Muy buenas noches: Mexico, Television, and the Cold War

1 The Rise of Television in Mexico

1 CHAPTER 1 The Rise of Television in Mexico broadcast engineer Guillermo González Camarena’s visionary statement, written for President Miguel Alemán Valdés, was penned in 1948, two years before the official inauguration of television. On September 1, 1950, President Alemán beamed Latin America into the television age with his fourth address to the nation, broadcast on xhtv, Channel 4. The station was owned by his close friend and Puebla business owner Rómulo O’Farrill Silva, who also owned the popular Mexico City daily Novedades, his newly acquired radio station xex, and an automobile manufacturing plant in the neighboring state of Puebla. O’Farrill’s connections with the automobile industry would prove important to the early years of television news, as some of the first sponsors of news programming included companies such as General Motors and pemex (the state-run petroleum company). On the inaugural day of television, O’Farrill remarked proudly, I think that if the national government gave support toward the individuals interested in developing television in our country, in very little time Mexico could have television systems, equipment, and perhaps stations that would compare satisfactorily as the best in the world. Guillermo González Camarena 2 The Rise of Television in Mexico Today is a day of festivity for Mexico, as today our country will be the first in Latin America to have for the advantage and benefit of its inhabitants, the most important invention of modern times: television.¹ O’Farrill’s connections to President Alemán also proved useful, as he managed to beat fellow media entrepreneur Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta in the race to become the first station owner to receive a concession (similar to a license) to broadcast on television. O’Farrill had such close ties to the former president that some scholars argue that he acted as a front for Alemán in establishing the first television station. It is certainly curious that Azcárraga Vidaurreta did not receive a television concession until 1950, four years after he petitioned for it, as he had far more “cultural capital” in the late 1940s and early 1950s than his rival O’Farrill.² Since his arrival to the capital from Tamaulipas state, Azcárraga had amassed a large share of the country’s commercial media landscape. Azcárraga owned both xeq and xew, the most powerful radio network in Mexico City and perhaps Latin America, and a majority of shares in Churubusco movie studios. Both xew and xeq enjoyed affiliations with the U.S. television networks, nbc and cbs, respectively. Indeed, by 1950 Azcárraga Vidaurreta had at least a quarter of a century of business dealings with U.S. media, beginning in 1925 with his work with the Mexico Music Company, an affiliate of Radio Corporation of America (rca), a subsidiary of nbc.³ Meanwhile, surrounded by allegations of corruption, Alemán looked for a less direct route to influence television through O’Farrill, because “his immediate family would find it difficult to so nakedly use presidential power to profit from the new medium.”4 Alemán’s decision to grant the first television concession to O’Farrill instead of Azcárraga Vidaurreta, “the czar of Mexican radio,” remains important to understanding the medium’s early years. Azcárraga Vidaurreta had been gearing up to expand his broadcast operations to include television since the 1940s, and in 1946 he The Rise of Television in Mexico 3 launched a campaign to persuade potential television entrepreneurs in Latin America to establish commercial rather than state-run television systems.5 By many press accounts, and certainly in Azcárraga Vidaurreta’s eyes, he seemed like the natural candidate to receive the first television concession. President Alemán saw it otherwise, and in 1949 he granted the first concession to O’Farrill, who established Televisión de México, xhtv.6 This chapter examines more closely the first steps of the television industry, focusing on the first station owners, the decision to implement a commercial television model, and the laws set up to control the industry. Another first step included the consolidation of the three Mexico City network owners. These initial decisions help to explain the power relationships among foreign interests and the nation’s media elite, the state and media, and the media elite and viewers. In addition, the chapter situates the development of the television industry into the larger context of...