The provincial broadcaster of Las Tunas, Radio Victoria, has gone over 35 days without transmitting normally. Since August 24, the station has been off the air due to issues with solar panels and a fuel shortage, as publicly denounced by Gretel Yanet Tamayo Velázquez, a journalist and head of the sports team at the station.
The crisis reduced the transmissions from 24 continuous hours to just five or six hours per day, and none of the efforts made so far have yielded concrete results.
The timing couldn't be more inappropriate: on October 4th, the 65th National Baseball Series will begin, and the Leñadores de Las Tunas will debut against the Tigres de Ciego de Ávila. Without a stable signal, the province would be left without radio coverage of the country's main sporting event.
“On October 4th, the season begins, and the Leñadores de Las Tunas will face the Tigres de Ciego de Ávila, but the radio broadcast is in real danger,” warned Tamayo Velázquez on his social media.
The journalist emphasized that the issue is not a matter of will: "Radio producers are willing, but there is a lack of institutional support and a definitive response."
Meanwhile, fans express their dissatisfaction on social media: "Radio Victoria is off," they write with concern.
The situation of Radio Victoria is not an isolated case but rather a reflection of an energy collapse that has silenced broadcasters throughout Cuba in 2026. Radio Angulo de Holguín went off the air in January due to prolonged outages and the deterioration of its generators, and Santiago de Cuba lost radio and television in May due to a generation deficit.
In the province itself, the pattern dates back further: Radio Cabaniguán, in Jobabo had already reduced its broadcasting time to six hours a day in September 2025 due to a lack of fuel for the generator.
Las Tunas has eight solar parks with 64.8 MW installed, but the average generation barely covers about 2.5 hours of daily electricity supply, according to data from the local management of the Electric Company. The province also had 311 pending electrical complaints as of the end of August and had recorded 11 transformer thefts so far this year.
Since June, RadioCuba Las Tunas had already reconfigured its programming to prioritize only the news system and events of high interest, due to the inability to maintain normal broadcasts.
Radio Victoria celebrated its 73rd anniversary on September 20, amid a crisis, with the slogan "Always with you" turned into a difficult promise to fulfill.
"Today, the radio is silent. And that silence strikes right at the heart of Cuban baseball," wrote Tamayo Velázquez, summarizing what thousands of fans in Tunera feel just days before the start of the baseball season.
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