José Gabriel Ramírez Cal

José Gabriel Ramírez Cal is one of the distinguished voices of the CMHW radio station in Villa Clara.

Ramírez Cal is a great professional, a founder, a radio man. He is a renowned director and host of programs where he set the standard for decades, not only for his broad and deep musical knowledge, but because he enjoyed innovating at a radio station that he feels is his own, and to which he always returns to embrace friends, suggest ideas, and love in a building that is also his Palace.

"I was a founder of Estéreocentro, I have worked at Radio Habana Cuba, at Radio Progreso, but my girlfriend, my wife, my life, is called CMHW, my favorite on the dial," he expresses emotionally. He remembers it perfectly. On Friday, July 7, 1963, he made his first entry to that radio station. "The first time I faced a booth at the Centro Radial Revolucionario at Orlando Pardo № 1, there were two radio stations administered by Nelo Évora Valdés. There I worked with who would later be my great brother, Otto Marimón Alfonso, and that day he told me: you have worked very well with me, you sound good, what is your name? I told him my name, but he advised me: No, from now on your name is Ramírez Cal. That day, at five minutes to six in the evening, Ramírez Cal was born."

He is a radio man at heart. After retiring, but not withdrawn from the world of sound, he collaborates with other radio stations. At Radio Ciudad del Mar and Radio Placetas he has spaces today that he stamps with his personal mark. But at CMHW is his imprint and his life.

I have been in all the programs, with Samuel Urquía, when we would arrive early from Camajuaní, we would enter Patria; I also directed Radio Revista W, Hablemos, Caravana Musical, the program Impacto 84, at 7 at night, under the direction of Luis Orlando Pantoja.

With the late Ray Machado Cruz, we were the first to put "We are de World" on the Radio, with the 46 stars, when it was broadcast live, on January 29, 1985. There are things I don't forget; I had a great mentor at the Centro Radial, Juan Antonio Valdés Martínez, the most sought-after radio announcer in the province of Las Villas in those years, he helped me a lot, he remembers.

And with that knowledge he retains vividly about the history of his radio station, my girlfriend—as he calls CMHW—he affirms that this radio plant is the lady of firsts.

"W made the first narration of Carnivals in Cuba; facing Parque Vidal, from the balconies of the Centro Radial, the announcer Valdés Martínez and I described the carnivals. Furthermore, we were linked with maestro Chaflán (Argelio García Rodríguez) and in September 1963 he suggested bringing to the Radio the show, the event, on the stage of the Cabaret Venecia, which was the second Tropicana in Cuba. There he met Elena Burke, Moraima Secada, Los Zafiros, among others. We interviewed all of them. We were also the pioneers since 1979 in summer programming 44 years ago."