Radio Hoyer 1

adio Hoyer was founded in 1954 by mr. Horacio Erasmo Hoyer. The official opening took place on March 10 of that year. Mr. Horacio “Yacho” Hoyer was not only a well-known musician but also a great sportsman, especially in the field of tennis. He was the tennis champion of Curaçao for some time, won numerous trophies and earned great recognition and praise for his achievements. As a sportsman it was a logical step to open his own sport shop, which in the evenings he converted into a recording studio.

The great music lover Horacio Hoyer was especially fond of the guitar and cuatro. Under the Hoyco label he managed to immortalize many contemporary Curaçaoan musicians and musical bands. It was in that period that Horacio Hoyer felt a great need for establishing a local radio station on which people could listen to their own language and which could serve as a platform for the rightful acknowledgement of local music. He decided to place a petition for opening a commercial radio station. In those days the governmental radio council did not believe that a commercial radio station would be able to survive and decided to grant Horacio Hoyer his permit.

That is how Radio Hoyer 1 became the first radio station to transmit in Papiamentu, Horacio Hoyer believing firmly that this would be a major step in promoting Curaçao’s local culture. Five years later Horacio Hoyer spread out his wings and the new, Dutch speaking Radio Hoyer 2 came into the air on March 10, 1959.

In the nineteen eighties Curaçao’s government honored Horacio Hoyer, changing the name of the Juliana square into Plasa Hoyer. This happened in 1984, at a moment in which Radio Hoyer made history by becoming the first commercial radio station in the world to transmit on the FM band, operating entirely on solar energy. The design of this system was in the hands of Fred M. Chumaceiro, the technical consultant of Radio Hoyer.

Radio Hoyer has been operating for twenty years on the AM as well as on the FM band. When Horacio Hoyer passed away in May 1987, Curaçao’s government decided to honor this radio pioneer by changing the name of Plasa Hoyer into Plasa Horacio Hoyer.

In the year 2004, briefly after Radio Hoyer celebrated its 50th anniversary, the radio station decided to put an end to its AM operations and continue solely on the FM broadcasting band. From the very beginning until the end of its operations on AM, Radio Hoyer had been broadcasting the meetings of both the Antillean parliament and the Island Council of Curaçao.

Radio Hoyer can rightfully be acknowledged as the pioneer and leading local station for all local, international and sports news. And it is beyond doubt that music has always played an important role in the programming of Radio Hoyer.