FORBES FM - made in Brazil

My name is Ricardo Gurgel, I'm a civil engineer, and in this post I share my projections and thoughts on what we might expect from FORBES FM — a major name in the financial world now debuting as a radio station owner in São Paulo, operating with strong broadcast power.

To this day, I offer consulting and advisory services for radio stations, but in this case, I’m simply engaging in a mental exercise — trying to predict what could come from afar. I’m speaking from the interior of Rio Grande do Norte, from a city in the greater Natal region, though it still feels like a small town. That doesn’t stop me from making a few observations and calculations. I decided to translate this into English after noticing — surprisingly — some visitors from California, New York, and Massachusetts. I didn’t want to lose that audience due to a language barrier.

FORBES entering the radio world is truly a strange move. It’s like watching a banker open a hipster coffee shop — it seems out of character, but it also sparks curiosity. The brand is synonymous with capital, influence, and wealth rankings, so it’s only natural to assume the move is intentional. Then again, maybe it’s just an expensive toy — an audio showcase to reinforce status, even if it serves little practical purpose.

Classic or innovative

I can already imagine (speculate about) a radio station playing “rich people music that not even rich people know.” That’s what it often turns into: an almost caricature-like elitism, with such an “exclusive” musical curation that it ends up excluding the wealthy themselves. In these cases, the project becomes more about brand identity than meaningful content. Aiming for an “Antena 1” vibe, maybe?

But what if... FORBES stayed true to itself? A news radio station that clears out the national plague of hyper-partisan analysts — the kind who, even when handed a robust data package, struggle to extract anything meaningful. A station committed to honest, unbiased analysis could quickly earn serious credibility. Within a year, it might even surpass that powerful media network whose every headline reveals its voting bias. It would be a dream to hear a news station truly focused on reality, not on dressing up the facts.

A station that not only reports what’s already happened, but seeks to understand why it happened — and what could come next. That’s something sorely missing in Brazil. Take tonight’s Bitcoin plunge, for example. The listener wants context, in-depth analysis — not shallow headlines. That kind of audience definitely exists; it's a niche, yes, but a very valuable one.

And imagine Professor HOC — or someone of that caliber — with the freedom to analyze, provoke, and speculate based on serious foundations... that would be revolutionary. They could bring in real economists, market insiders, military strategists, international analysts — build a diverse panel. Not diverse in terms of political parties, but in terms of perspectives — people who genuinely want to inform with depth.

Professor HOC is, without a doubt, the voice I’d love to hear for three hours on this April 6th, 2025 night — dissecting the evolving landscape in depth. On a station immune to advertiser pressure and partisan contamination, the way I imagine FORBES FM could be, he’d have the perfect platform to unravel the backstage of geopolitical and economic movements, with the clarity and honesty that are so badly missing in traditional news.