transmitters in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary and Poland.

BBC Monitoring reported a further expansion of the schedule in April 1953, with broadcasts now amounting to four hours a day. 

A breakfast time broadcast was added, and by May 1953 the communist poster below showed Oggi in Italia as having nine broadcasts a day, mostly 30 minutes each, with transmissions also at lunchtime, and for much of the evening. Two mediumwave channels (1232 and 1286) were now being used from Czechoslovakia, along with 1187 from Hungary, 1079 from Poland, and various shortwave frequencies.

 

Image credit: 
https://www.huffingtonpost.it/cultura/2024/01/01/news/la_radio_pirata_comunista_contro_il_battesimo_della_rai-tv-14735173/

The poster says:

STOP THE LIE

RAI uses your money for Christian Democrat propaganda

Listen to OGGI IN ITALIA, the voice of truth

In June 1959, BBC Monitoring reported that the broadcasts were on the air for 30 hours and 55 minutes a week.

The 1960s

A BBC Monitoring schedule for the winter of 1962-63 shows Oggi in Italia as broadcasting nine 30-minute programmes a day. Much of the schedule had remained unchanged over the previous decade, but a significant addition was the use of a mediumwave transmitter in Romania (on 755 kHz) for one of the evening broadcasts. Mediumwave transmissions from Hungary now used 1250 rather than 1187 kHz, while those from Czechoslovakia used only 1286 kHz, with 1232 having been dropped. (See the Appendix to this article for some sample schedules for Oggi in Italia in the 1950s and 60s.)

The mid-1960s seems to have been the peak of Oggi in Italia's operations and influence.

In 1966, it was reported that a joint survey by the BBC and RAI had found 2.7 million people in Italy listening to it daily, with a total audience of up to five million. 

Listeners' letters: the mysterious "Guido Verdi" and the postal address in Berlin

There were also listeners among the hundreds of thousands of Italians who had gone to other countries in Western Europe to seek work. In March 1965, the station introduced a mailbag programme, reading out listeners' letters. The following month, it read out a letter from an Italian worker in England who complained of loneliness and doing poorly-paid jobs scorned by Englishmen. 

Letters also came from Italians working in West Germany and Switzerland. 

Listeners were invited to write to the station via a certain "Guido Verdi" at PO Box 429, Berlin 102.

"Guido Verdi" was also the name used by a commentator on the station in 1967.

Lorenzo Berardi, who has written extensively on Oggi in Italia, says the address was in West Berlin, and that letters sent to it were collected by an agent based in East Berlin, who forwarded them to Prague. He says that at one point about a thousand letters a month were received, half for Oggi in Italia and the rest for Radio Prague's Italian service. 

However, radio historian Kai Ludwig has confirmed - in a Comment on my original posting of this article in May 2026 - that "102 Berlin" (as it should have been given) was in East Berlin, rather than the Western sector.

The activities of "Guido Verdi" came to the attention of the West German authorities. The West German Interior Ministry reported in 1968 that this was the pseudonym of Fulvio Sanna, Oggi in Italia's editor, who was said to have engaged in subversive activity among Italian workers in West Germany alongside "Anna Ferrari" (also a pseudonym), the head of Radio Berlin International's Italian service. 

The ministry noted that, in December 1967, "Verdi" had started posting letters in West Germany, giving German names as those of the sender. Perhaps this accounts for the confusion.

It is not clear why letters for Radio Prague were also being sent to a Berlin address, rather than directly to the Czechoslovak capital. Whatever the reason, it seems to have been a source of irritation for the staff of Oggi in Italia. BBC Monitoring reported the following remarks by an Oggi in Italia presenter in November 1965: "A letter has reached our post box from San Remo, containing a reproof for a commentary broadcast by Radio Prague in connection with the press conference given by Chinese Foreign Minister Chen Yi in Peking. This letter was incorrectly addressed to our editorial office since Oggi in Italia is not Radio Prague. It is well known that letters to Oggi in Italia should be addressed to Guido Verdi, PO Box 429, Berlin 102."

Schedule cutbacks in 1967

The daily broadcast schedule remained stable until 1967, when there were major cutbacks to Oggi in Italia's operations as events turned against the station.

At some point in 1967, there was a fire at the villa and Oggi in Italia was forced to move its operations back to the studios of Radio Prague for a while.

 

In June 1967, Oggi in Italia stopped being broadcast from transmitters in Czechoslovakia, with its time slots being taken over by Radio Prague in Italian and German. 

This forced Oggi in Italia to introduce a new schedule. It put a brave face on the change, ignoring the loss of the valuable Czechoslovak mediumwave frequency of 1268 for its two long-running primetime evening slots, and instead highlighting an extension of the late evening broadcast over the Hungarian MW channel of 1250 to last for 90 minutes. However, by this time Italy was on summer time, but Oggi in Italia had to fit in with the local time in Czechoslovakia (which had not introduced DST). 

That meant that this late broadcast now went out at 2330-0100 Italian time – hardly a convenient hour for many listeners.

Further cutbacks in 1968

In turn, the transmissions via Hungary stopped in July 1968, while those via Romania ended early the following month. 

That just left the broadcasts via shortwave transmitters in Poland. 

Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia

The Soviet-led invasion on the night of 20-21 August 1968 forced the immediate suspension of all of Oggi in Italia's broadcasts. 

BBC Monitoring reported the broadcasts resuming on 16 September 1968, but only from the transmitter in Romania (which had opposed the invasion). 

The station's operations were never the same, given that the PCI had strongly opposed the Soviet invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia. 

After the Czechoslovak leader, Alexander Dubček, was forced by Moscow to resign in April 1969, the country entered a period of repression known as the "normalisation". This included greater control by the country's authorities over Oggi in Italia. The whole purpose of the station, as an independent voice of the PCI – hosted but not controlled by Czechoslovakia – was therefore lost.

Close down

The exact circumstances of the end of Oggi in Italia are unclear.

It closed on 31 March 1971. One of the final straws was reportedly an interview it aired with Enrico Berlinguer, a future leader of the PCI, in which he denounced the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia. 

NOTES AND SOURCES

[1] Oggi in Italia made this announcement about its programme schedule on 26 March 1951:

"Dear listeners, after speaking to you these days as best we could, starting tomorrow, Oggi in Italia will be coming to you twice every evening, at 8pm and 10pm, on mediumwave 243.5 metres [1232 kHz] to tell you how people in Italy and around the world have fought for peace, well-being and freedom.

"And it will come to you with new columns, a review of events and a more up-to-date and broader overview of the day, in Italy and around the world. By car or on foot, by bicycle or by phone, the radio commentator will come to you almost every day.

"Each week we will recommend a book for your library. For women, Oggi in Italia will tell how they must fight to build a happy family, and we will talk to you about life, the arts, and literature.

"Giovanni and Piero will return twice a week, on Saturdays and Wednesdays, to tell you the glorious history of the PCI.

"Every Thursday at 8.30 on mediumwave 243.5 metres, you'll hear the trumpet of Libera Uscita. An hour later, at 10pm on the same wavelength, you'll be able to hear a political note and our column dedicated to the democratic movement around the world in the fight for peace.

"Every Friday at 8.30pm, Oggi in Italia will comb through the Italian yellow press. And at 10pm, it will document and denounce Tito and Titoism as the worst enemies of peace and socialism.

"For listeners who want to keep up with the international situation, simply listen to our dial every Saturday at 10pm.

"Every Sunday, Oggi in Italia will speak to you three times a day. At 12.45pm on shortwave 25.21 metres [11900 kHz] it will feature a programme dedicated to farmers and a sports review. At 8.30pm, it will feature the wanderings of the Oggi in Italia caravan, which will visit a different region of Italy each Sunday. At 10pm, for the third and final time on Sunday, you'll hear us again with "Seven Days in Parliament and in the Country." And after taking you to the land of socialism, we'll treat you to a beautiful song and finally bid you goodnight.

"During the week in the 8.30pm broadcast, you'll be able to listen to recordings and radio commentaries of events in Italy and around the world. You'll also hear anecdotes. We'll open the shop for you on Christian Democrat scandals. We'll tell you what you need to believe to be, according to [Italian Prime Minister Alcide] De Gasperi, a good citizen. We'll introduce you to newspapers and magazines.

"We'll list the lies – alas, too numerous – told by Radio Roma. We'll answer your questions, read you the thoughts of illustrious figures, and finally, we'll tell you who the biggest idiot of the week is.

"And now, dear listeners, see you tomorrow evening at 8:30pm on mediumwave 243.5 metres and shortwave 31.57 metres [9500 kHz]. And at 10pm on mediumwave 243.5 metres."

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING

- BBC Monitoring's archive.

- May 2025 podcast by Claudio Caprara: La guerra fredda delle radio (Radio's Cold War), which starts with a reconstruction of the start of an Oggi in Italia broadcast. 

- 2019 article by Lorenzo Berardi: La radio cecoslovacca del Pci (The Czechoslovak radio of the PCI), which includes a link to a 1993 radio documentary on Oggi in Italia.

- Lengthy 2025 article by Simone Nepi: Onde rosse – Gli esuli italiani in Cecoslovacchia e le trasmissioni radio da Praga verso l’Italia durante la guerra fredda 1948-1976 (Red Waves – Italian exiles in Czechoslovakia and the radio broadcasts from Prague to Italy during the Cold War 1948-1976)

- 2007 article by Philip Cooke: 'Oggi in Italia’: The Voice of Truth and Peace in Cold War Italy.

- January 2024 article by Michele Bovi: La radio pirata comunista contro il battesimo della Rai-Tv" (The communist pirate radio against the baptism of Rai-TV)

- March 2009 article: "Praga 1950-1968: il racconto di Radio Oggi in Italia" (Prague 1950-1968: the story of Radio Oggi in Italia)

APPENDIX: Sample schedules over the years

All times are Italian local time.

May 1953 (from a PCI poster):

0800-0830 on shortwave: 31.57 metres (9500 kHz)

1245-1315 on shortwave: 25.34 metres (11840 kHz)

1315-1330 on shortwave: 31 metre band and 42.11 metres (7125 kHz)

1730-1800 on shortwave: 41 and 49 metre bands

1930-2000 on shortwave: 30.83 metres (9730 kHz) (from East Germany)

2000-2030 on three SW frequencies and 1187 mediumwave (from Hungary) 

2030-2100 on 1232 MW (from Czechoslovakia), 1187 MW (Hungary) and three SW frequencies

2200-2230 on 1232 MW (from Czechoslovakia)

2330-2400 on 1286 MW (from Czechoslovakia) and 1079 (from Poland)

Winter 1962-63 (from a BBC Monitoring schedule of March 1963, with times converted from GMT to Italian local times):
0700-0725 on 7217 & 6235 SW
1245-1315 on 11955, 11840, 11800, 9540 & 9525 SW
1700-1730 on 1250 MW (Hungary) and 9675, 7145 & 6235 SW 

1930-2000 on 755 MW (Romania)
2030-2100 on 1286 MW (Czechoslovakia) and 9675 & 7145 SW 

2200-2230 on 1286 MW (Czechoslovakia)
2230-2300 on 7145 & 6005 SW
2300-2330 on 1250 MW (Hungary)
2330 to midnight on 1286 MW (Czechoslovakia) and 1250 MW (Hungary)

January 1968 (as announced by the station itself; note the effect of the loss of the use of Czechoslovak transmitters the previous year):
0700-0745 on 9833, 7220, 7100 & 6234 SW
1245-1315 on 11840, 9675 & 7285 SW
1700-1730 on 1250 MW (Hungary) and 11840 & 9675 SW
1930-2000 on 755 (Romania)
2030-2100 on 11840 & 9675 SW
2230-2300 on 11840 & 9675 SW
2230 to midnight on 1250 MW (Hungary)

IF YOU ENJOYED READING THIS ARTICLE...

… you may be interested in others that I’ve written about radio stations that were run as exercises in political or military influence in the last four decades of the 20th century (listed in approximate chronological order of their activity):

Voice of the Coast: This soft-sell British station targeted Arabic listeners in the 1960s, wooing them away from listening to the anti-Western broadcasts of Voice of the Arabs from Nasser's Egypt.

Radio Spark: A fully "black" (that is, falsely attributed) CIA-run station that sought to exploit the turmoil in China during the Cultural Revolution of the second half of the 1960s.

Radio Vltava: This clandestine station was run by East Germany in support of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Its inept output failed to win over listeners to accept the invasion.

First August Radio: Another pure "black" station, this one was part of Soviet "active measures" targeting the Chinese army between 1979 and 1986.

Radio Atlantico del Sur: Britain’s Spanish-language station for Argentine troops during the 1982 Falklands War, known within the MOD as Project Moonshine. It had as many enemies in Whitehall as in Argentina.

Radio Truth: A look at this and other covert stations – such as Voice of the Resistance of the Black Cockerel – run by apartheid South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s to undermine neighbouring countries.

Al-Quds Palestinian Arab Radio: The "intifada station" – funded by Libya and broadcasting from southern Syria between 1988 and the early 21st century.

© Chris Greenway 2026