COPE reinforces its commitment to podcasting with the launch of a documentary on Miguel Ángel Blanco
In the race of the main radio stations in Spain for the production of podcasts, COPE has taken an important step with the premiere of its new venture: ‘Miguel Ángel Blanco. Aquellas 48 horas jamás contadas’, a sound documentary that reviews, with unpublished content, the kidnapping and release of José Antonio Ortega Lara and the kidnapping and murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco by ETA. Bitter pages of Spanish history that are 25 years old.
The podcast was released yesterday on the COPE website and on the main digital platforms and contains three episodes of around 30 minutes: BOL 5K, the story of Ortega Lara’s release, Un asesinato a cámara lenta, which analyses the subsequent kidnapping of Miguel Ángel Blanco and Calibre 22, which describes his assassination and the pain it caused among the public. The sound production concludes with the relevant fact that currently 60% of young people do not know who the Ermua councillor murdered by the terrorist group was.
The documentary includes the participation of well-known figures who lived through those days, such as the former Prime Minister of Spain, José María Aznar; the former Minister of the Interior, Jaime Mayor Oreja; the Lehendakari José Antonio Ardanza; the former Minister of the Interior of the Basque Government, Juan Mari Atutxa; and the sister of Miguel Ángel, Mari Atutxa; Miguel Ángel’s sister, Mari Mar Blanco; the then bishop of Bilbao, Ricardo Blázquez; the president of the PP in the Basque Country, Carlos Iturgaiz; the mayor of Ermua, Carlos Totorika; the former judge Baltasar Garzón and the civil guard Francisco Gil. In the latter two cases, for their connection with the operation to free José Antonio Ortega Lara, kidnapped by ETA for 532 days.
The director of the podcast, Andoni Orrantia, tells DIRCOMFIDENCIAL that “we decided to prepare this podcast because it is a sufficiently important anniversary of two events that shocked a country, which the new generations are unaware of, and at a time when the sound documentary, with the podcast, is experiencing a second golden age“.
Orrantia has directed a work of more than 3 months and more than 16 hours of recordings with 15 recognised figures, in which half a dozen professionals have worked, with the aim of “proposing an emotional journey to the listener”. He says that they have had access to exclusive content, such as the video that Judge Garzón ordered to be recorded during the search for Ortega Lara, or videos in which the voice of Miguel Ángel Blanco can be heard. “We have seen him in photographs, but we had not heard him until now,” he says.
In this new COPE production, the director assures that “we wanted to experiment along three lines: in the narrative, as the user is going to find a very immersive narration, which seeks to surprise and for the user to see himself in the action; in the graphic design and in the distribution, with very careful and measured strategies”.
This podcast joins other original productions that the channel has produced since 2017 such as Sin mi identidad, El día que Abdul dijo adiós a Siria, Regreso a Las Ramblas, Cuando todo esto pase or 2020, un año corto.
