José Antonio Alonso Aday

He began in radio by chance because one day he went to CMW La Voz de las Antillas to visit his friend Chenín Guzmán. When it came time for the announcements, the texts had been left at his house and Chenín asked his friend if he dared to improvise them. He asked for the list of sponsors and products. He did it and the sponsors liked it so much that a few days later he broadcasts La hora roja on his own account on the same station between 7:00 and 8:00 at night. This is how he began in radio in June of 1931.

He also made remote broadcasts by telephone held up to the microphone, so that the listening public could participate from their homes and later he broadcasts La hora predilecta from 10:00 to 11:00 at night.

When Ángel Cambó and Miguel Gabriel acquire CMQ on 25th street in El Vedado, they call him and there he founds La hora Siboney, with the participation of Ernesto Lecuona and Gustavo Sánchez Galarraga. It is the first time that complete works with their entire cast are performed on the radio. The orchestra is made up of forty musicians and nearly 60 artists participate. There they broadcast, among others, María la O, Rosa la China, El Cafetal...

Later he is an announcer for the Audición Informativa of the newspaper El País, through CMQ. Then he moves away from radio for a time.

When his friend Aníbal de Mar, protagonist of one of the most listened to programs in Cuba, Chan Li Po, suffers an accident, he shows up at CMK as a listener and asks to be allowed to speak. The attack had been so offensive that his words provoke a unanimous reaction from the public. Radiodifusión O'Shea invites him to do a daily talk with Chan Li Po and he feels the need for the microphone again.

He arrives at CMQ again, now at Monte and Prado. There a program of mandatory reference emerges. The idea is from Ángel Cambó, and it is encouraged by two purposes: the economic one, since artists now had a new facility and equipment and greater comfort and demanded to be paid in cash for their performances and not in merchandise from La casa de las medias. On the other hand, and this is the most important, radio has in its hands the instrument to discover new talents that have nowhere to express their art.

La Corte Suprema del Arte, a name suggested by José Antonio Alonso, remained on the air for six years, starting in 1937, with a ratings record only comparable to that of Chan Li Po and El Derecho de nacer. When Cambó explains the idea to them, only one program a week is understood and access to the microphone for those voices that in a thorough rehearsal would show promise of success. José Antonio Alonso proposes that all amateurs who presented themselves to the competition be allowed to participate, and thus the use of the bell is introduced, which he believes makes the program more entertaining. He also makes the program daily with two hours duration and weekly, monthly, quarterly and semi-annual eliminations, grand prizes and trips throughout the Republic.

Later he leaves CMQ and becomes an industrial partner of Radio Mambí.

In 1949 he begins as producer and director of a flagship program at CMQ on 23 and M, De fiesta con Bacardí, which lasts until 1956 on the air. All the great figures of the country parade through studio two of Radiocentro during that period and it becomes a mandatory visit for artistic personalities of universal caliber. It airs from Monday to Saturday at 10:00 at night and each month has an international guest.

Television calls him and together with his wife Xiomara Fernández, he hosts the varied musical variety show Diviértase con Gravi, every day at 7:00 on CMQ-TV. The cast is completed by other outstanding figures such as Margarita Balboa, Paul Díaz, the pianist is Isolina Carrillo and the direction is by Roberto Garriga. He also directs El cabaret Regalías on CMQ-TV.

And on November 4, 1953 at 8:00 at night, a program airs on Channel 6 of Television that consolidates him even more as one of the people who makes the most contribution to radio and television in the first stage. In an interview he grants to journalist Pacopé, he expresses: - Unlike La Corte Suprema del Arte –.

Thus El programa de José Antonio Alonso on Television emerges.

From 1960 on, with the same enthusiasm and innovative spirit, he assumes directorial functions at CMBF Radio Musical Nacional and is congratulated for the changes he introduces in the programming and for the cultural figures who begin to express their ideas through this medium.

He dies in Havana in 1973. His name cannot remain in anonymity when thinking about the history of radio and television in the country, because he applies his innovative talent, work capacity, tenacity and experience to them.

And if that were not enough, his name is inscribed in the artistic history of many of the great figures who in the performing, musical, and dramatic arts have shone and shine with their own light, but who have their starting point in La Corte Suprema del Arte, at CMQ Radio and in El programa de José Antonio Alonso on CMQ Television.