Reagan's old radio station in path of Cuba radio war

February 17, 1982

WHO radio, where President Reagan began his broadcasting career in the 1930s, may be getting caught in the cross fire of a radio war between Cuba and the United States.

The Reagan administration is planning to build a radio station, named Radio Marti after a Cuban patriot, to beam news and propaganda to Cuba. It will broadcast on the same channel as WHO, a clear-channel 50,000-watt station founded in the 1920s. Cuba has threatened to build a 500-kilowatt station, 10 times as powerful, on the same frequency to drown out the US broadcasts.

A spokesman for WHO said the Cuban station would wipe out WHO sports and call-in programs in the southeastern US.