portuguese.channel

Archive in progress in New Bedford, Massachusetts

Preserving four decades of Portuguese-American video.

An archive of Portuguese-language television and community video from New Bedford, Fall River, and Rhode Island, from the 1970s through the 2000s — digitized, catalogued, and kept for the community that made it.

Preservar a nossa história.

Contribute a tape Read the story
The collection opens in stages. First materials will be announced here.
  1. 1970s

    Panorama de Portugal debuts in 1976 as a weekly cable pilot, and becomes a permanent channel by 1978.

  2. 1980s

    Brazilian telenovelas, soccer matches, Sunday Mass, and footage filmed in Portugal and the Azores.

  3. 1990s

    Local news and talk shows, and a community pushing to bring Portuguese TV to more of Massachusetts.

  4. 2000s

    The last analog years, before broadcasts and home movies moved to digital.

About the archive

A record of a community, on tape.

In 1976, Portuguese-language television arrived on New Bedford’s cable lineup as Panorama de Portugal, a weekly pilot led by António A. Costa. Costa had already made history with Passport to Portugal, the first Portuguese-language variety program on American television. By 1978 the pilot had become a permanent channel, and in 1980 it earned a CableACE Award.

For families in New Bedford, Fall River, and Rhode Island, with roots in the Azores, Madeira, Cape Verde, and mainland Portugal, it carried news, music, soccer, Mass, and telenovelas from Brazil. Much of what was recorded, on air and at home, now sits on aging tapes in basements, attics, and storage closets.

portuguese.channel is being built to find those recordings, digitize them before they degrade, and make them available — honoring the legacy of the Portuguese Channel and the people in front of and behind the camera.

portuguese.channel is an independent preservation project. It is not affiliated with The Portuguese Channel, The Portuguese Times, or Semba Studio LLC. Broadcast material is shared only with the permission of its rights holders.

What we’re looking for

If it was recorded, it’s worth saving.

Homemade or broadcast, polished or shaky, every recording adds to the picture. Community and family video comes first.

  • Home video

    Weddings, baptisms, holidays, and trips back home — the everyday life of the community.

  • Community events

    Feasts, processions, parades, church celebrations, club gatherings, and school performances.

  • Interviews and oral history

    Conversations with immigrants, families, musicians, and local figures, in their own words.

  • Commercials and local ads

    Spots for the bakeries, markets, travel agents, and shops that kept the neighborhood running.

  • Soccer and sports

    Luso-American league matches, local clubs, and sporting events from Portugal and the Azores.

  • Mass and religious life

    Sunday Mass, processions, and feast-day celebrations, recorded for those who couldn’t be there.

  • Music and performance

    Concerts, folk groups, and music videos of Portuguese artists, on stage and on location.

  • Television broadcasts

    Off-air recordings of local Portuguese-language TV, archived and shared with rights holders’ permission.

  • Formats we can work with

    • VHS
    • S-VHS
    • Betamax
    • U-matic
    • Video8
    • Hi8
    • MiniDV
    • Film reels

    Not sure what you have? Send us a photo of the tape and we’ll help identify it.

Contribute

Have old tapes? Let’s save them together.

If you or your family have recordings from the 1970s through the 2000s, we’d love to hear about them — even a single tape.

Email the archive

Or write to hello@portuguese.channel

  1. Tell us what you haveThe format, a rough date, and what’s on it.

  2. We digitize itWe arrange the transfer and return your originals.

  3. It joins the archiveWith your permission, and credited to you. Broadcast footage is cleared with its rights holders first.

Obrigado por ajudar a preservar a nossa história.