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