COPE:

What is COPE?

COPE is a Spanish national general radio station. Formerly called Radio Popular, its name is an acronym for Cadena de Ondas Populares Españolas. It is owned by the company Radio Popular S.A. and belongs to the COPE Group, together with the music stations Cadena 100, Rock FM and MegaStar FM.

History

At the beginning of the 1960s, the Episcopal Commission for Social Communication Media presided over by the Archbishop of Pamplona D. Enrique Delgado Gómez, organised the Social Communication Secretariat. For the reorganisation of the Church’s radio stations, of which there were more than 200, he appointed the Dominican Javier Sacristán García as General Director of Cope. The Transitional Plan for Medium Waves was created and in negotiations between the Ministry and COPE, the Church was assigned fifty stations on Medium Waves (one per province) with the commitment to broadcast simultaneously on FM.

During these years, all the parish radio stations were closed down. The only remaining station was RADIO VIDA in Seville, run by the Jesuits and henceforth known as Radio Popular de Sevilla. During this period, new radio stations were installed. At the end of this stage, under the direction of Javier Sacristán, Radio Popular de Madrid was created as the head of the chain. From that date onwards, programmes began to be broadcast on the network and the corresponding advertising began to be managed. Subsequently, on 9 June 1971, Sociedad Anónima COPE was set up under the general management of Jose Luis Gago del Val.

In 1979, following the publication of the Technical Broadcasting Plan, all the stations were required to be grouped into a single public limited company, Radio Popular, which continued to be controlled by the Spanish Episcopal Conference. Three years later it began broadcasting as a network.

Along with Luis del Olmo, Encarna Sánchez, who had been successful in the early mornings of Radio Miramar since 1978 with her programme Encarna de Noche, joined the COPE grid. In 1984 she moved to the afternoons with the magazine show Directamente Encarna, which she hosted with great success for a decade.

Other important additions at the time were Fermín Bocos as news director (between 1981 and 1985), and Alejo García, with the programme Popular, in 1983.

Luis del Olmo left COPE in 1991 to join Onda Cero, at the same time that Encarna Sánchez’s presence on the radio began to diminish, first because of her television projects and later because of her deteriorating health. Both absences, combined, left Radio Popular in a difficult situation.

In 1992, deprived of its former stars and in a bad economic and audience situation, Radio Popular went through a tough redundancy process in which two hundred workers were made redundant.

During the 1990s, two of the station’s leading figures died: Encarna Sánchez (1996) and Antonio Herrero (1998). A few years later, José María García left COPE to start a new project at Onda Cero.