Antonieta Ries Coelho, first director of the Mato-Grossense Communication Network, dies at age 96 | Mato Grosso do Sul

The first director of the Mato-Grossense Communication Network (RMC), Antonieta Ries Coelho, died at the age of 96. The information was confirmed by family members this Tuesday morning (23) and the burial will take place in Campo Grande.

Born in Coxim, Dona Antonieta, as she was known by RMC, was an employee of the Zahran Group in the 1960s and played an important role in the concession of the first television stations.

Alongside the Zahran brothers, she helped organize the documentation so that they could obtain the concession for the group’s first television station from the National Telecommunications Council – formerly Contel – currently the Ministry of Communications.

“He called me and said ‘Antonieta, you’re there in Rio de Janeiro now. I would like you to follow the documentation for a television channel that I requested for Campo Grande […] And then, when the authorization came out, I said, I’m going to Campo Grande to take this authorization to operate the first television station, the 14th or 15th in Brazil, which is TV Morena”, said Dona Antonieta, in an interview with journalist Maureen Mattiello on RMC 50th anniversary special.

As the first director of the new broadcaster, Antonieta helped put TV Morena on the air, on December 25, 1960. The following year, she moved to Cuiabá, where, again, she helped put another broadcaster on the air.

To put TV Centro América on the air, it was necessary to sell at least 1,500 television sets. So Dona Antonieta and a friend took to the streets of the capital of Mato Grosso.

“We went from department to department […] I made a form, the person signed it saying that in the future they would receive a television that would be paid in installments or in cash”, she said.

In the interview, recorded in 2015, Dona Antonieta fondly recalled many stories and people she met in the early years of the broadcasters.

Both in photos and in memories, Antoinette kept part of the stories she lived at RMC. Today, broadcasters say goodbye to a great pioneer.

According to family members, the wake will take place at Pax Real do Brasil, located at Av. Bandeirantes, 795, and the burial will take place at the Parque das Primaveras Cemetery, with a time yet to be defined.