Rede Tupi
Rede Tupi was a Brazilian commercial terrestrial television network. Its flagship station, located in the city of São Paulo, was the first TV station to operate in the country, being inaugurated on 18 September 1950 by journalist Assis Chateaubriand. It was owned by Diários Associados, one of the largest media conglomerates of the 20th century, owner of several newspapers, magazines, and radio stations.
Named after the Tupiniquim tribe in Brazil, Rede Tupi was a pioneer in television programming in South America, setting the tone for the best telenovelas, news programming, sports, and entertainment in the 1950s and 1960s, such as TV de Vanguarda, O Repórter Esso, Alô Doçura, Clube dos Artistas, Beto Rockfeller, O Mundo é das Mulheres and many more. It led the way for the establishment of television stations throughout Brazil, and in 1960, beat other stations in broadcasting via satellite in honor of the formal opening of Brasilia.
Its success prompted other nations in the continent to have television stations. The network added new talent to Brazilian show business, which was then a thriving industry depending on films and radio. During the 1960s, its programs revolutionized television through animation, humor, comedy and children's shows plus the telenovelas that gave rise to the launch in 1965 of its rival network in Rio de Janeiro, Rede Globo.
The network was formed in 1977, with members as co-brothers of the Diários Associados and affiliates. Its flagships were TV Tupi São Paulo and TV Tupi Rio de Janeiro. Due to a history of management problems, which resulted in a financial crisis, Tupi had part of its licenses revoked by the Government of Brazil in 18 July 1980, shutting down the network. The station's assets were acquired by the Silvio Santos Group, by the Bloch Group and by the Grupo Abril.
History
1930s and 40s: build-up
In 1938, RCA set up a stand at its headquarters in New York, featuring a complete system for television transmission and reception. The aim was to show interest in the new technology not only in the USA, but also abroad. One of the foreign invitees was Diários Associados, who went to New York to represent the company was its director at the time, Dário de Almeida Magalhães. Upon returning, he wrote in an editorial at the group's main newspaper of the time, O Jornal do Rio de Janeiro, about the experiment. The first television demonstration was held on June 3, 1939 with the help of the German company Telefunken but without the direct involvement of Diários Associados.In July 1944, Chateaubriand visited the United States, a country he hadn't visited until then. One of the aims of the trip was to talk with David Sarnoff, who had prepared a stand showing the advances in radio and television in the world, something that, especially for radio, would be beneficial in the post-war world, perfecting the existing technology. One of the people present was Vladimir Zworykin, who answered some of Chateaubriand's questions, and demanded Sarnoff to build licenses for the first television stations in the Americas outside of the USA. Chateaubriand's ambitions were to build two television stations, one in Rio de Janeiro and one in São Paulo. However, in order to gain the equipment, Chateaubriand had to wait for the end of the war, as the war had affected the production of television equipment.
Once the war was over, in 1946, Chateaubriand convinced Sarnoff and Zworykin to obtain financial means for the stations, in exchange for extensive advertising contracts, with a varying length between 12 and 18 months. The equipment bought weighed in at US$5 million. Such sponsors had to take part in a portion of the costs of building the station, whereas a long financing with suppliers was up to Diários Associados.
The following year, Chateaubriand returned to the USA to finish the ordering of the equipment he bought.
RCA and Emissoras Associadas signed a contract on May 2, 1949, in São Paulo, however, It took nearly two years to receive the equipment in Brazil.
1948-1950: Obtaining the licenses
S/A Rádio Tupi, who had already owned namesake radio stations in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, formalized a requirement at the Federal Government on January 7, 1948, soliciting special authorization to operate two television channels. Television still demanded high investments, so the requirement had to be done in the name of another company of the group, with Rádio Difusora São Paulo S/A being selected. In October 1948, the buying of the RCA equipment was made official, which would later be used exclusively for the São Paulo station.Twenty days after Rádio Tupi's request, on January 27, 1948, Diário da Noite reported about Chateaubriand's plans for the first time: at the top of its front page, the headline announced "Television for Rio and S. Paulo" and at the bottom of the page, a small report: after being in New York, Chateaubriand would travel to London and Paris. It was initially supposed that São Paulo would get television from November 1948 and Rio de Janeiro, from February 1949.
Diário da Noite's reports in 1948 informed that the equipment would arrive to Brazil in June 1949, with the transmitter to be installed at the Banco do Estado de São Paulo building, at the time the tallest in the continent, and with studios in the Sumaré neighborhood, where Diários Associados had built Cidade do Rádio for its radio studio compound in 1942. On May 3, 1949, the day following the signing of the contract and Diário da Noite's revealing reports about the station, other newspapers owned by the group put the then-upcoming TV Tupi, specifically the São Paulo station as "South America's vanguard in the field of television". From then to the end of August that year, phrases regarding the upcoming station were published, one of them being "Aguardem as instalações de televisão dos Associados".
On October 29, 1949, the equipment for the Rio station provided by General Electric had finally arrived, whereas for the São Paulo station, from RCA, had arrived in late January 1950. Rádio e Televisão do Brasil, which had vowed for the channel 2 frequency in Rio de Janeiro, revoked its contract with General Electric at a time the proposed station was facing financial uncertainties.
In May 1950, 2,400 television sets were made available in Rio de Janeiro, mainly aimed at stores, some aimed at the company. The initial goal of starting the station in late June failed, numerous delays occurred, and with the first experimental broadcasts of XHTV in Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro no longer had the "primacy" of housing the first television station in Latin America.
In São Paulo, RCA-Victor engineers arrived in February 1949, with the aim of studying ideal locations for the building of the studios, the transmitter and the antenna. During the building in 1950, these engineers were joined by technicians from RCA and Mario Alderighi, who started supervising the project following the conclusion of Rádio Tupi's new technical park the previous year. The building was authorized on September 18, 1949 - exactly one year ahead of the start of the São Paulo station. The equipment left the USA on January 11, 1950, this time from Philadelphia, arriving in São Paulo from Santos on March 24.
Formation
The arrival of the equipment to Rio de Janeiro was reported by the American and Argentine press. The initial goal was to have the equipment ready in time for the 1950 FIFA World Cup, held in six Brazilian cities from June 24 to July 16, with the potential televised carriage of eight matches, including the inaugural match and the final, held at the Maracanã Stadium, built for the competition. The equipment came from New York on October 14, 1949, transported by cargo to Rio de Janeiro where it arrived on October 30, 90 days before the Tupi station in São Paulo got its equipment. The expectation for the Tupi station in Rio de Janeiro was to be on air in March or April 1950. Sugarloaf Mountain was selected as the site for the Rio transmitter and antenna. This selection came after a negative result from the Catholic Church to install it in Corcovado, which would have provided the station with better video and audio quality. The technical director of the station in Rio said that the potential location of the transmitter in Corcovado, which was ultimately rejected, gave proof that "science and the church have never maintained good relations". Transporting the equipment to Sugarloaf Mountain was a challenge in itself, and by then, projections for the Rio station's sign-on were aimed at June 1950. The World Cup would have been the first content seen on the station.Camera tests were conducted in Rio de Janeiro during April 1950.
Tests in São Paulo
At the end of June 1950, RCA and Emissoras Associadas technicians were finishing the process of installation of the studios at the Sumaré and Banespa buildings. Finishing touches for equipment used for the station were also on the order. According to the Catholic Church's calendar, 1950 was considered to be a "holy year" and numerous activities were being held in that period. Aside from that, Insústrias Alimentícias Carlos de Britto S/A had just turned 50, and to coincide with these two special occasions, Chateaubriand brought Mexican religious singer Friar José Mojica to Brazil, to perform live on Rádio Tupi São Paulo, Rádio Tupi Rio de Janeiro and Rádio Farroupilha - all of which were under Associadas' control. Mojica was subsequently invited to perform in the experimental broadcasts of TV Tupi in São Paulo, whose first test was conducted on July 4, 1950, with equipment brought in from the mobile unit and the Sumaré studio. The test broadcast with Mojica's performance was seen on two monitors totalling around 600 viewers.Said experiment started at 10pm that evening starting with an RCA test pattern followed by a static ID of a native man, symbol of the station, with the inscription "PRG-3 - Tupi TV" and the start of formalities held by Homero Silva, Yara Lins and Walter Forster, who announced that this was the first broadcast, and the appearance of José Mujica. Television was already starting to become a reality, even though it was still in closed circuit mode. According to actor Lima Duarte, Mojica likely sang the song "Júrame", his greatest hit in his secular phase, however, said song wasn't listed in the repertory. It's unknown if Mojica sang the song live, creating an urban legend. The first test night in the closed-circuit system had great image quality, and had lived up to what Diário de São Paulo called "the greatest happening in bandeirante broadcasting". Mujica did further appearances in further test broadcasts during July.
The first broadcast of the terrestrial station, on channel 3, took place on July 24, 1950 - eight days after XHTV in Mexico City did the same. The first tests used had the RCA Indian-head test pattern, which would end up being used by other stations in Brazil, including those that didn't rely on RCA for its equipment. Said test pattern would be used during the entirety of the run of monochrome television in Brazil. This experiment lasted for 23 days. Another technical challenge was the possibility of having its signal received in Jundiaí and Campinas in inland São Paulo.
Experimental programming over the terrestrial signal started on August 16, 1950, airing from 5pm to 7pm. The line-up consisted of some filmed content produced by Diários Associados, including musical performances, with the length of about three to five minutes, documentaries on general topics, including football, and cartoons without subtitles in Portuguese.