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The history of Radio Piraña goes back as far as 1979. That year, the founder of the station, Jorge R. García, moved from a South American country to Europe.

Even before moving to Europe, Mr. García was an active listener to shortwave, medium wave, the FM band—in fact, to all types of radio communications. Once settled in Europe, it did not take long before he acquired a decent and good-quality communications receiver. He soon started picking up Latin American radio stations on the shortwave bands.

J.R.G. developed an interest in radio broadcasting at a very young age. When he was nine years old, he lived next door to a local 1 kW medium-wave station. Five years before moving to Europe, he lived approximately 400 metres from a 25 kW MW station, which he often visited. He spent time talking with the staff and was able to observe a variety of programmes and broadcasts.

Mr. García returned to this same place for three years in 1995. This was the "root" of his interest in broadcasting. He later worked for ten years at a legal FM station in Europe.

He discovered the pirate radio scene on shortwave quite soon after arriving in Europe in 1979. British, German, Scandinavian and other pirate stations were quite easily received at his receiving QTH, and he became very fascinated by them. The idea of starting a pirate station with a Latin American touch and style was born.

The first broadcast was made in the autumn of 1981, using a small SSB transmitter with an output of only 4 watts on the 41-metre band. He carried out several tests over a period of a few weeks, but these transmissions were never reported anywhere.

After this, he remained silent on shortwave for a while and became more involved with FM broadcasts under another name.

In 1990, Radio Piraña International returned to the shortwave bands, making approximately ten transmissions on 41 metres, with some broadcasts also being made on 13 metres.

From 1992 to 1995, the station was very active. It also entered the 48-metre band, as well as the 76-metre band, along with some other, more "odd" outlets. A number of special broadcasts were also made using a directional beam antenna aimed towards North America, South America and the Pacific, using the 21- 19 and 13-metre bands.

The story continues, and we will add more later...