Erratzu, radio emerged in his village in 1981. How do you remember it?
It was a great event for us, for the local kids. The founders were youths from a crew of Erratzu and other towns who wanted to do something in Basque. Here we spoke in Basque, often in a rural environment and in small towns, but in Elizondo, for a errata, Castilian predominated. And besides, the Basque country was not well seen. They said some contempt. They wanted to give a certain boost to the Basque Country and achieve the exaltation that it needed. They were courageous in this regard. They took a trip to this former Yugoslavia and they came up with the idea.

In the 1980s, it was a free-radios boom. They contacted some broadcasters in Pamplona and others in Iparralde, and they brought the first broadcaster from Bordeaux, under the border of Izpegi. That's how radio emerged on the first floor of the Erratzu school. Down there was school, but up there were empty rooms and they asked for permission to access it. After the time and because they didn't answer them, they decided to enter St. Joseph's Day. They did so, but not through the door, but through a window. In the middle of the highs, the famous song Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, by The Beatles, subsequently became a certain hymn. All of this was very spectacular for us.

Did it start like a free radio?
Yes and for several years they were in the same way, but over time they saw the need to give the project some strength. The first step was the search for informants in the villages of the area. At first, they got into almost every day, then every two days and every week in the sand, as we do now. And they also saw that to keep it going, you had to hire someone. First they picked up the arizkundarra Nekane Mint and then others passed over there. At that first time, Mari Karmen joined Irungarai, a colleague who continues in the current work team.

Have you visited several residences, no?It's been a very itinerant radio
ever since. They had to leave Erratzu school because a teacher protested. They worked elsewhere in the town until in 1985 they moved to the Fortenea Hostel in Elizondo. The sessions were held in the accommodation itself. It created a very peculiar environment. Some young people were going to put music. The radio gave vitality to the accommodation and vice versa. That's how it went until the Civil Guard came in and closed the radio.

From there, the radio was transferred to another basera of Elizondo and later to Irurita. In one of his houses he spent seven years. And then he came back to Elizondo. In the late 1980s, they presented to the competition for the distribution of radio licenses, but they left Xorroxin without effect, which was not certain that it was economically viable. There were
great movilizaciones.Con times proved who actually had economic and other capacity. Xorroxin advances and the other station that got the license from the county stopped quickly along the way. Surely they would have had other reasons for granting the licence and not to us.

And when did the permission come?
In 1998 we got a license to issue in Lesaka. There we opened the new study with the collaboration of the city council, but the headquarters was still in Elizondo.

Thanks to the authorisation, we were given the opportunity to apply for grants. On the other hand, having traveled to Elizondo schools and other places, we saw the need to find a fixed place and so in 2007 we acquired the current headquarters. And soon after, in 2013, we got the licenses to issue at Baztan and Bera.

How many of you are in the team?
Now we're six people. Elizondo bortz, Mari Karmen Irungarai, Fernando Anbustegi, Marian Iñerra, Nerea Altzuri and myself, and Julen Zelaieta in Lesaka.

How did you get to Xorroxin?
I didn't participate in my foundation because I was about 15 years old, but I witnessed it. In addition, at that age everything moves in and around everything I lived. Then, at the age of 19 and 20, at the Forten, we put the discs that we liked the most.

As money was needed in the march to buy things and hire someone, at the parties a txozna was put in place to get money and there we were also helping. At that time there were more people engaged in village celebrations very easily than in recent years and money was being taken out. Since 1985 we started to perform concerts in Erratzu in favour of Xorroxin, with great success. See The cock, Barrikada, Hertzainak, Zarama, Itoiz... in a town of 500 inhabitants was terrible.

I was told one day that they needed someone in the afternoon to do a youth session. I didn't see myself, because that requires a special skill, and I've never had. It was hard for me to accept it, but I was encouraging each other to do so, and although I was rather tight at first, since 1992 I have been working here.

How is your programming?The way
of organizing has always been similar to that of a free radio. From the beginning everything was done by volunteers and then professionals were hired, but the ways of working are similar. Today, for a errata, we are still in no direction. We all participate in the meetings and we all make the decisions. Sometimes it can be harder, but that forces us all to be inside and to have more participation.

As far as programming is concerned, we are continuing with the basis set out three decades ago. There are things that have changed, but it's basically similar. In the morning we do a session from 8:30 to 14:00, Xorrotx and fine. The return of village to village remains the backbone. We have 35 localities in the region and about five enter each day. In small villages, it's harder to find informers, but we have a pretty strong network. In the Water and Earth section we talk about agriculture, the Market is also successful and attracts people. In addition, we conducted interviews on current topics, agenda, etc.

We tried to give priority to the region, but we tried to work in our own way those topics of interest at the level of the Basque Country.

What are your challenges for the future?
How to attract today’s youth. Sometimes we're told that radio can be a thing of people of an age and we're getting harder and harder to reach young people, or that's what we believe. You can't tell.

Since 2015 we have also worked as a network with the Ttipi-ttapa magazine www.erran.eus. The two media outlets in the region work together and our structure is very interesting because it allows us to offer our interviews individually so that people can take care of them whenever they want. Young people tend more to that.

In Arrosa Irrati Sarean and in Tokikom, we are also in the space of local media in Basque because for us collaboration is very important.

Your program is Karakola segi hi, is it a classic?
I started with this and I go on. We alternated music and interviews. We do it from 19:00 to 20:30 from Monday to Friday.

In addition, Thursdays perform a music session at the Crossing, and Julen Zelaieta takes a tour of Bertsoka Bertsoka. On Wednesdays we also broadcast the Klak program, which some young people do on the Rosa network.
It is a programme carried out by young people themselves and which we are interested in because it will be easier for them to reach young people.

The rest of the music hours?
There's also a lot of work on it. José Miguel Barberena Xumuxu, one of the founders of Xorroxin, has a huge collection and that is what we are testing. In the voice of Fernando Anbustegi we make several sections with different musical styles and people like them.

Play a particular regional list?
Yes. 24 hours a day.

Do you have partners?
Yes. Due to the crisis of 2008, the Government of Navarra introduced the knife and removed the item for the media in Basque in the subsidies that were already being reduced. Things crashed and we had to look for other sources of income to get them through. Among them, the Behi Kaka competition. We marked the side candle by boxes and sold a ticket by box. In Belaia three cows circulated, each on their turn, for about 20 minutes and where they were doing the shit, to whom the number of that box corresponded the prize. It was successful for years and we took some money.

At the same time, we launched a radio campaign involving some 400 partners. Advertising has been a very important source of income ever since, and the response has been pretty good also this year of pandemic. We are happy with that. This shows that people listen to the radio and see that advertisers also serve to defend their interests. They perceive that through ads, their messages reach people, and that's very good.

In addition, we received public subsidies from the Mancommunities of Malerreka and Cinco Villas, the City of Baztan and the Government of Navarra. In the past we also picked up those of the Basque Government.

What have you achieved in these 40 years?
To be a referent. For 40 years working only in Euskera, we have shown that here you can live in Euskera. There is a world around and it is strong in our region. In this sense, Xorroxin has been the meeting point of many resourcefulness, and I believe that is its greatest merit. The creators of the radio thought the safest.

According to the measurement made by the Basque Government in 2015, Xorroxin Irratia had a population of 22,500 inhabitants of 6,680 listeners, it is the radio in Euskera with the highest percentage of potential and real audience in Euskal Herria.

How is the Basque country now in this region?The
respiratory areas are the towns of the area, but we know the strength of Spanish and French, and although they are respiratory areas, they are found everywhere. I have my studies in Spanish, and it is not easy for them to be completely Basque, but in Elizondo you hear more Basque than in my youth and also in small towns. Now in school children learn Basque and at home they also have Basque relatives, and that is something important, but that conflict is always going to be.

What kind of xorroxin language do you use?
Local dialects have strength. On the radio we do a kind of confusion. For some here it will not be our pure dialect, but the unified one is not pure either. The important thing is to speak in Basque. Our clear references are from our environment and we have tried to assimilate these forms of speech, even if they are not the same as those of previous generations. We want the listener to feel comfortable with the way to speak, like at home. That is fundamental. At least that is what we are trying to do. The work of radio seems simple, but it has its essence.

What do you like the most?
Do interviews, maybe. And people's complicity with radio. This, above all, makes Xorroxin like this. Community work in both the field of speech and technology. In these mountain areas, technology has been a very difficult task, and some have been working on it for years, such as the retired Antero Etxandi. If it had not been the work of these people, it would be impossible to do so.

And at least? With the new
technologies, I don't get over and I'm a little ruthless. With this a lot of work!