- On Wednesdays at 20:00 hours, the Bertxoko radio programme (listening here to the programmes issued so far) and other broadcasters of the Arrosa Network are broadcast live on Hala Bedi Irratia radio. They work today with free humor and mixing dialects. The program is composed of five members who keep their identity anonymously, and one of those voices has revealed the mysteries of the program to us.
Irati Anda, Manex Agirre and Ruben Sánchez started to run the Bertxoko program every Wednesday in 2003. Since then, several members of the bertsolaris school in Vitoria-Gasteiz have led and presented the program, among others, Iñaki Viñaspre, Ekaiz Samaniego, Ander Solozabal... this year five young people are doing the program live: the veterans have been four or five years, and this year is the last signed member.
The secret is improvisation.
Every Wednesday they meet at 18:30 on Hala Bedi radio and prepare the program that will start at 20:00 live hours. "The program has a scheme and that makes it very easy for us to prepare. On the one hand, we make the news known, and on the other hand, we work humor. Today we analyze it in the bertsos sessions we put and we review the agenda and humor through special sections such as the Bertsografiak section (we end up in fiction from reality) or the Notiziak section (this is invented news)."
Performances between fumes?
Listeners can imagine them through the brumas created by the roasted herb and surrounded by beer cans by the author of the program. This voice, which wants to keep its identity secret, has acknowledged: "That's what we want to represent, but unfortunately we don't think we get to the level of our predecessors. If at first there was a lot of jungla on the radio and the Bertxoko program, now we don't approach those times as much as we want."
There's also a Bertxoko prize every year, in October-November.
The programme has been on the air for many years, and when it made a tour in 2007 they launched the Bertxoko Prize, whose history can be seen in more detail on the website of the Arabako Bertsozale Elkartea association. After the pause from 2013 to 2017, the organization of the event was resumed, which is aimed at young Alaveses, with the aim of giving opportunities to sing in the plaza. In recent editions expulsions have been held in gastronomic societies, and the final has been held in the bar Hala Bedi. The group that runs the Bertxoko program is in charge of organizing the event, and the expenses are financed by the Association of Friends of the Bertsolarism of Álava.