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The 1940s seemed to be his greatest decade in terms of public visibility as a historian and communicator. He conducted the biweekly radio program Figuras do Porto (Personalities of Porto) on the Northern regional broadcaster Emissor Regional do Norte, with historical notes on individuals and events in the city. This helped him fulfil his long-held personal desire to re-launch the magazine O Tripeiro, earlier published between 1908 and 1931. This publication was hailed as a repository of news about Porto on various topics, with greater relevance to historical artistic and cultural matters of the city and the surrounding region. Magalhães Basto acted as director on its V series (1945-1960) and it became a reference for both historians and admirers of historical subjects, combining the rigor of historical research with accessible language, in which both highly acclaimed and new talent from the Portuguese scientific community participated.
In the overview of his research, we note his valuable contribution to medieval historiography in his multiple studies on Fernão Lopes and the Crónica dos Cinco Reis de Portugal (Chronicle of the Five Kings of Portugal), supported in the analysis and publication of previously unpublished manuscripts in the Porto Public Library, advocating the enlargement of the textual corpus attributed to Fernão Lopes, including him on the Crónica Geral do Reino (General Chronicle of the Kingdom). In spite of certain reservations from Costa Pimpão regarding this hypothesis, it received a very significant reception from figures such as former colleagues in the teaching college, Hernâni Cidade and Torquato de Sousa Soares, as well as Jacinto do Prado Coelho and Lindley Cintra. On the death of fellow countryman and friend, Dr. Aarão de Lacerda, in 1947, he received an invitation to replace him as a voting member of the Centre for Humanistic Studies attached to the University of Porto, a scientific research institute and precursor in the resurgence of the present Faculty of Arts.
Magalhães Basto died in the Nevogilde parish of his hometown, on the morning of 3 June 1960, dividing his final years between civil service and the role of historian and promoter of Porto cultural life. At the time he was a Porto voting member of the National Academy of Fine Arts and a member of the Institute of Coimbra, Martins Sarmento Society, Association of Portuguese Archaeologists, and the Commercial Athenaeum of Porto. He had received the medal of merit from the Municipality of Porto and left a bibliography of about 159 titles, not counting entries in smaller journals, and was a contributor to the Revista de Estudos Históricos, A Águia, O Instituto, Stvdivm Generale, O Tripeiro, Revista de Guimarães and the Grande Enciclopédia Portuguesa e Brasileira, among others.
