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By Mika Mäkeläinen
Radio Libertad de Junín (5039 kHz) is located at Jirón Cerro
de Pasco No. 582, a dirt alley not far from the beautiful
center of Junín. The station letterhead still gives the
previous address, Jirón Simón Bolivar 497. I was welcomed
by Director gerente Mauro Chaccha Guere, his wife and Luis
Molina Llanos, who had just finished hosting the morning
program. You may hear Molina's voice also in the early evening
hours local time, which is prime time for picking up Peruvian
stations in Europe. Molina took advantage of our visit by
making an interview and by recording a few promos in different
languages. Now you may even hear a station identification
in English, Finnish or Swedish!
Chaccha
explained that Junín is suffering from a prolonged economic
depression, which according to him is partly due to the
economic policies of President Alberto Fujimori. By lowering
tolls Fujimori has paved way for the import of meat from
neighbouring Ecuador, which has hit hard on the less efficient
livestock production in the Junín region. Still, sheep and
alpaka were grazing the endless steppe surrounding Junín,
and roadside farms offered fresh cheese for sale.
As a consequence of the recession, Radio Libertad
de Junín has suffered from the lack of listeners' paid messages,
and with practically no commercial advertising, the station
is on the verge of going bankrupt, says Chaccha. Election
campaign ads were few.
All
this means that as foreign correspondence does not generate
any income, Chaccha is not particularly interested in responding
to reception reports. No wonder also considering what he
receives: the first reception report his wife showed me
- if you can call it a reception report - was from Mr. Bellabarba
in Italy... After my requests, Chaccha and his wife were
able to locate some more decent reports, and I was happy
to receive verifications for myself, Tuomas Talka and Juha
Ignatius.
Chaccha
offered us local booze made of a plant called maka.
And so we toasted to a better future for Radio Libertad
de Junín. As for a better future for DXers vying for a QSL,
you could try paying generously for all the expenses - that
should improve your odds from the otherwise zero probability.
The station does know very well what DXers want, but responding
seems to be mostly a question of money and interest.
After
Junín our journey took us to the grim mining town of Cerro
de Pasco, where we tried to visit Radio Altura. It was Sunday,
and the offices were closed, only the host of the ongoing
show was working. He did a quick interview of us, but we
weren't able to browse the reports the station had received.
Finnish journalist and DXer Mika Mäkeläinen
on assignment
April
1-12 in Peru, to cover
the 2000 presidential election,
also found time to visit some Peruvian radio stations.
Full report on  Mäkeläinen's
web site, a HCDX partner site.
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