The first university radio in Spain. A case study of Radio UNED on its 50th anniversary.

Abstract

The year 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the broadcasting of the first radio programs of the UNED, which in its purpose of making study material available to its students, begins to broadcast on radio through the only national public radio station, RNE. This article explains the two moments in the history of Radio UNED: first from the beginning until the emergence of the Internet in the nineties, where the programs have an essentially educational character, and then the one that reaches to the present day, where it acquires an informative tone, generalist and intended for the general public. From that first period, the studies of the Technical Direction, responsible for Radio UNED, have been rescued and analyzed. The purpose of this paper is to present these data, unpublished until today. The main conclusion is that Radio UNED es a fundamental element for the media literacy of citizens.