Catalunya Ràdio is the public radio station of Catalonia, broadcasting news, talk, magazines, sport and culture entirely in Catalan. It is run by the Catalan public media corporation CCMA, and you can hear it live on Radio Shuffle for free from anywhere in the world, which makes it an easy way to listen to Catalan as it is spoken today.
What Catalunya Ràdio Offers
The station is a generalist public service, with morning and afternoon magazine programmes, news bulletins, sport and cultural coverage. Its flagship, El Matí de Catalunya Ràdio, became the most-listened programme on the channel and was hosted in turn by Antoni Bassas, Manel Fuentes, Mònica Terribas and Laura Rosel, according to the Catalan Wikipedia entry. It belongs to the CCMA's radio family of channels.
Midnight on 20 June 1983
Catalunya Ràdio went on air at zero hours on 20 June 1983, with an announcement that began "Són les zero hores, zero minuts del dia 20 de juny del 1983," describing the launch as a wanted and important job, as the Catalan Wikipedia records. It was an initiative of Jordi Pujol's first Generalitat government, created so that Catalonia would have its own public radio and television operating only in Catalan, according to English Wikipedia. The idea was to spread and consolidate use of the language in the media.
From Short Programmes to a Generalist Station
The first programming model, a succession of short programmes, never took hold. A year later the station became a generalist channel built around two big magazine shows, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, as the same English Wikipedia entry describes. By March 1984 it covered about 80 percent of the territory and 90 percent of the population, and it opened regional delegations through the late 1980s, in Girona, Tarragona and Lleida. It first led the audience ratings in 1989 and held first place from 1994 until 2009.
Competition and Change
Catalonia has one of the most competitive radio markets in Spain. Catalan Wikipedia notes that by December 2020 Catalunya Ràdio ranked second among the region's stations behind RAC1. In 2023 the CCMA rebranded its services under a unified identity, and the new logos triggered a debate about how Catalan identity was represented. The station is headquartered in Barcelona, part of a corporation whose base is in Sant Joan Despí.
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