In the midst of a serious economic crisis, Ràdio l'Hospitalet stopped broadcasting in 2012 as a result of a restructuring process of the municipal media in the second city of Catalonia. The station was three decades old at that time. Cradle of communicators, the end of radio was painful and since then, with greater or lesser intensity, initiatives have emerged to bring it back.
The latest is the approval in the municipal plenary session in February of a motion that requests that Ràdio l'Hospitalet return to activity. Although with nuances, the proposal achieved unanimity in the plenary session. It is not the first motion to come forward in this same sense. In 2015 the opposition promoted another one that also achieved majority support, but the years passed and the airwaves continued to lack proximity radio.
This time it seems that the initiative has a better chance of succeeding, although it will not be a classic radio. Among other reasons, l'Hospitalet lost emission rights in traditional systems, it was explained during the plenary debate. But the internet remains. "There is consensus among all municipal groups to recover Ràdio l'Hospitalet with a new model adapted to new times and new formats," the City Council said in a statement. In other words, they are thinking of something similar to a podcast that circulates online and not through modulated frequency or medium wave.
The motion was presented by the municipal groups of ERC EUiA, the PP and l'Hospitalet en Comú Podem. She also got the support of Vox and was defended in the room by the Foment de la Informació Crítica (FIC) association. But the consensus is not entirely complete, since the PSC voted in favor of some points of the agreement and against others.
Specifically, the socialists, who govern without an absolute majority, refused to "assume the commitment to reopening the radio station by collecting the social and political demand expressed in different motions from previous mandates", urging the board of directors to "begin the necessary actions to reopen the radio within a maximum period of one year" and they did not assume that they were urged to "guarantee the necessary budget."
The PSC did vote in favor of "urging the advisory council to prepare, within a maximum period of six months, a report on the different options for the reopening of municipal radio as well as broadcast platforms and their expenses" and accepted "publicly present the conclusions of this report."
According to sources close to the government led by Mayor Núria Marín, they are willing to revive the radio in podcast format but first they want to take into consideration the conclusions that emerge from the report. In fact, the program contract for the municipal media of l'Hospitalet, approved unanimously a few months ago, already contemplated this possibility.
