Thursday, March 28

José Luis Balbín, master of journalism and television icon, dies


The journalist José Luis Balbín in a file image.

The legendary Asturian journalist who became famous for his program ‘La Clave’ has died in Madrid

José Luis Balbín (Pravia, 1940), teacher of several generations of communicators, has died at the age of 81, but his name “is already the history of Spanish journalism”, as his colleague and “dear friend”, Graciano García, dejected at the to know one of those news that one would never want to know about. This Wednesday journalism lost Balbín, the figure who made ‘La Clave’ a historical reference for communication in Spain.

“A magnificent professional colleague who greatly influenced the Democratic Transition” and who taught us the debates without shouting at the head of his legendary program ‘La Clave’. A man whose life was that of a globetrotter, “always from here to there”, as he explained in his last interview with EL COMERCIO, but without losing his connection with the land where he was born, so his remains will rest in Pravia , as confirmed by his widow, also a journalist Julia Mesonero.

«I have been happy in almost all the countries where I have lived, but I have never forgotten my Asturian roots and I have never stopped spending long periods in my land. Twenty years ago I found the house in Cudillero with the views I had been looking for for years. I live halfway between Madrid, where part of my family and my best friends are, and Asturias, where my roots, the rest of the family and my childhood friends are”, he recalled then.

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With that spirit of encounter, of bridging, Balbín raised “La Clave”, a program born in the heat of the Transition, a “rara avis” that marked a before and after on Spanish television. A space in which in each broadcast a single theme was chosen. First, a movie was broadcast. Then, a gathering was organized. And, finally, Balbín recommended some books in case someone wanted to delve a little deeper.

This formula remained intact during its first stage –on RTVE and when it reached its moment of greatest popularity–, between 1976 and 1985. But, when Antena 3 rescued the format, from 1990 and 1993, it eliminated the film –already in 1992– and He bet directly on the talk. A debate, in any case, slow, respectful and far from the shouts with which many of the current gatherings are dispatched, plagued by Indas and Marhuendas, that the Asturian journalist – National Television Award, Favorite Son of Pravia, Honorary member of the Association of Journalists of Asturias – they did not interest him at all. “Mainly, because they run over each other and verbally rebuke each other and no one knows anything.”

Another of the hallmarks of ‘La Clave’ was its plurality. And the proof is that characters of all stripes had a place in it, from communists like Carrillo, Pasionaria or Líster to Francoists like Fernández de la Mora, Jesús Fueyo or Blas Piñar, through socialists like Alfonso Guerra and anarchists like Federica Montseny. From Gustavo Bueno to Severo Ochoa or Lola Flores asking that, once she died, they put the bata de cola in the box, in 400 deliveries she could see everything. Politicians, intellectuals and folklore mixed without complexes. Very, very good and bravely. You just have to take a look at those deliveries in which, with Franco’s death still very recent, they dared to touch on such thorny issues as abortion, the reform of the Penal Code, the situation of the autonomies, the legalization of the PCE, drugs, the death penalty, Marxism, homosexuality, NATO or Opus Dei. Quite a breath of fresh air for a Spain that was stretching between the smoke of the cigarettes and the fragrant pipe of the “dandy” from Pravia. Some say that, with it, democracy became stronger.

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His legacy was recognized as it deserved last year, when the Council of the Academy of Television and Audiovisual Sciences and Arts awarded him the Jesús Hermida Lifetime Achievement Award, the institution’s highest award. The Asturian journalist saw an exemplary career linked to television signed by his colleagues. A joy that he received “with deep gratitude” at his house in Madrid, where he was facing the stroke he suffered several years ago and that limited his mobility with optimism and good spirits. “As far as it goes, I’m fine, I’m still fighting,” he commented with some difficulty, but fully aware of the value of the recognition he was given.

«The creator, director and presenter of the program ‘La Clave’, has been a pioneer in the way of approaching debates and television gatherings in our country. The program constituted an essential forum for democratic dialogue with a very educational and innovative format », highlighted the institution, acknowledging his influence on hundreds of journalists whom he preceded.

The Academy recalled in its statement that during the Spanish Transition, the debates of ‘La Clave’ (1976-1985) “contributed to the process of political change after a dictatorship of almost 40 years” and recalled that this space that he directed and presented It was chosen as one of the ten best programs in the history of television in Spain by the members of the Television Academy.

At that time, Balbín was also director of the Informative Services of the public channel between 1982 and 1983. After a few years of professional activity on Antena 3 Radio, he returned to television with the legendary debate program, but this time on Antena 3 TV, until 1993. Later, and on the same channel, he hosted the interview space ‘La senda’. On the COPE network, he worked as a talk show host on the programs ‘La Linterna’ and ‘La Mañana’. In 1998 he returned to TVE with the program ‘Las Claves’, in which he interviewed great Spanish and foreign personalities. In 2000 he also founded the general news weekly ‘La Clave’ and in 2015 he was awarded the National Television Award.

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