The history of the radio soap opera in Mexico and in the world dates back to the 18th century, with the emergence of the English sentimental novel that had a highly emotional content. Later, in the 19th century, some North American and European newspapers began to publish the novels by chapters.
Later, with the flourishing of the radio industry in the 1920s, radio soap operas appeared, those melodramatic stories with a well-defined structure: beginning, middle and end, which were narrated over many episodes.
If we reflect on it, those radio programs had a lot of merit because despite having only rudimentary voices and sound effects, they conveyed all kinds of emotions and hooked their audience with countless episodes.
In the same way, it should be mentioned that its success was also linked to the millionaire sponsorships that big brands made of these programs, aimed mainly at women of the time, in charge of housework.
Beginnings of the radio soap opera in Mexico
In our country those who know affirm that the legendary radio station, Amplitude Modulated XEW 900, broadcast the first radio soap opera, produced by filmmakers Alejandro and Marco Aurelio Galindo in 1932. This was an adaptation of The Three Musketeerswith daily chapters of 20 minutes and six months on the air.
However, it seems that the most successful genre was romance. In the golden age of radio soap operas, in the 1940s, the most successful were The Right to be Born and bird without nestproduced in Cuba.
In Mexico, some of the most popular were The life of Jorge Negrete, Marcelino, Bread and Wine, The Second Wife, Gutierritos, Women’s Prisonand Chucho the Brokenwhich aired for eight years without interruption and accumulated 11,350 episodes on the air!
Likewise, the main sponsor was Colgate-Palmolive and when they were broadcast, life in the country stopped, not only women listened to them; also office workers, workers, merchants and even businessmen.
Twenty years later, the radio soap opera was still in full health and In 1963, the most famous radio soap opera in the history of Mexico would premiere: that of the superhero Kaliman and his adventure partner Solín.
Finally, already in the seventies, the soap opera tradition, the one that reunited the family around a transistor radio, was being forgotten thanks to the appearance of television.
Good ‘ol times!
