Cadena SER streams news, talk, and sports commentary live from Spain, and you can hear it free on Radio Shuffle wherever you are. It is Spain's largest radio network by audience, built on a history that stretches back to the very first legally licensed radio broadcast in the country.
The network that started Spanish radio itself
SER's roots trace to Radio Barcelona, which went on air on 14 November 1924 under the call sign EAJ-1, becoming the first station to hold a legal broadcasting license in Spain following regulations issued that June, according to Wikipedia's history of the network. Weeks later, Unión Radio launched in Madrid under Ricardo Urgoiti, and the two stations became the backbone of what grew into Spain's dominant commercial radio group. The network survived the Spanish Civil War, during which its Madrid station was seized and used for wartime broadcasts, before being reorganized under its current name, Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión, in 1940.
Hoy por Hoy, the most listened-to show in Spain
That century of history now supports some of Spanish radio's most-followed programming. Hoy por Hoy, the network's flagship morning show, launched on 22 September 1986 under Iñaki Gabilondo, who hosted it until 2005, and it remains the most listened-to radio program in the country, drawing an average of roughly 3.5 million listeners a day according to Wikipedia's entry on the show. It runs weekday mornings with regional opt-outs built into the schedule, letting local Cadena SER stations carry their own news within the national format.
Spain's oldest sports broadcast
On the sports side, Cadena SER runs Carrusel Deportivo, Spain's oldest and longest-running sports radio program, broadcasting continuously since 1952. It covers La Liga matchdays alongside Champions League and Spain national team fixtures, giving the network a matchday presence that has outlasted generations of on-air talent and rival broadcasters. Between Hoy por Hoy's morning reach and Carrusel Deportivo's weekend football coverage, Cadena SER has built two of the most durable formats in Spanish broadcasting history.
A century of Spanish radio, still on air
Few networks anywhere can trace an unbroken institutional lineage back to the birth of legal radio broadcasting in their own country. Cadena SER can, and it still runs some of Spain's most listened-to news and sports programming today. Listen to Cadena SER free on Radio Shuffle to hear the network that has anchored Spanish radio for a century.