The University of Barcelona commemorates 100 years of radio in Catalonia with a conversation between Jordi Basté and Mònica Terribas

The conversation will revolve around radio’s ability to adapt to the changes and revolutions of the last century, mainly with the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting. Radio is the traditional media that has best survived the emergence of new technologies, as it has taken advantage of the opportunities offered by social networks and new formats, such as podcasts. Radio is always there, whether at home, in the street or at work, and it is also the fastest to offer rigorous and contrasted information.

Immediacy and proximity are two values that were highlighted as never before during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Radio played a fundamental public service role, especially during the first months, the hardest, due to the collective concern about a virus that brought everything to a halt, with the numbers of victims and those affected absolutely skyrocketing, and with weeks of total confinement for the population as a whole. The Paranymph Hall of the Faculty of Medicine (Clinic Campus), is a setting with a special significance, as the public health professionals were — together with the voices of the radio — the great stars of that difficult time. It was an episode with months of uninterrupted broadcasts, in which the voices of the radio made great efforts to always be there and to offer the audience the doses of information, comfort and accompaniment that such an exceptional moment required. Basté and Terribas experienced the pandemic from the front line, with the responsibility of addressing thousands of listeners every day who were looking for answers and certainty.

However, radio is also humour, joy, play, sports and entertainment. Catalonia is a radio country, with hundreds of local radio stations spread throughout the territory, and with a loyal audience that, year after year, consolidates radio in Catalan as a collective identity trait.