CMQ was a Cuban radio and television station located in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, reaching an audience in the 1940s and 1950s, attracting viewers and listeners with a program that ranged from music and news dissemination. It later expanded into radio and television networks. As a radio network it was a heated competitor of the

RHC-Cadena Azul Radio Habana Cuba-Cadena Azul (lit. "''Radio Havana Cuba-Blue Network''") was a Cuban radio network operating in various forms from 1939 until 1954. It was a heated rival of radio network CMQ. History Origins RHC was created in 1939 by Felix O'Sh ...

network.

Founding

The company was founded on March 12, 1933, by Miguel Gabriel and Ángel Cambó. Ten years later, on August 1, 1943, half of it was acquired by the business group of

Goar Mestre Goar Mestre Espinosa (born December 25, 1912 – March 23, 1994) was a Cuban-born Argentine businessman, remembered as one of the pioneers of the audiovisual industry in Latin America. He owned several broadcasters, led by CMQ."El Rey de la TV: ...

. In the beginning, it transmitted only in the capital expanding later to the rest of the country. Pre-revolutionary Cuba was an early adopter of new technology, including TV. Cuba was the first Latin American country to have television. In December 1946, station CM-21P conducted an experimental multi-point live broadcast. Regular commercial broadcasting began in October 1950 with Gaspar Pumarejo's Unión Radio TV. This was followed by Goar Mestre Espinosa's CMQ-TV on channel 6 on December 18, 1950. CMQ officially launched on March 11, 1951, and would become an

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

affiliate. By 1954, CMQ-TV had expanded into a seven-station network. With the CMQ network, Cuba the second country in the world, only after the United States, to have a national TV network.Encyclopedia of Television, Volume 1, Horace Newcomb, p.636
/ref>
/ref> At the beginning of the 1950s with the transmission of the novel ''El Derecho de Nacer'', by Felix B. Caignet, displaced the competing station, RHC Cadena Azul. It is with this leadership that the second Cuban television channel, CMQ TV, Channel 6 is born. It was initially located on Calle Monte, on the corner of Paseo del Prado. On March 12, 1948 the radio studio was moved to the Radiocentro building in La Rampa and Calle L in

El Vedado Vedado ( es, El Vedado, ) is a central business district and urban neighborhood in the city of Havana, Cuba. Bordered on the east by Calzada de Infanta and Central Havana, and on the west by the Alemendares River and Miramar / Playa distri ...

Timeline

Source
''Encyclopedia of Television'', Volume 1, Horace Newcomb, p.636
* 1952: Video network linking the provincial capitals established * 1952: regular use of the

kinescope Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program on motion picture film, directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. The process was pioneered during the 194 ...

* 1954: CMQ-TV transmits the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

between the U.S. and Cuba using an airplane as a relay * 1957: direct transmission of regular, live signal between the U.S. and Cuba, using the "Over the Horizon" system

References

Television in Cuba Radio in Cuba Television channels and stations established in 1950 Radio stations in Cuba 1933 establishments in Cuba {{Cuba-tv-station-stub 1959 disestablishments in Cuba Television channels and stations disestablished in 1959 Radio_stations_disestablished_in_1959 Radio stations established in 1933