Rede OM Brasil

On March 15, 1979, VHF channel 7 in Londrina was activated, with the start of TV Tropical. The Martinez family's station soon signed a contract to retransmit Rede Globo's programming throughout the north and northwest region of Paraná (in addition to some cities in the south of São Paulo) lasting until December 1 of the same year, when it affiliated with the newly created Rede Bandeirantes (Globo went on to TV Coroados, channel 3, where it's still an affiliate of, today).

In its early years, the station achieved the highest audience ratings in the region with Jornal do Meio-Dia (the broadcaster's traditional news program) which covered a wide range of subjects such as culture, varieties, musicals, live interviews, documentaries and factual news and police journalism Cadeia, presented by the radio host Luiz Carlos Alborghetti who, until then, presented a similar program on Rádio Tabajara AM.

At the end of the 1970s, Diários Associados went into crisis with the closure of Rede Tupi. By mutual agreement, the group and the Stesser Family decide to put their O&O TV Paraná in Curitiba up for sale. After intense negotiations, the Martinez family acquired the station that will be home to the state's newest state television network.

With the acquisition of TV Paraná, the network head is changed to Curitiba (due to geographical conditions) and the name Rede OM is assumed. The partnership with TV Bandeirantes not only continues, but its signal expanded throughout the state, becoming one of Band's main affiliates.

In 1982, OM stood out for its political coverage. Its political debates for the government of the state of Paraná became a tradition that took place with mayors and even presidents of the Republic. José Carlos Martinez always made a point of highlighting the pride he felt when promoting debates on his channel.

With a certain tradition in sports, OM invests in motorsport by creating the Pole Position program, at a time when Brazil had won four world titles in Formula 1 by Emerson Fittipaldi and Nelson Piquet. Another important program for the sports department was Telesporte.

In celebration of TV Paraná's 28th anniversary in 1988, its power in the capital of Paraná was increased to 37 kW and, consequently, its signal was improved. It also bought modern equipment such as new cameras and new editing stations.

The partnership with TV Bandeirantes ends in 1991, when, as an act of friendship to Dante Matiussi and Airton Trevisan, it decided to affiliate to Rede Record, which began to establish itself as a new national network after its acquisition by Edir Macedo.^[1] In this phase, its highlights included Cadeia (ratings leader in the state), Programa do Ratinho, in the late afternoons, presented by Carlos Massa and the sports broadcasts of the state's soccer league.

In late 1991, Rede OM (formed, at the time, by TV Paraná and TV Tropical) filed a request for satellite transmission with EMBRATEL, scheduled for 1992. The intention of the group from Paraná is to form a new national network.

On November 20 of the same year, a contract was signed with TV Gazeta from São Paulo (owned by Fundação Cásper Líbero) celebrating a supply of programming between the two networks. OM's programming started to be shown on the São Paulo channel only on February 15, 1992. On Sundays, the São Paulo station would continue showing Japan Pop Show. On Saturdays, the program was shown at 9:00 am on Rede OM.

On February 28, 1992, OM surprised the television market by purchasing TV Corcovado, channel 9 in Rio de Janeiro. Until then, the Rio station was owned by Grupo Silvio Santos and was leased to MTV Brasil since October 20, 1990. It was estimated that the station was purchased for the sum of US$8 million.

On April 1, Galvão Bueno debuted on the station, assuming the role of narrator, presenter and director of the sports core team, leaving TV Globo after almost ten years. The narrator's debut was on the broadcast of Libertadores Cup of America.

The audacious network implementation project included experienced professionals such as Guga de Oliveira, Dante Matiussi and even Walter Avancini was approached to direct a television drama center. Approximately US$30 million was spent on implementing the network alone. Flávio Martinez became the general superintendent of the network that aims for third place in the audience in a matter of months.^[2]

A package of more than 100 films was also purchased, most of them fight movies or softcore. Among the titles were Wild Orchid, Forceful Impact and Caligula.^[3] Telenovelas also gave their turn on the network and, causing controversy, among them, an Argentine version of Irmãos Coragem, Mi nombre es Coraje.^[2]

With experimental programming since March 1992, the network finally debuted its new national schedule on March 30 of that same year. In a completely new plan, the network gave total freedom to affiliates to produce its programming and from 6pm to midnight, the slot was dominated by its programs.^[4] The exception was in Rio de Janeiro, which only relayed the Curitiba station from 8an to 2am.^[3]

The new program featured two soap operas: Árvore Azul (whose opening theme was sung by presenter Xuxa) and Manuela, an Italian-American super production written by the Brazilian Manoel Carlos and starring the actress Grecia Colmenares,^[4] well-known by the Brazilian public from Venezuelan production Topacio that aired on SBT.

Regarding news, its flagship was Fala Brasil (no relation with Record's morning news program of the same name), a weekly news magazine produced in the Curitiba studios and presented by Carlos Marassi and Valéria Balbi. The program featured national and international columnists, including singer Aguinaldo Timóteo and economist Luis Nassif, as well as comments from Galvão Bueno on sport. It also included the always controversial police journalist Cadeia (local edition at 12:55pm and national edition at 6:15pm), presented by radio host and then state deputy Luiz Carlos Alborghetti.

Still in the sports sector, pilot Ayrton Senna took part in Pódium and the network invested in the Paris-Dakar Rally, in a program with sports commentator José Carlos Araújo and the wrestling program Campeões do Ringue, on Saturdays, as well as the broadcast of Campeonato Paranaense and that year's Copa do Brasil.^[3]

Its line of entertainment programming was considered one of the most varied, featuring Ser Tão...Brasileiro, with Tamara Taxman (later presented by Jair Rodrigues), Blue Jeans, with Jimy Raw and Coçando o Sábado with Leonor Corrêa.^[3] The audience numbers were quickly confirmed. Football matches in the Libertadores Cup reached their peak when they gave up to 7 points, telenovelas got up to 2 points, movies reached 3 and the news program Fala Brasil remained with just 1 point.^[5]

On June 17, 1992, the final of that year's Copa Libertadores between São Paulo and Newell's Old Boys hit OM's largest audience in all of its history: 34 points.^[6]

In August, a package of new feature films featuring already established Hollywood actors was announced. Among them Blood and Sand and The Bodyguard.

On June 20, 1992, OM aired the controversial film Caligula, not recommended for children under 18 years of age. Judge José Antônio de Andrade Martins of the 18th Federal Court of São Paulo ordered the cancellation of the broadcast through an injunction. Even with the audience reaching an incredible 16 points, the network was forced to take the film off the air.^[7]

In August, the CPI of the PC Farias case discovered a connection between the businessman and Rede OM. These were two checks from the “ghost” Manoel Dantas Araújo, which paid part of a debt that SBT had with Caixa Econômica Federal. This debt would have been transferred to OM in exchange for the TV Corcovado concession.^[8]

With a very weak budget after just six months of launching in the national territory and still a victim of the advertising recession, the scandal contributed to the network's accounting problems. Rede OM had to cut 60% of its expenses and reformulate its entire schedule to escape collapse.^[9]

Between August and September, around 100 journalists were fired, and that was in the São Paulo office alone. With a cut of almost 50% and the strong pressure received, the broadcaster's journalism directors Paulo Alceu and Dante Massuti resigned.^[7][10]

Businessman José Carlos Martinez admitted having received a loan equivalent to US$8.5 million to buy television stations in May of the previous year. In exchange for this loan, Martinez would have given up the title Tribuna de Alagoas so that PC could set up a newspaper in Maceió, denying the accusations that he was the treasurer's front man and was unaware of the ghost check received to pay for TV Corcovado.^[11]

On September 16, the Broadcasters' Union negotiated with the network's management for non-payment of the termination of contracts and the salary corresponding to the month of August.^[12] TV Gazeta gave an irrevocable deadline for the network to pay the arrears, which already exceeded the one million dollar mark.^[13]

With just eight months of operation, Rede OM became involved in controversies and became indebted.^[7] In November, fired employees appealed to the journalists' union after receiving a bad check.^[7] Among those affected were presenter Leonor Corrêa and journalist Valéria Balbi.

At the end of 1992, Pluma Equipamentos requested the bankruptcy of Rede OM for non-payment of a debt of Cr$17 thousand.^[14]

With the arrival of 1993, Rede OM sold TV Maringá to Grupo JMalucelli^[15] and distributor Paris Filmes threatened to take legal action so that OM's transmission antenna, telephones and telecine equipment could be auctioned, as a guarantee of payment of a debt. The company was also being sued for non-payment of commissions to Galvão Bueno and labor obligations with dismissed journalists.^[16] Nevertheless, the network ended in fourth place in IBOPE rankings, only behind Globo, SBT and Band.^[17]

In April, Rede OM decided to change its name and programming to clean up its image. Fresh from Manchete, the presenter Clodovil is hired and TV Gazeta, which previously only rented out the schedules, becomes an affiliate.^[18] It also planned producing telenovelas,^[18] as well as consolidating itself as the third place in ratings.^[19]

On May 23, 1993, Rede OM closed and Central Nacional de Televisão (CNT) entered in its place, inaugurated with a large ceremony held at Teatro Ópera de Arame. The launch program of the "new network" was Clodovil em Noite de Gala.^[20]

In its brief existence, the network had over 30 stations in thirteen Brazilian states. The station's O&Os were TV Paraná and TV Tropical, as well as TV Maringá (currently a Rede Bandeirantes affiliate), TV Corcovado and TV Gazeta (who leased the network).^[21] Most of the stations migrated to CNT.

The following stations relayed the network:

• TV FR Limeira (channel 11, now RFTV)
• TV FR Bauru (channel 4)
• TV Maringá (channel 6)
• RCE TV Criciúma (channel 3)
• RCE TV Vale do Itajaí (channel 10)
• RCE TV Criciúma (channel 9)
• RCE TV Cultura Florianópolis (channel 6)
• TV Pernambuco Caruaru (channel 12)
• TV Carimã Cascavel (channel 10)