Touchradio

Ever the archivist at heart, my father, Francisco Alvelos, had the foresight of recording the national radio and television broadcasts of the Portuguese "Carnation" Revolution as it unfolded on the 25th of April, 1974. Just audio, that is: home video was still years away, as was colour TV I was then seven years old, and remember an afternoon without school, the radio hosting strange voices, a still image on the TV set. By dinner time TV broadcast had been restored and some very serious-looking men in strange garments made very serious speeches, my parents expressions of expectancy and excitement an obvious indicator that, despite being beyond my comprehension, something major was taking place. That somehow made up for the disappointing disappearance of cartoons... The World was different back then for a seven-year-old under an ailing European dictatorship. By chance I recently unearthed the cassette tape my father recorded, and took great care in digitising it as it might not survive one last playback. It di