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Did Cuba Have 500,000 Watt AM Stations?

G

Gregg.

According to Wikipedia, a Cuban radio station on 550 AM, CMBV in Wajay, has or had a 500,000 watt signal. Even though it is on a Regional channel for AM stations in North America, it was granted Class I-A status. And CMBX, also in Wajay, runs or ran 500,000 watts on 1010 kHz, with I-A status. Of course, these days the Cuban government doesn't report current power levels or cooperate with international radio organizations. So there's no way to know if these stations are still putting out half-a-million watts.

We've speculated that Cuba uses some superpower stations to cover the island. As David points out, Cuba is 750 miles wide, the distance between El Paso and Houston, Texas. So high power stations are needed to cover the island. Cuban AM radio stations play havoc with AM stations in Southern Florida. And sometimes when conditions are right, they interfere with stations on the East Coast of the U.S., even in New York and New England.
 
Gregg. said:
According to Wikipedia, a Cuban radio station on 550 AM, CMBV in Wajay, has or had a 500,000 watt signal.
Click to expand...
No, they never did and don’t now. During the peak cold war years, they had a number of 100 kw transmitter on, particularly on 1160 and 1180 to block Radio Swan and another anti_Castro program.-
Gregg. said:
Even though it is on a Regional channel for AM stations in North America, it was granted Class I-A status.
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After 1960, Cuba did not take part in or observe NARBA. NARBA did not even have accurate data on Cuban stations. Like usual in this kind of radio subject, Wikipedia is totally wrong.
Gregg. said:
And CMBX, also in Wajay, runs or ran 500,000 watts on 1010 kHz, with I-A status.
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No, it does not. Again, NARBA does not recognize Cuba as that country stopped notifications about 65 years ago. Cuba has never had a 500 kw station. The only 500 kw station in the Western Hemisphere is TransWorld Radio in Boniare on 800 kHz. Bonaire is not a NARBA signatory. Further, in the mid-70's there was a brief 1,000,000 station on 625 in Costa Rica called Radio Million, but it was forced to close for interfering with local communications.
Gregg. said:
Of course, these days the Cuban government doesn't report current power levels or cooperate with international radio organizations. So there's no way to know if these stations are still putting out half-a-million watts.
Click to expand...
There is a fairly accurate list in the World Radio Handbook.
Gregg. said:
We've speculated that Cuba uses some superpower stations to cover the island.
Click to expand...
No, they don't. They use local and regional stations all over the island to cover each zone. 500 kw would not cover the whole island given the poor conductivity anyway..
Gregg. said:
As David points out, Cuba is 750 miles wide, the distance between El Paso and Houston, Texas. So high power stations are needed to cover the island.
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Again, they have nearly 150 AM stations all over the island, built by Russians and recently rebuilt by the Chinese.
Gregg. said:
Cuban AM radio stations play havoc with AM stations in Southern Florida. And sometimes when conditions are right, they interfere with stations on the East Coast of the U.S., even in New York and New England.
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That is because none are directional, and are on frequencies shared with the U.S. and other nations. Some of the Miami stations put good signals over part of Cuba, but before Cuba stopped honoring NARBA, frequencies were coordinated and some of the higher powered Cuban stations were directional to protect the U.S., the Bahamas, and the Dominican Republic.

Per WRTVH, there are three 200 kw stations still, two on 710 and one on 1180. 710 has a total of 8 stations all across Cuba to block WAQI. 550 has one 12 kw station in Pinar del Río. Note that even with two 200 kw stations, Cuba need 6 more signals on 710 to cover its territory and block WAQI.

Here is the government's own list Emisoras cubanas y frecuencias de transmisión agrupadas por provincias (AM)

This shows AM and FM by province, with links.
 
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kevtronics said:
Where on Wikipedia? Their list of radio stations in Cuba, last updated in February 2026, doesn't mention any power levels:

List of radio stations in Cuba - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...

This was on the Wikipedia page "List of North American Broadcast Station Classes" and the subheading is "AM station classes and clear channels listed by frequency." It's a list of all the former Class I-A and current Class A stations on each frequency. Much of it is accurate but apparently not these Cuban station listings.

List of North American broadcast station classes - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

I should have been more skeptical. I had never seen other sources that said Cuba had half-million watt stations on 550 or 1010 kHz. In pre-Revolution days, there'd be no reason to invest in such powerful transmitters. Back when Cuba was part of NARBA, it had some powerful stations for its domestic networks as part of the agreement. The U.S., Mexico and Canada got most of the Class I assignments, with Bahamas getting one and Cuba getting a handful.

And when Cuba was either trying to send out its own Communist message or was relaying Soviet propaganda, it used AM stations that could reach the U.S. mainland. But again, nobody ever said these stations were pumping out that kind of wattage.

As David says, Trans World Radio at 800 kHz in Bonaire was trying to evangelize using its half-million watt transmitter. But Cuba had no such aim.
 
@ Gregg.
I do remember the 550 one being real loud back then, up near JFK Airport in Queens.
Ah, the memories. So the Cuban Missile Crisis has really been that far back, eh? I was a kid in a grammar school where we were taught that the #1 Atomic Target in the world was our schoolyard (but where we were taught how to lie with our faces against the curbs anyway so we'd be spared).
Under 'normal' global cx, the bunch of us DXers wanted to get KFI. The great WHLO was there at SSS, and maybe CBN would come in for a while before the CBC signed off at something-:07. But 640 was solid Cuba after that.
During the crisis, my nose still sore from that curb, I recall DXing late one weekday night and hearing Cuban stations on just about every every non-local NYC frequency. Impossible to tell if it was some Aurora warp; we never knew about those yet. I don't recall how long that saturation lasted. So much for any hope of KFI.
The four of us separately heard KNX 1070 first.
 
Gregg. said:
This was on the Wikipedia page "List of North American Broadcast Station Classes" and the subheading is "AM station classes and clear channels listed by frequency." It's a list of all the former Class I-A and current Class A stations on each frequency. Much of it is accurate but apparently not these Cuban station listings.

List of North American broadcast station classes - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

I should have been more skeptical. I had never seen other sources that said Cuba had half-million watt stations on 550 or 1010 kHz. In pre-Revolution days, there'd be no reason to invest in such powerful transmitters. Back when Cuba was part of NARBA, it had some powerful stations for its domestic networks as part of the agreement. The U.S., Mexico and Canada got most of the Class I assignments, with Bahamas getting one and Cuba getting a handful.

And when Cuba was either trying to send out its own Communist message or was relaying Soviet propaganda, it used AM stations that could reach the U.S. mainland. But again, nobody ever said these stations were pumping out that kind of wattage.

As David says, Trans World Radio at 800 kHz in Bonaire was trying to evangelize using its half-million watt transmitter. But Cuba had no such aim.
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Bonaire was interfering with CKLW Windsor (serving Detroit) even in their local market area. I remember the Radio Moscow relay on 600 around 1980. I could hear it in the daytime in Sarasota (started at 3pm, another Cuban network was on before then) and pretty much all over the south and midwest at night. There was a Radio Free Dixie out of Cuba at one time, but I don't know the details.
 
Gregg. said:
This was on the Wikipedia page "List of North American Broadcast Station Classes" and the subheading is "AM station classes and clear channels listed by frequency." It's a list of all the former Class I-A and current Class A stations on each frequency. Much of it is accurate but apparently not these Cuban station listings.
Click to expand...
Except where otherwise indicated, that's listing the power levels that were granted by the ITU under "Rio" in 1981, not necessarily those which the Cuban stations are actually using on the air today.
en.wikipedia.org

Regional Agreement for the Medium Frequency Broadcasting Service in Region 2 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
For a while Cuba was rebroadcasting Radio Moscow's English service on 600 kHz which played hob with WIOD on 610 kHz allowing them to get a temporary power increase. Many of the Russian built AMs in Cuba bragged about super power. However, intelligence reports indicated they never achieved the powers that were being reported.

There are still some stations in Florida that have an STA for higher power to overcome Cuban interference.
 
I do remember listening to KSD (now KTRS) in St. Louis one night, maybe around 1983-ish, and the DJ that evening mentioned that they were worried that there would soon be a very high power station from Cuba on 550. I didn’t think that ever came to pass, but they (at KSD) had heard something that they were quite concerned about. It might have been nothing more than a rumor but it made it onto the air that night.
 
bigdonho said:
For a while Cuba was rebroadcasting Radio Moscow's English service on 600 kHz which played hob with WIOD on 610 kHz allowing them to get a temporary power increase. Many of the Russian built AMs in Cuba bragged about super power. However, intelligence reports indicated they never achieved the powers that were being reported.
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Based on the installation of Russian transmitters in Cuba in the earlier 60's, the manufacturer sent "salesmen" to visit stations throughout Latin America to try to sell their equipment. I got a visit at my stations in Ecuador somewhere around 1967; the salesman was accompanied by what can only be described as a security agent. Both wore the classic badly made and fitted Russian suits of that era.

They offered 35 kw, 70 kw and 130 kw AM transmitters. All used proprietary Svetlana tubes, which I knew would be hard to find. As I ran lower powered local stations, I was not interested in those higher power levels. And I assumed that the purpose of selling those transmitters was to have an excuse to establish a presence in the country.

They did offer amazing financing... sort of "buy now and pay never".
bigdonho said:
There are still some stations in Florida that have an STA for higher power to overcome Cuban interference.
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There are more than ever, I believe. I don't think that any station that got a raised power level due to Cuban interference ever requested to go "back to normal".
 
Mediafrog+ said:
The old Czechoslovakia was also in the game during that era, selling transmitters and other equipment from their homegrown Tesla electronics (yes, the “other” Tesla.)

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Yes, the stuff installed in Cuba came from Czechoslovakia and was, indeed, under the Tesla brand. But that was all part of the USSR back then, and the salesman and his KGB caretaker were definitely from Mother Russia itself.
 
gr8oldies said:
Bonaire was interfering with CKLW Windsor (serving Detroit) even in their local market area. I remember the Radio Moscow relay on 600 around 1980. I could hear it in the daytime in Sarasota (started at 3pm, another Cuban network was on before then) and pretty much all over the south and midwest at night. There was a Radio Free Dixie out of Cuba at one time, but I don't know the details.
Click to expand...
The Radio Moscow 600 was a real annoyance to WMT Cedar Rapids for a while. I recall hearing it a few times in early evenings.
 
In 1992 I lived in Marathon, Florida, which is about 50 miles from Key West, (half way through they keys). I worked in a hotel and it was such a pain as Cuban radio was constantly interfering with our walkie talkies, mikes, even baby monitors were broadcasting some sort of Cuban radio.
 
Markxxx said:
In 1992 I lived in Marathon, Florida, which is about 50 miles from Key West, (half way through they keys). I worked in a hotel and it was such a pain as Cuban radio was constantly interfering with our walkie talkies, mikes, even baby monitors were broadcasting some sort of Cuban radio.
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Any chance that was Radio Marti? 100Kw AM1180 right on Marathon Key.
 
DXingRadio said:
Any chance that was Radio Marti? 100Kw AM1180 right on Marathon Key.
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That had to be what was interfering with electronics in a hotel on Marathon Key. I assume Markxxx, who posted about that interference, figured that since the broadcast was in Spanish, it must have been caused by Cuba, 90 miles away. The staff at the hotel didn't realize that Spanish-language interference was caused by those big towers off Route 1 in Marathon, pumping out 100,000 watts to hit Cuba with programming from Radio Martí at 1180 kHz.
 
It was commercial radio as you could hear and it was not just one station, it was different at different times.

We got a lot of weird radio in Marathon. At times, I would get Miami and other times Fort Meyers. I was the overnight manager so I was listening 11pm - 7am

We supposedly had TV translators but I could never get anything but then again I only had rabbit ears.

Fun fact: It's not Marathon Key. Marathon is the city on Key Vaca, which is Spanish for "cow." Marathon Chamber of Commerce says, since there were never any cows on the island, it probably refers to "sea cows." I never saw any of them but we had loads of dolphins
 
Markxxx said:
It was commercial radio as you could hear and it was not just one station, it was different at different times.
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Cuba had no commercial radio after the Castro revolution took over in 1959. Any Spanish language commercial radio you might have heard was pretty far away… Venezuela being the most logical.
Markxxx said:
We got a lot of weird radio in Marathon. At times, I would get Miami and other times Fort Meyers. I was the overnight manager so I was listening 11pm - 7am
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That sounds logical. Marathon has no stations on AM close by, so it was South Florida or Cuba that were semi-local but very subject to tropical zone atmospheric conditions (which is an unstudied condition which I noted often in my decades of DXing from Puerto Rico)
Markxxx said:
Fun fact: It's not Marathon Key. Marathon is the city on Key Vaca, which is Spanish for "cow." Marathon Chamber of Commerce says, since there were never any cows on the island, it probably refers to "sea cows." I never saw any of them but we had loads of dolphins
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And “key” is a literal version of of “islet” or “cayo” in Spanish. That is how Cayo Hueso, which means “Bone Key” in Spanish became Key West… which is a different meaning.
 


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