The transmission equipment and the broadcast tape of the night of the coup d’état of 23-F; the science fiction serial of the hero Diego Valor, transmitted between 1953 and 1958; the script of the last Hour 25 conducted by the legendary Carlos Llamas, before his death in 2007; the facsimile of the composition of the Blue Symphony; and a auca ―a kind of stamp/comic― from 1949 with several rhymes: “It will rain or it won’t rain, the radio will say it.” This is the cultural legacy that Cadena SER has deposited this Thursday morning, within the framework of its centenary, in site 1,182 of the Caja de las Letras of the Instituto Cervantes. The space is an old vault from a century ago that keeps in almost 1,800 boxes objects related to science, arts and letters, donated by illustrious figures of Hispanic culture.
“In this vault is the memory of Weekly reportfrom the EFE agency or from Iñaki Gabilondo. As well as the legacy of García Márquez or Miguel Delibes, who never separated journalistic training from culture,” said Luis García Montero at the event on Thursday morning. The event was a tribute to the Sociedad Española de Radiodimisión, which began in 1924 as Radio Barcelona, the first authorized radio station in Spain, which arrived in Madrid the following year and has been called Cadena SER since 1940. “A century ago, for the first time a person could know beyond their surroundings and it was not necessary to have high purchasing power or live in the big cities to access culture,” said Jaume Serra, director of the centenary celebrations and delegate of Prisa Media in Catalonia, while recalling how in those early years an agreement was signed to broadcast opera over the airwaves.
Along with Serra and García Montero, Montserrat Domínguez, director of content at SER, was at the event; Javier del Pino, program director To live that is two days; and Ignacio Soto, the chain’s general manager, who signed the deposit agreement with the director of Cervantes. “The fact that more than three million people start the day with the same voices represents a link between a community, a society and a culture,” said the latter.
After the ceremony, Domínguez and del Pino were joined at a round table by the news anchor Day by dayAngels Barceló, and the one from Hour 25Aimar Bretos. They discussed the relationship between the public and the radio journalist, the transmission of culture through the microphone and the first experiences that led them to SER. All of this was always influenced by the figure of Carlos Llamas, a sharp and dedicated director who consolidated Hour 25 as one of the most influential radio programs in Spanish society, and of whom, in addition to his last script at the head of the news program, a set of memories and writings recovered by Miguel Ángel Muñoz were deposited in the Caja de las Letras.
“It has sarcasm, movie quotes, skepticism, it’s Carlos in his purest form. He allowed listeners to think that any of them was in charge of Hour 25″Del Pinar highlighted about his colleague, who died in 2007 at the age of 53 from esophageal cancer. Months ago he notified his audience of his illness and returned for one last delivery. The archive of his memories rescues the messages from an audience forum when it was learned that he was going to return: “It is not edited and does not have a single hater”.
“All of us who have been through Hour 25somehow we know that we are driving Llamas’ car. It is his imprint,” Bretos added. Montserrat Domínguez added that to attract new audiences a “radio personality” like Llamas is necessary with “his own language, perspective, different angles to approach the news, forms of expression.” Barceló was not left out of the praise and recalled when she had to take over the program after his death: “For me it was terrifying because I was going to replace someone with an unquestionable personality.”
You can follow EL PAÍS Television on x or sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
