Abstract
The Spanish Civil War ended with the imposition of a dictatorship (1939–75). During those years, Spanish was the only official language throughout Spain. However, in the 1960s the Basque language (spoken in the Basque Country, between Spain and France) would enter into the sphere of public communication thanks to the new rising media. Nevertheless, the Basque language was still generally viewed as a poor and marginal language. This article’s main object of study is the Popular Radio of Loyola, located in the province of Gipuzkoa. This radio station was the first general-service broadcasting medium using the Basque language, and the precursor of the modern Basque Radio and Television Corporation (EITB).
Object of study and research goals
From 1960 onwards, through what is called the industrial take-off of Spain during the second period of Franco’s dictatorship, a movement supporting the formation of Basque-language schools began to take shape, always in clandestine meetings. It must be taken into account that from the 1960s to the 1980s, the Basque-speaking communities were denied positive linguistic rights, that is, ‘the right to use one’s language in the public space, to be educated in the language, to deal with the state in the language, etc.’ (Wright, 2007). Yet, throughout that period, Basque journalists searched for a way to standardize Basque so that it would be mutually intelligible to Basque-speaking radio listeners. There are many dialects of the Basque language or Euskara, all of them spoken in different areas. 1 Accordingly, until 1968 it was difficult for Basques to communicate with each other verbally or in writing. However, in that year, members of the Royal Academy of the Basque Language, created in 1919, met in the Aránzazu Convent and established a unified written version of the Basque language called Standard Basque (Euskara Batua).
The aim of this study is to find out how Popular Radio of Loyola (PRL; Loiolako Herri Irratia/Radio Popular de Loyola) was established during Franco’s dictatorship, identifying the trajectory of those professionals who shaped the philosophy of this radio throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Moreover, a general view on the status of Basque-language radio stations in the Spanish Basque Country (the provinces of Biscay, Gipuzkoa, Álaba and Navarre) will be offered. It is interesting to note that PRL has achieved a mythic status among Bascophiles, as the general belief is that this radio station used Basque exclusively, whereas many of the programmes were also in Spanish. PRL was about to celebrate its 50th anniversary when, on 4 May 2010, its new owners, the media group Grupo Noticias, 2 decided to close down the station and stop the broadcasts.
There are four important reasons why this study should be carried out:
In the 1960s, PRL decided to use both Euskara and Spanish in its broadcasts. The real difference between PRL and other radio stations which were also using Basque by this time was that PRL gave Basque a utility that went beyond the folk level.
Journalists working at PRL during its first decade attempted to develop new radio models in order to advance the language use from the basic level (principally involving music and religious services) to a more complex level better adapted to the radio, producing varied content in Euskara such as reports, local news and interviews. PRL served as a role model for other Basque-language radio stations that would emerge in the democratic era.
This station was the first of its time to obtain financing from its listeners. The station garnered 5000 shareholders who were willing to pay a monthly fee of 25 pesetas (approximately €30 in today’s money) to keep the station broadcasting.
PRL and its counterpart, the Popular Radio of San Sebastian, were the basis for the formation of the first entirely Basque radio station in 1982 (see Iztueta, 1985).
The establishment of this radio station hastened the creation of an entirely Basque-speaking radio station, Euskadi Irratia, in the democratic era, belonging to the Basque public communication group EITB (Euskal Irrati Telebista/Basque Radio and Television Corporation).
Shaping national identity: the political revival of Basque language
Since 1851, Basque-language cultural festivals have flourished in the Basque Country of France, but in the Spanish Basque Country, Basque representative institutions were removed in 1877. However, at the same time there was a Basque language and cultural renaissance in the urban areas of the Spanish Basque Country, a region that underwent a successful economic modernization process. At the end of the 19th century the Basque nationalist political movement began in Bilbao, the referential urban locality. The aim of Basque nationalists was to achieve the devolution of political institutions (Agirreazkuenaga, 1994). In the first decades of the 20th century, Basque nationalism was popular principally in the territories of Biscay and Gipuzkoa, the most industrialized provinces. In 1936 the Basque language became official for a mere nine months after the Basque Autonomous Government was established under democratic principles. In 1937, however, Bilbao fell to Franco’s troops and the Basque language was repressed for the next 40 years. In 1982 the Basque Parliament passed legislation which established the official status of the Basque language.
Nowadays, the media landscape is very different from that of the 1970s and 1980s as there is more than one exclusively Basque-language radio station. 3 There is one main station, however, Euskadi Irratia, which belongs to the Basque Radio and Television Public Corporation (EITB), and which has both the highest number of listeners and the largest volume of broadcasts for the entire Basque-language territory.
It has been widely accepted that language is one of the central elements of national identity (Edwards, 2009; Fishman, 1989). It is also true that language is one of the main resources when constructing and reproducing an identity (Sheyholislami, 2010). National identities exist and are mediated by a discourse that is produced in a community’s language. It is vital to highlight the importance of language to identity, as it is through language that we discuss and share our identity with others (Clément et al., 2005). Likewise, the media happen to be an indispensable tool to empower the public recognition of a language employed by its community (Fisk and Hartley, 2003). However, in order to achieve an impact through the media the language in question needs to be adapted to the specific rules of journalism, a process that shows deficiencies in some of the European minority-language media (Zabaleta et al., 2008).
The PRL created radio production and consumption habits. The latter are highly important: by the time democracy came to Spain (in 1979), Basques were used to hearing their native language through a mass medium. As a result, once the Basque Parliament was created in 1980, the first entirely Basque-language medium emerged only two years later. Accordingly, we agree with the claim that media consumption is at the heart of identity construction (Bly, 1996; Kellner, 1995; Kroker and Cook, 1988; Willis, 1990).
Basque-language radio stations
The first Basque low-powered (200-watt) radio station was called Radio Club Vizcaya (Garitaonaindia, 1986; see also Díaz Noci, 1991), and was established in Bilbao in June 1924. In July 1936, the Spanish Civil War broke out, and in 1940 Franco imposed a totalitarian state which lasted until 1975. Franco’s regime benefited from the unconditional support of the Spanish Catholic Church. The repression was very harsh and even after the war the executions and exiles continued.
Between 1962 and 1965, the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, or Vatican II, was held, freeing marginalized languages such as Basque to be used in public under the rules of the Catholic Church. The Pacem in Terris encyclical of Pope John XXIII ‘improved the human conditions of the members of minority groups, especially in what concerns their language, culture, ancient traditions, and their economic activity and enterprise’. 4 This event became a reference point for improving the place of the Basque language in society.
COPE radio company was created in 1956 under the protection of the Spanish Catholic Episcopal Committee of Film, Radio and Television. In 1959 the Popular Radio of Bilbao produced only one weekly programme in Basque language. San Sebastian’s Popular Radio was established in 1962 and first directed by the priest Félix Monedero (interview with Arteaga, 2010); it used the Basque language for 25 minutes per week.
Methodology: the use of unpublished sources
PRL’s sound (tapes) and writing (scripts) archive is currently in the process of being digitalized, so we only had access to some parts of the documentation. Given that, we decided to create new information sources from the testimonies of the station’s main personalities. A qualitative methodology has been applied, employing the kind of in-depth interviews commonly used in oral history (Howarth, 1999; Oral History Association, n.d.).
The oral history interview method has also been used to study Basque-language radio broadcasting . This has uncovered new, unpublished sources not found in any documentation centre before.
In the same way, methods derived from ethnography (Murchison, 2010) have also been used, especially when designing strategies to help create original sources. Overall, we studied the first 15 years of PRL’s radio broadcasting, which was an integral part of the promotion and reconstruction of the Basque language. Some of the interviews were conducted with the early PRL journalists: Ignazio Arregi, Joxemari Iriondo, Karmelo Otaegi, Pilartxin Forcada, Mari Karmen Garaizabal, Itziar Sagarzazu and Jose Mari Otermin. In addition to oral sources, other types of data found in archives or other written sources have also been used.
Results: the first radio school in a Basque language
The early years of PRL (1961–76) were decisive in keeping PRL on the air for nearly 50 years. This stage is divided into two periods. The first lasted for four years, from 1961 to 1965, starting the year of its first broadcast and ending with the closing of the station.
What we call the second period began in July 1966, with the re-launch of the radio station, and lasted until 1976, when the project ‘24 hours in Basque’ was organized. This was the first time a radio station broadcast 24 uninterrupted hours in the Basque language, as well as the first mass public event that confirmed that the Basque language had a place in modern life (Agirreakuenaga, 2009).
Principal characteristics of PRL in its early period
Note: * EOP (Emisora de Ondas Populares) is the acronym that identifies the ‘Popular Radio’ stations. After May 1963 this changed to EAK (Albillo and Sánchez, 1995; Gutierrez, 2002).
The feature that distinguished PRL from other stations was that it produced varied content instead of exclusively musical programmes (Arregi, 1979).
PRL wanted to produce a radio station that would respond to the needs of contemporary listeners and address their uncertainties, and even though they began doing it in Spanish it was not long before they took the risk of broadcasting in Basque. Taking this initiative helped to increase the station’s public appeal.
The establishment of the first general-service Basque-language radio station
When the Jesuits acquired the broadcasting licence from the Spanish Episcopal Committee of Film, Radio and Television on 17 December 1960, the bishop of San Sebastian accepted a decree that allowed the installation of PRL in its diocese. On 11 February 1961, the station broadcast its first words using a 300-watt-powered transmitter. Five months later, on St Ignacio’s day (30 July), the station was officially inaugurated and blessed. It should be mentioned that the people of the 1960s were different from today’s public, who have a much wider understanding of the media. Thus, it is difficult to say what the Jesuits’ precise objectives were when they created the radio station, ‘since a strong communication culture that would help to predetermine the direction of a radio station had not yet been developed’ (interview with Arregi, 2010). Overall, however, the initial aim was to establish a station that would expand the work of the Sanctuary within the region.
The station’s first general director, a Jesuit priest, decided to hire a professional who was a journalist outside the Basque region. He also wanted local people who would be able to speak Spanish perfectly but also were Basques, since the surrounding society was Basque.
The main geographical areas where the broadcasts were received were the Urola coast (where the radio station was located), the district of Goierri and the low and high parts of Deba. The district of Urola has eleven municipalities and in 1970, 67% of the people who lived there were Basque-speaking citizens (Siadeco, 1977).
PRL journalists: educated professionals
In February 1962, the Jesuit priest Juan Lekuona, a devotee of the Basque region and the Basque language, was appointed director. Lekuona worked to preserve the religious aims of the station and nurtured the ambition of reinforcing Basque identity and the use of the Basque language. The focal purpose was to produce a good programme that would consider the needs of its listeners and adapt to their conception of reality.
During the first 15 years, PRL ensured that there were highly educated people in the field of journalism among its personnel. In 1966, a Jesuit already involved in the media, Arregi, joined the PRL staff. After acquiring a degree in theology, he had gone on to study Radio and Television at the University Sacro Cuore in Milan (Italy). He was the programming director of the radio station and afterwards he became the first coordinator of the Basque Public Communication Group radio stations. From 1986 to 2006 he was the most senior employee for Radio Vatican’s central information services.
It is interesting to note that the other journalists hired by PRL were also highly educated for that time. Otaegi studied philosophy and literature at the Pontificia Javeriana University in Bogotá. Otermin studied theology at the University of Deusto (Bilbao) and was completing a two-year degree in journalism in Madrid when he began working at PRL. Iriondo and Sagarzazu obtained Bachelor’s degrees and Iriondo completed studies in business administration as well. All of these people had achieved a significant educational level, taking into account the social situation in the 1960s. Thus, it can be seen that from the very beginning PRL made a special effort to recruit educated people.
This may be a reflection of the Jesuit policy of encouraging and promoting education and higher learning.
Of all the PRL staff, Arregi and Iriondo were especially influential and effective. Arregi directed all programmes produced on the radio and created some of them as well, including a programme called ‘Orf’s Musical Education System’ for which he won the Ondas Award 5 in 1968, the first Ondas to be awarded to a radio programme produced in the Basque Country. The theoretical knowledge he had about radio, coupled with the ability to speak and write well in Basque and Spanish, made him a role model in development and broadcasting. The fact that he could write and speak correct Basque should be highlighted; although Basque was the mother tongue of thousands of Basques, at a time when the Basque language was not freely used or taught and no standardized form existed, it was extremely difficult to find someone literate in Basque. As one journalist stated, ‘Arregi was on par with the best at that time’ (interview with Otermin, 2010); ‘No one taught us what to say or how to say it until Ignazio Arregi came along’ (interview with Otaegi, 2009).
Iriondo also had an excellent knowledge of Basque. When he entered PRL, he took a personal decision to produce all his programmes in Basque (Iriondo, 2003). He subsequently worked hard to adapt the language to the radio. Taking into account that people literate in Basque were a minority at that time (in 1975 only 20% of those who could speak Basque also knew how to write it (Siadeco, 1977)), Iriondo’s contribution was essential in order to offer Basque language programmes at PRL.
The general programming included many contributions by collaborators from different districts. The station had contributors in the urban areas of Gipuzkoa and Biscay provinces (Bergara, Arrasate, Azkoitia, Legazpi, Eibar, Elgoibar, Markina and Durango). The ambition was to reach audiences located in large towns.
Programming and production
During the first four years (1961–65), radio broadcasting began at 9 a.m. with the broadcast of the Angelus and the Mass. At 10:30 a.m., Itziar Sagarzazu had a programme exclusively for women called Her Destination (despite the title, the programme was not directed towards a feminist audience but rather towards traditional homemakers). The other morning programmes were musical ones, such as Rhythms for Today and Forever and Morning Orchestra. The 4:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. broadcast session was also musical; it was called ‘YOU Make the Program’, with the audience producing the programme by phoning in with their own requests. In the afternoon, there was dance music in the programme called ‘Dancing Rhythms’ and after that, ‘Men on Stage’. For the latter, the Jesuits adapted a well-known novel of that time to a radio-drama format, producing an interpretation performed by the radio journalists.
The programmes cited were created in Spanish, and although during those years the censorship of every Basque-language production was harsh, the producers managed to generate programmes such as Man and Wife, the daily life of a marriage represented in a situation comedy. Another programme produced in Basque was Sowing the Seed. Broadcast at 7.30 p.m., the programme was designed for people living in rural areas and it started with news related to agricultural markets. To finish, the announcer would read listeners’ questions and problems over the air and answer them.
PRL’s consolidation period
In July 1965 PRL was temporarily closed owing to the order that forced all the stations in Spain broadcasting in MF (medium frequency) to create another station broadcasting in frequency modulation (FM). On 30 July 1966 the station began to broadcast in FM, transferring the studio to a larger space in the basement of the Sanctuary. This helped the station offer uninterrupted and more complete programming.
The morning schedule had a great religious significance. ‘We spent half an hour reading listeners’ requests for the rosary,’ Arregi reported. PRL’s journalists used to visit convents and parishes to record backing vocals; ‘that also helped us to enrich the liturgy with new or unknown songs’ (interview with Arregi, 2010). Morning Prayer, Holy Mass and Happy in Misfortune were programmes which targeted mature listeners. After that, the programme Radiorama had a section called ‘Record album’, which featured Italian, French, Spanish, Russian and American music. The morning programmes for women, such as A Woman Talks to You, Home’s Antenna and Her Destination, were still on the air. There were also programmes with Spanish titles but Basque content, as the scripts have shown; for example Radio Sport and This Is My Land. In those programmes they covered street theatre, different competitions for children, poetry contests, news about the Royal Academy of the Basque Language, as well as the meals organized by bertsolariak (Basque improviser poets).
One of the station’s chief programmes was Local View. For this programme, produced in Basque and Spanish, journalists would leave the studio to collect news from villages, towns and neighbourhoods. Fern Fragance was an exclusively Basque-language music programme. From Corner to Corner informed listeners about the conditions of different agricultural markets. Later, it included the Man and Wife programme, and made observations on curiosities of the Basque region. The last section was called ‘Learning Basque’, to which listeners used to send their questions about the correct use of Basque to be answered on air. Finally, there were Always Partying and Kitchen Atmosphere, two of the station’s characteristic Basque-language programmes. While news programmes were created by compiling information found in villages or sent by listeners, in speech-based programmes like the latter ones, Basque monthly magazines such as Argia and Anaitasuna were commonly used. On the whole, the radio’s programming became stronger and more confident in this second period.
The starting point of a new era: ‘24 Hours in Basque’
On 27 March 1976, the project ‘24 hours in Basque’ (‘24 Orduak Euskaraz’) was jointly organized by PRL and San Sebastian’s Popular Radio. This was the first time that a radio broadcast for 24 uninterrupted hours in the Basque language. During the programme, various issues mainly concerning the future of Basque media and education were discussed, and for the first time a meeting of the Royal Academy of the Basque Language was broadcast live (interview with Beloki, 2009). This special broadcast demonstrated that Euskara was pertinent to modern life. It is also considered the catalyst in bringing the Basque language into the public discourse. Furthermore, it helped to establish the creation of a Basque- language radio station five years later.
Discussion and conclusions
This analysis pertains to an analogue world, but beyond its particular case study it aims to deal with controversial issues, such as political matters, national identity and the media during a pivotal historical period essential for both the transition (1976–77) and the establishment of democracy in Spain. During this period the media’s role was crucial in targeting a large audience through a Basque-language medium, and the radio’s role was particularly vital. The social, cultural and political context greatly influenced the means of production, distribution and consumption developed by the PRL. Indeed, once the Basque Parliament was settled in 1980, meetings were held with the Minister of Culture to discuss the feasibility of media broadcasting exclusively in the Basque language. In those gatherings it was decided that an entirely Basque-language radio station would be launched immediately (interview with Beloki, 2009), whereas the viability of a similar exclusively Basque-language television channel was questioned. Apparently, the creation of a Basque-language radio station was seen as the more viable option due to the pool of professionals trained at the Popular Radio stations as well as the Basque-speaking audience that those radio stations had been able to attract.
For the above reasons, PRL can be considered the equivalent of the first Basque-language school of journalism. Arregi, the programme director at PRL, was the first coordinator of the radio stations created under the communication group EITB. Iriondo, reporter-presenter for 20 years at PRL, was the chief editor of ETB (Basque TV) and, in 1989, coordinator of the three radio stations in this group. Otermin, a journalist at PRL, was the first director of Euskadi Irratia, the radio station produced entirely in the Basque language. Thus, Euskadi Irratia was formed by people who previously worked at these stations, and, as there were still no high-level Basque-language journalism schools at that time, the Popular Radio professionals set up courses with the aim of training EITB’s future journalists. For the first group of professionals on Euskadi Irratia there were two radio stations which served as models, Radio 3 (a Spanish public general-service radio station at the time) and the ‘Popular Radios’ stations (interview with Garzia, 2010).
Second, the professionals working at PRL during the 1960s and 1970s were Basque native speakers from the districts of Urola and Deba with religious school or university backgrounds. The careful selection of PRL’s trained staff was a pioneering characteristic which gave them an edge. It is likely that the Jesuits’ emphasis on the importance of education was instrumental in making PRL into a successful and profitable company. The need to make PRL succeed as a business, apart, of course, from the harsh political situation of the time, is what prevented them from founding an entirely Basque-speaking radio station.
Third, the success of the radio station was due to the modernization they introduced in the programming, using new radio formats in the Basque language. As a result, they produced a radio station with a content that was of high interest for their urban Basque audience. It also should be noted that the quality and content variety improved during the 1960s and 1970s thanks to Arregi’s knowledge and expertise. Currently, the European minority-language media tend to cling to linguistic standards while failing to offer competent programming. Arregi strove to introduce a range of different programmes that at the time were available only on Spanish-language radio stations. PRL aimed to offer ‘quality’ programming, understanding the word ‘quality’ here as content that took listeners’ interests and needs to heart and was consistent with their concept of reality. In the 1960s and 1970s, PRL was a bilingual (Basque-Spanish) medium, but the Basque society perceived it as an entirely Basque-language radio station. This was principally due to the fact that the station offered general-service programming which for the first time included Basque-language broadcasts. At the time, there was not a single mass medium that had established a bi-directional communication with Basque-speaking audiences on an everyday basis, and there were no media which were prepared to write and/or broadcast in the Basque language.
Finally, it can be stated that the existence of this radio station had an important impact on Basque-language culture, media and communication; it was also instrumental in helping to establish a university degree in Basque-language media studies. In the period analysed in this study, the language became a symbol of Basque identity. Using the Basque language on the radio gave the language a public status and its impact was much greater than when used in print media. Speaking in Basque language over the radio was a political act and a commitment.
Euskadi Irratia has now been on the air for almost 30 years (since 1982) thanks to the initiatives developed between 1965 and 1975. When studying minority-language media it is necessary to identify and analyse the pioneering efforts of the people involved in creating them as it is the action of individuals in a particular social, political and historical moment that facilitates the emergence of distinctive professional practices and representational norms. As Zabaleta et al. (2008) have demonstrated in other studies, we agree that there is a need to foster comparative analysis of minority-language media instead of focusing on insular issues within one’s own language. In this sense, in order to establish new paths in comparative minority-language media studies, it might be worthwhile to study not only other media but also their historical backgrounds and how they have developed. A retrospective view of media histories would expand the range by which different media can be evaluated. This first case study aims to establish future points of comparison between professionals in the Scottish Gaelic media and those involved in Basque language media.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Professors Javier Díaz Noci (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and José Larrañaga (University of the Basque Country) for all their help and comments. We also gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Department of Universities, Research and Education of the Basque Government.
Notes
Interviews
Ignazio Arregi – Bilbao, 15 February 2010.
Txaro Arteaga – San Sebastian, 3 February 2010.
Jose Ramón Beloki – San Sebastian, 2 February 2009.
Pilartxin Forcada – Leioa, 4 February 2010.
Mari Karmen Garaizabal – 17 March 2010.
Joxe Mari Iriondo – Zarautz, 13 February 2009.
Karmelo Otaegi – Azpeitia, 27 November 2009.
Jose Mari Otermin – San Sebastian, 1 March 2010.
Itziar Sagarzazu – Zarautz, 2 February 2010.
Joxerra Garzia – Leioa, 19 April 2010.
Archives
The radio scripts of the Popular Radio of Loyola that were written between 1967 and 1976 have been analysed. Currently those documents are kept in the Koldo Mitxelena Library (San Sebastian).
Magazines
Anaitasuna, 1970–75.
Euskera, 1956 and 1968.
BOE – Boletín Oficial del Estado [Español], 1976 (195) and 1996 (67).
Zeruko Argia, 1960–76.