Portugal Radio Live — Free Online Stations

At five to eleven on the night of 24 April 1974, a Lisbon radio station played a love song that had just represented Portugal at Eurovision. Most listeners paid no attention. But in barracks across the country, officers heard it as a signal. Eighty-five minutes later, a second song went out on another station, and the oldest dictatorship in Western Europe began to fall. No other country owes so much of its modern history to two records on the radio. That is the story behind the stations you find when you search for Portuguese radio live or rádio Portugal online.

The triangle of the 1930s

For most of the twentieth century, Portuguese radio rested on three pillars. Rádio Clube Português, a private station founded by an army officer and radio amateur, began in the early 1930s from the coast near Lisbon. The state broadcaster, the Emissora Nacional, was inaugurated in 1935. And the Catholic Church launched Rádio Renascença, which began regular broadcasting on 1 January 1937, financed by donations from the faithful across the country.

The Hour of Longing

From 1937, shortwave became central to the Emissora Nacional, because it reached Portuguese emigrants abroad and the fishermen of the cod fleet far out in the Atlantic. Programmes for them, like the famous "Hour of Longing", created a bond between Portugal and its people at sea and overseas. In the 1950s the state radio built its own orchestras and radio theatre, and in 1958 a programme for drivers showed that listening was moving into the car.

24–25 April 1974: E Depois do Adeus and Grândola

The officers of the Armed Forces Movement needed a way to synchronise their units without raising suspicion. They chose radio. At 22:55 on 24 April, Emissores Associados de Lisboa played Paulo de Carvalho's "E Depois do Adeus", the country's Eurovision entry that year: the operation was beginning. At 00:20 on 25 April, Rádio Renascença broadcast "Grândola, Vila Morena" by Zeca Afonso, a song the regime disliked: there was no turning back. The radio presenters themselves did not know what the songs meant. By the end of the day the regime had collapsed, almost without a shot fired. Every 25 April, the Portuguese still sing "Grândola" in the streets.

From nationalisation to the pirates

After the revolution, the state broadcaster and most private stations were nationalised. On 23 February 1976 they became Radiodifusão Portuguesa, RDP, and Rádio Clube Português was later rebranded as Rádio Comercial. In the late 1970s and the 1980s, hundreds of unlicensed local stations, known as rádios piratas, appeared all over the country. A Radio Law in 1988 and the allocation of local frequencies in 1989 brought them into the legal system. One former pirate, TSF, became one of the country's leading news stations.

The dial today

Today the public broadcaster RTP runs Antena 1, Antena 2 for classical music and Antena 3 for younger listeners, alongside the Renascença group, Rádio Comercial and many local stations. Fado, Portuguese pop and the music of the Lusophone world, from Brazil to Cape Verde and Angola, all have their place on the dial.

Listening from anywhere

Portugal has one of the largest diasporas in Europe, in France, Switzerland, Luxembourg and beyond, and streaming has continued the work shortwave began. Below you can play the Portuguese radio stations online we index, free in your browser.