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On its 20th anniversary, radio used the motto “Twenty Years of Basque Heartbeat”. In the sense of being the Basque heartbeat of Bilbao, it would seem like a bilbainada, but, for example, Bilbao Hiria is the only radio that is currently broadcast entirely in Basque for the Greater Bilbao. Next Saturday, June 8, journalists and local collaborators will join the claim and the party on the street, in the Garden of Albia, to celebrate its 22nd anniversary and claim a radio license. These have been the conversations we have had with Ane Zabala and Jabi Zabala.

Journalist Jabi Zabala has been working for years on the communication of the association Zenbat Gara (Gabriel Aresti Euskaltegia, Kafe Antzokia, Bilbo Hiria Irratia, Algara Konpartsa…) and has a close relationship with Bilbo Hiria. He has asked us to explain to us the complicated issue of radio licences and has clearly explained to us: “There has been fraud.”

Bilbo Hiria was born in 1997 (based in San Vicente Street, in the Kafe Antzokia Buhardilla), “and it is a not-for-profit radio dedicated mainly to cultural and social issues,” says Zabala, let us put it in context before addressing the issue of licences. “It’s not a commercial radio, but a community radio, because it’s a concept that goes deep into that concept. In our opinion, it serves the Basque community of Bilbao, a positive contribution to bear in mind.”

The fact is that in 2012, the Basque Government announced a new distribution of radio licences that had been stagnating for years, with the PSE in the Basque Government. In 2006, the Spanish Government provided it with 34 licences in the CAV-6 for Bilbao-. And, as has been said, after six years without doing anything, in 2012 the Patxi López government came up with those licenses, and the contest bases were completed. “For this reason, both us and experts like Ramón Zallo, as well as many free and community radios denounce that the bases were not at all the size of the community and small radios,” he says, “but of the great and sovereign radios, preferring malevolently and maliciously commercial radios.”

Why is it conceivable? “Because you could tell incredible lies in order to get points in your favor (create x jobs, bill millions…), although in principle there is no way to prove that they are actually going to be carried out. Another aspect of the competition is that the empty projects were valued more than the accredited routes, which were preferred if they were of good appearance and promised many things, although then they had no foundation; a nonsense”. Precisely this, as we shall see later, is what Bilbo Hiria denounces, to which a radio station got the corresponding licence, as he announced that he was going to develop a project in Euskera.

In Bilbao, only two licences for radios in Basque

Of the 34 licenses of the CAV, 11 reservations were made for radios entirely in Euskera, “yes, we are a reserve, like the Indians”; the Basques have in principle the authorization of one third of the licenses, although it was also said that if the submitted projects did not reach sufficient points or had no viability they would also be awarded to the Castilanospeakers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The point is that of those 34, Bilbao had six licenses, and of those six, two for radios entirely in Basque. We had to make a frequency of the request by frequency, and we presented ourselves to four with a great deal of effort (a report, a cultural content and a programming, an economic viability, a technical project…) and, furthermore, with a guarantee of thousands of euros for each frequency!” – like Hala Bedi and many others. In any event, there were provisional awards, of which Bilbao Hiria did not obtain any. The following were approved in this order: Radio Maria, Radio 7, Cadena Dial and the last, Onda Vasca, bringing a resource and moving forward to Europe FM after the amendments in the puntets. “All in Spanish.”

According to Jabi Zabala, the awards generated many complaints, irregularities were also reported, “and to our surprise, in December 2012, in one of its latest decisions, the government of Patxi López suspends the competition, including the licenses granted provisionally”. In this last-minute withdrawal, the media that obtained the license – 17 of the 34 awarded – rightly awarded awards, “and they have been won in the courts one by one”. Thus, at the beginning of this year the Basque Government, seeing that they were contrary to the annulment of all the judgments, has given legitimacy to the contest held at the time, “with irregularities and with all injustices, avoiding a new assessment or serious contest”. And as this decision once again put Bilbao Hiria out of play, “we have become angry and denounced it.”

So what about the two licenses that the media had entirely in Basque in Bilbao? “The Bat Naiz radio has achieved it and it has achieved it… A project presented by the Chain Being”. How? “Yes, on behalf of the Dial Chain presented the project in Euskera. And does anyone believe that the Dial Chain, whose motto is 'all your music in Spanish', will make a full broadcast in Euskera? “All your music in Spanish”… This is a fraud!”

A fraud, says Zabala, “not only us, but the Basque listener. And now, we have complained, but the Basque Government tells us that it cannot do anything until it demonstrates that they do not comply with what they have commanded us, that is, that they have not been issued in Euskera.” Meanwhile, the Villa of Bilbao, which celebrates twenty-two years with a full broadcast in Basque, has been left without a license, with its future in the air.

Before Jabi Zabala was fired and took the leap to the celebrations, the journalist has also given us a final thought. “It is often said that we are what we eat, and in that sense, as far as radios are concerned, it is enough to take a walk through the Diale to know what we are colonized. I have previously considered the distribution of radio licences by the PSE to be nonsense, but, looking at the consequences, I do not know if it has not been the result sought.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

.Five hours of radio in the garden of Albia

We say goodbye to Jabi Zabala and we address the journalist Ane Zabala - no, they are not relatives or Josu Zabala, radio technician, to talk about the celebration of Saturday and make the radio known despite the licenses. At present he is the conductor of the cultural program Piperpolis the coordinator of the radio Villa de Bilbao.

“The Basque language is the protagonist of our radio and Basque culture. In this sense, we have several sessions, as well as monographic sessions that address social issues.” To give a few examples, ‘Hau seguro lurra’ works ecology and sexology ‘Plazera in your hands’.

“In recent years we have made a great effort to make the Villa de Bilbao an important city for the billiards and we have gone from neighborhood to neighborhood, we have made a special follow-up of the municipal elections… and a long and so on.”

The radio currently has a network of collaborators of about 40 people “more connected to the radio and coming from other areas” and produces a six-hour schedule “which is renewed every day”. Magacín Ibaizabal, linked to Bilbao -driven for two hours by Zabala in the morning; Zebrabidea, magazine of the radios of the Arrosa network, where he participates twice a week Bilbao Whit-; and many sessions of the collaborators, at night, from Monday to Friday. As a sample, few samples are cited: " Potto " (Erlantz Ibargurengoitia, bertsolaritza), " Off-field " (Eneko Olazabal and Xabier Landabidea, zinemaz), " Berbaz " (Eleder Aurtenetxea interviews), " Xerezaderen artxiboa " (Jasone Larrinaga and Larrinaga) Morales), and `Soinugela' (Pedro Elias Igartua, for music).

In addition, in recent years radio has also given voice to other minority languages: `Ireki gaiola´(galegoz) and `De mica en mica s´omple la pica´ (Catalan).

The list is long and the work done over many years is great. “It’s clear that after 22 years of FM we need a license, we should be natural, and there we have the challenge.”

 

 

 

 

And what about the celebration of Saturday? “We will celebrate the anniversary on the street, in the gardens of Albia. We've prepared a five-hour radio marathon with listeners, collaborators and friends, so they can live the radio live. Radio is a device that separates the body and the voice, but on Saturday they will be together, body and voice.”

They will take advantage of the marathon to talk about the anniversary of the radio, “we want to remind listeners that twenty-two years ago in Bilbao a radio was created entirely in Basque”, but there will also be more themes. “Bilbao will also be the protagonist, through a lot of bilbaínos; and once a month the program ‘Auzoz-auzo’, if we do it from the neighborhoods themselves, going to the periphery (Otxarkoaga, Rekalde, Abusu, Casco Viejo, Ribera de Deusto, Arangoiti… and we are missing! ), we will bring them to the center on Saturday. On the other hand, and at a given moment, we will talk about the media in Basque, about the deficiencies, the problems and the challenges we are experiencing…”. In addition, at the marathon, several collaborators will offer samples of their programs live, via the Internet.

The festival will be closed at the Kafe Antzokia with the performance of Onintza Enbeita and Amets Arzallus.