Brasília, January 28, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The Brazilian Public Radio Association (ARPUB) was created yesterday (27), combining public, educational, and cultural radio stations. The objective is to join forces to provide listeners quality information and gradually to improve radio programming.

The ARPUB will permit the exchange of technical information and journalistic output among its members. It will also conduct promotional campaigns to stimulate the interest of public and private enterprises in sponsoring programs produced by the stations.

The president of the Association, José Alberto da Fonseca, said that the ARPUB will affiliate radio stations that share the same guideline, to serve the citizenry, from all over Brazil. "We shall carry out activities of integration, aimed at providing services with a journalistic base," he explained. Fonseca also reported that a communications campaign will be mounted to inform listeners what the Association is and how it will contribute to the improvement of radio programming.

The establishment of the Association can also represent an ideal solution for radio stations that don't have correspondents in the states, vouches Katia Sartório, head of Radio Journalism at Radiobrás. "Through this cooperation, we shall be able to obtain data, information, and local commentary, especially for our special reports produced for radio news shows and for all our stations' program grid," she affirmed. She said that, from now on, ARPUB members will exchange information daily on the list of news items they will be covering.

Humberto Sampaio, from Salvador Educational Radio, regards the creation of the Association a great opportunity for the various stations to exchange experiences. "It would be interesting if they could all exchange substantive material aimed at letting people in the rest of the country know the things that are being done of which they are unaware in each state and region," he affirmed. "Once you have a nucleus like this one, acting all over the country, it can lead other radio stations to review their own concept of communication and strive to deliver a higher quality product, along the same lines as the output of public radio stations in general," he said.

João Batista Torres, from Radio Culture of São Paulo, believes that it is important to participate in a movement like this one, which enriches the quality of programming on Brazilian public, cultural, and educational radio. "I think that the creation of the Association will make possible to add more items of national interest," he judges. "The Association can contribute a great deal to an understanding of the importance of public radio for the formation of a more sophisticated and wider audience in Brazil," he affirmed.

The members of the Association are: National Radio, Inconfidência (Rebellion) Radio of Belo Horizonte, Senate Radio, Chamber Radio, Olive Drab Radio, Salvador FM Educational Radio, Radio Acre, Radio Culture of Belém, and Radio Culture of São Paulo.

The first meeting of the ARPUB will be held in Belo Horizonte, on March 8, when partnerships among the stations will be defined. (DAS)