How do you assess the exclusion of Tas-Tas from frequency licensing distribution?

The Rating Board informs the selected broadcasters that they have been selected to produce the necessary documentation, with the Governing Council approving the frequency allocation. The decision is therefore not yet official, but it can be definitively taken and it is clear to us that we have been left out, because nothing has been communicated to us. The assessment is negative, because we believe we have the right to be on the dial, because the public and limited space is the one that has to be distributed with the greatest possible plurality and diversity, in formats, management and models, but it is not: there are three main sectors, the public, which has its space and is not presented to the competition; the commercial, which has been granted 100% of the licenses that have been distributed in the previous contests; and the community, with the licenses. Therefore, it would be logical for this competition to take precedence over what is not on the dial, what we are community radios and what is local, but it has not been taken into account that it is not Community or local.

It is precisely the radio stations with headquarters in Madrid that have obtained the most licences, such as the SER channels, in the case of bilingual radios.

Yes, they have clung to the traditional scheme, they continue to drive the existing model: the commercial radios that are made from Madrid and in Spanish currently have 85-90% of the licenses. The final decision maintains a radio map that has nothing to do with social reality or with the needs that this country has.

To what extent does this distribution of licences affect? Are you going to set the radio map for the next few years or can you go back?

Well, to say that things are forever is a lot to say, but if frequencies are separated by a legal government, at least in the beginning that wouldn't have been going backwards, unless resources are presented to change the situation, for example, to cancel the competition. This possibility must not be ruled out, because in the situation in which we find the resources would be resolved by the new government, and the new government may not agree with the licensing process that has been followed. But if it is not left worthless, it would define the picture for the coming years, the licences are distributed over a period of fifteen years – automatically renewable, if no other frequency planning is available – and no new frequency planning is foreseen. On the other hand, I do not know to what extent the government that is in office at the gates of the elections can have legitimacy to make such a decision. It may have legal capacity, but ethically it is not appropriate for this competition, which was launched in 2006, to be decided and hastily violated, because they have to lose power.

Furthermore, the legal report prepared by the Department of Culture at its own request last February, which indicated that the decree had many shortcomings and legal shortcomings, has not been taken into account.

Indeed, everything has been done in a hurry and it seems to be thought. The frequencies that the previous government launched for competition in 2006, was dedicated to producing the decree, but did not have time, this government has done nothing until the end, last year has presented and approved the draft decree, and this year the competition has been convened, giving a period of one month to submit projects. And now you want to solve everything. Everything has gone very fast, because they do not want to leave the decision in the hands of the next government. What is more, as you say, you have ignored the report drawn up by the legal services of the Basque Government itself, because according to the report the bases are wrong and advise against going ahead.

Various media from the free radio network Arrosa have criticised the criteria of the licensing decree. First, they reported that few licences have been distributed for radios entirely in Basque (11 out of 34 frequencies).

If 80-90% of the current radio licenses in the CAV are in Spanish, logically this new option to distribute frequencies should go to balance it and at least half of the licenses should be for radio stations entirely in Basque. In addition, the decree has not taken into account the socio-linguistic reality, has made the decision according to the number of frequencies in each area and, for example, in Beasain, with a single frequency license, no radio licence has been retained entirely in Basque, although in the area it is mainly spoken in Basque.

In the case of bilingual radios, the use of the Basque language has hardly been taken into account.

Indeed, a maximum of 10 points could be obtained over a maximum of 200 and we have 10, since 60% of our project is in Basque and 40% in Spanish. However, in addition to evaluating the Basque country little, the disproportion evidenced by the decree is large: the radio that takes place from Madrid, it is almost enough to say “good morning” and “goodbye” in local disconnections and the rest in Spanish to meet the minimum requirement that 5% of the programming be in Basque. With this, the radio already gets 5 points, while the speaker Euskera 90% gets 10 points. This measure rewards the radii from the outside. The same with programming: the existence of local programming has been very little valued, so there are hardly any differences between the local and the outside radio that refers to local information.

The fact that it is a Community radio has not scored either. Why should this be taken into account?

First of all, if there are three sectors in the communication, the public, the commercial and the Community, which are internationally recognised, should have room for all three. But also, if we talk about the service and the public function that radio has, the main objective of commercial radios is to do business, profitability; public radio should be a public service, but we see that at every moment they are subordinate to the interests of those in power, and therefore the sector that can fulfil this mission is Community: it is not for profit and promotes free citizen participation, because communication is a universal right and because it is not a citizen or a mere consumer. On the contrary, it is being privatized with these kinds of decisions, denying the participation of citizens in the public space.

In addition, the decree does not value the experience of radio, the work that has been done for years in a given area.

All the projects presented have been presented from scratch, but there is everything, some we have been 20 years, others 10, 30… and there are those who have arrived badly and quickly in the last hour, without making any variety and contribution to the dial.

They have complained that they have asked in the short term for great economic guarantees, in favour of the larger, more resourceful corporations.

I'll explain it to you with an example. In Bilbao six frequencies have been distributed, two out of 8,000 watts and four out of 4,000; if a radio wants to present it to 4,000, it would be logical to present a project to get one of those four frequencies, but no, we have been forced to present a project (the same project) for each of the frequencies and, therefore, we have had to put a lot of money into it. We are presenting ourselves for ten frequencies, the six in Bilbao and the four in Getxo, which has demanded a guarantee of EUR 64,000. For us that is terrible, almost an annual budget, but for a chain like the SER is a catchphrase. These savage economic guarantees have prevented many small radios from appearing and have left out many projects. We have achieved the money thanks to the support of the people, we call on the people to leave us the money and we have had an impressive response. It has been terrible to see that people trust us and are prepared to give money in these times of crisis. We've won it, because seeing that society wants this radio gives us strength and legitimacy to move forward, beyond the license.

Given the current panorama of the Dial, what is the solution?

An analysis of the dial should be made based on the communication needs of the people. We miss the Basque Law on Audiovisual Communication, because until now only a decree has been made and a law can bring the participation and debate of the citizens, at least of the parliamentary political parties, because the decree is directly approved by the government.

And what else? Are they going to resort? Will you be able to suffer the legal consequences of continuing to work without a license?

We, surely, and when we look at the final decisions, when we see why some have been elected and why not others, we will present an appeal. It is clear to us that we are not going to settle and that we will do all we can to ensure that this competition, which we do not see fit, is suspended. On the other hand, issuing without a licence is an administrative offence, on which the sword of Damocles will weigh, but if it has not been regularised so far, I do not believe that it will be done now, let alone when there is a change of government. I think you'll let the dial regulate on your own, and that's a problem, because it will become the law of the jungle: the strongest will survive and the weakest will disappear. Not all of us enter, for example, in Bilbao the dial is saturated, some hinder others and in the end the strongest will tread the weakest, putting a frequency of more power, for example. Small ones do not have great economic resources, but we will have to prove that we have other strengths, such as social protection.