It does not usually be lavished in large headlines. Nor is it one of those looking for the focus. But when José Luis Restán Speak, light the radars of the sector. The president of Average apsethe conglomerate that brings together COPE, PASS and other radio marks of weight, it has clearly spoiled clearly over the company’s direction in the New Communication Forum. And he has done it at a time of sweet boiling for the group … although leaving the great unknown that flies over the halls: will it continue Carlos Herrera?
On the podium, accompanied by the expectation reserved to those who do not usually appear, Restan wanted to mark territory with an unequivocal message: apse is not only fit, it is prepared to “play in the Champions of the radio ”, in his own words. And for that, he said, he has a“ team of first level communicators. ”Among the names, he has expressly mentioned Herrera, Cristina López Schlichtting or the newcomer Jorge Bustos. But not a word about the professional future of the flagship of the mornings. Neither renewal, no clues, nor calendar. Only mention, polite, but aseptic.
The omission has not gone unnoticed. Because while the president has brought breast with the “audience and billing records” that Abside has signed in 2024, and has presumed to have “a firm base for digital transformation”, silence on Herrera weighs. Especially when talking about the future of a chain whose spine remains the voice that opens the microphones at dawn.
The diagnosis, yes, is ambitious. Restan has assured that the radio lives “a golden age” and that his group will not only be left behind, but aspires to lead the media transformation in Spain. And he says it with data in hand: COPE starts 2025 with 3,415,000 daily listeners and apse exceeds 6.3 million daily listeners in total, according to the last EGM. To this is added the growth in the musical radio (Cadena 100, RockFM y MegaStar) and the thirteen settlement as “a television of values, commitment and faith” with three million daily spectators.
However, the most genuine moment of his speech came when he remembered the technical and emotional odyssey lived during the great blackout of April 28. “It was a bitter day,” he confessed, remembering how Cope managed to continue broadcasting while Media Spain was disconnected. “The radio emerged again as the essential means, the most reliable.”
He also referred to the role of the Artificial intelligence In the new stage: welcome, but with limits. Restan made it clear that AI cannot replace the journalistic criteria, and recalled that apse was the first group to write an ethical guide for use.
-The speech, impeccable in tone and background, left a clear ground: average apse is seriously. He wants to grow, influence and sustain his model with his own identity, well anchored in Christian values. He said it by evoking the brave impulse of bishops who in the 70s decided to bet on a generalist and non -confessional cope. “Today, these values are more necessary than ever,” he said.
COPE: silence about Carlos Herrera
As a brooch, he announced his imminent trip to Rome to cover his third papal conclave. “We are going to give everything in Cope and thirteen,” he promised. And meanwhile, in Madrid, the question continues to float in the air: what will happen to Carlos Herrera? Will the voice of the mornings on a radio remain to reinvent without losing your soul?
Restan did not say it. Maybe he thinks. Maybe he has already decided. But, for now, the most anticipated response is still unpaid.
And it is that silence about Herrera is not accidental. In an intervention of more than an hour not to reserve or thirty seconds to clear the most commented doubt in Cope’s halls, at least, revealing.
Carlos Herrera is in the minute of truth. His contract expires, the relief rumors are stirred and the question is not whether the radio wants him to continue, but if he wants to continue. Because, although they restore it, what is breathed in apse is that the group is already working in the future with or without it. With busts in the bedroom, with an increasingly editorial profile and less of a daily trench, and with the machinery prepared to assume a transition that – when it arrives – will have more emotional than structural.
Is there Herrera for a while? Probably, yes. But not eternally. And when I arrive, it will be an earthquake. Because if Herrera leaves, a announcer does not retire: an era says goodbye.
