Armando Carvalheda established himself as the author of the program “Viva a Música”, dedicated exclusively to the dissemination of “music sung in Portuguese”, which he hosted for 24 years, from 1996 to 2020, making it one of Antena’s longest-running programs. 1.
“Viva a Música”, which often took risks by broadcasting music live, discovering new singers, composers and musicians, was produced by Ana Sofia Carvalheda, the daughter of a radio host.
Armando Carvalheda was born in Lisbon on December 30, 1950, spent his childhood and youth in Setúbal, and began working in radio in 1967 at the “first pirate station” in Portugal, Rádio Clube de Alcácer do Sal, which he helped create, according to information published by Antena 1 on its website.
The public radio channel quotes historian Rogerio Santos as saying how the pirate station began on medium wave with a rudimentary transmitter and nothing more than “a tape recorder, two turntables and a microphone.”
However, soon after, the Clube de Alcácer do Sal radio ceased to exist, as Antena 1 recalled after an interview with José Afonso, who “irritated the authorities” of the dictatorship.
The next stage in radio took place in 1972, during Armando Carvalheda’s military service in Guinea-Bissau. Returning to Portugal in 1973, he joined the former National Emissora.
In the 1980s, when the public station was already called Rádio Difusao Portuguesa (RDP), it began broadcasting several programs on the first channel of RDP. Starting in 1996, with “Viva a Música”, it took on what it considered its mission – to promote Portuguese music and its musicians, and to help establish it.
Antena 1 covers the special broadcast that Armando Carvalheda hosted from Bosnia in 1995, when he produced and presented the concert “Juntos na Ditância” during the Balkan conflict “with the aim of encouraging the Portuguese soldiers involved in the management of the conflict.”
In the 1980s, Armando Carvalheda participated in the creation and launch of the solidarity project Pirilampo Mágico da Antena 1 in partnership with the National Federation of Social Solidarity Cooperatives (Fenacerci).
Armando Carvalheda said that “radio was not a profession”, Antena 1 recalls today: “It was a passion”.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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