Haiti Marks a Century of Radio with the Centenary of HHK

A Radio Station Born Under American Occupation

In 1926, Haiti was living through a particularly complex chapter in its history. The country had been under American occupation since 1915. President Louis Borno governed with the backing of the American authorities, who wielded considerable influence over the country’s administration, finances, and security forces. At the same time, modern infrastructure was being developed, as the authorities sought to improve communications, public health, and education. It was against this backdrop marked by both modernization and a strong American presence that a new technology made its debut in Haiti: radio broadcasting.

HHK, a Government Radio Station

In the summer of 1926, a new station went on the air in Port-au-Prince under the call sign HHK. According to the Bulletin of the Receiver General, an American administrative report from the period, the station’s first test broadcasts took place in August 1926.

The report described it as an interesting project completed last August and identified HHK as a 1,000-watt government station. At the time, work was already underway to install receiving sets in towns and other communities across the country. Regular programming had not yet been finalized, the report noted, but was expected to begin within a very short time. HHK was built near the presidential palace and officially inaugurated on October 22, 1926. These studios stood near the main staircase of the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communications, with the transmitter a few meters away, facing the western façade of the Department of Finance, Le Nouvelliste reported.

The station was equipped with Western Electric technology and installed by the International Standard Electric Corporation. It broadcast on 830 kHz, corresponding to a wavelength of 361.2 meters. The station’s announcer was Yoyo Lafontant, a civil servant with the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communications.

An Educational Mission…

From the outset, HHK was intended primarily as an educational medium. Its programming included lectures on agriculture, hygiene, public works, and telecommunications. Friday evening broadcasts were often delivered in Creole, allowing the station to reach a broader segment of the population. Radio sets, however, were beyond the means of most Haitians.

To overcome that barrier, the government installed Western Electric receivers in towns and other public places. People could gather and listen to broadcasts without having to own a radio set themselves. Radio was thus conceived not simply as a new technology, but as a tool of public education.

…and Music Too

Music was also part of HHK’s programming. The station broadcast French music, along with concerts by the presidential palace orchestra and the Gendarmerie band. The Directorate-General of Public Health the Public Health Service, then operating under the American administration also used HHK to promote its work. From the earliest days of the station, it organized a series of public-health lectures designed to further awaken public interest in health-related issues.

Beginning July 8, 1929, newspapers announced that HHK would broadcast every day except Sundays and public holidays, from 12:15 to 12:45 p.m. That schedule, however, does not appear to have lasted very long. For much of its existence, programming remained essentially weekly, with broadcasts on Friday evenings at 8 p.m.

Reaching Far Beyond Haiti

HHK’s signal quickly crossed Haiti’s borders. Reception reports came in from Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Florida, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic. For radio enthusiasts of the era, picking up HHK thousands of miles away was a remarkable feat. Ironically, reception could be difficult even within Haiti itself, largely because of the country’s mountainous terrain. Based on reception logs and listening journals kept by radio enthusiasts, HHK appears to have disappeared from the airwaves during the summer of 1937.

The station’s story did not end immediately, however. The Haitian government eventually abandoned the project and, a year later, awarded the broadcasting concession to the Radio Haïti company. After barely a decade on the air, the voice that had first carried American propaganda and later the voice of the Port-au-Prince government fell silent. Only fragments of that story survive today in technical publications, government bulletins, and the archives of radio enthusiasts. Together, they offer clues that make it possible to reconstruct part of HHK’s history in a country where many historical archives have been lost to the natural disasters that have repeatedly struck Haiti.

2026 : Giving a Voice Back to the First Voice

A century later, almost to the day, a major commemorative initiative is being organized to mark the centenary of Haitian radio and help fill that historical gap.

The six-part program brings together historical research, a publication, an audiovisual documentary, an exhibition, a national conference, and a gala event linked to the launch of a virtual museum. The celebrations begin in Port-au-Prince on October 1, with the opening of the A Century of Voices exhibition and a book fair, both running through October 10.

On October 15, a national conference will explore the theme Radio, Memory and Democracy. The title carries particular resonance for a medium that was born under foreign occupation and would, decades later, become one of the country’s most important platforms for political resistance.

Then, on October 22 exactly 100 years after HHK’s official inauguration the Centenary Gala, The Voices That Made Haiti, will take place in Port-au-Prince, with a simultaneous event in Montreal for the Haitian diaspora. The program will include the premiere of a documentary, an honors ceremony, and the launch of a virtual museum designed to do what time failed to do for HHK: preserve its story. The digital museum will feature an interactive timeline spanning, quite literally, “from HHK to the present day.”