IN this society of ignorance even the new generations may never have learned that Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, an 11th century celebrity who inspired millions of tweets and retweets, won a battle after his death. Social networks burned with his feat. Of the dead it is often said that their spirit remains, their bequest, the values they transmitted in life. This is also true in the field of the media "fallen in combat", if you will pardon the metaphor. They are no longer edited, listened to or seen, but it is felt that they contributed something to the construction of a better and more informed society. In the recent history of Spain, the case of the newspaper "Madrid", closed by Franco's dictatorship in November 1971, 45 years ago, is paradigmatic. Its report was carefully cared for by those who participated in that dynamite adventure, and so it is remembered today with a general consensus about its contribution to the democratic Spain of our days.

Thirty-five years ago today, May 4, 1982, was the first broadcast of a radio station, Antena 3, which was destined to have an influence in Spain in the eighties. B . It had only a few stations at that time, but it soon began to expand throughout Spain. It had the pioneering audacity to make conventional FM programming in a world dominated by the wave average, and revolutionized the way of making radio by providing innovative formats, freshness, youth and airs of freedom. Some branded them as visionaries, but even their competitors had to renew themselves to face them. Its abrupt and still controversial end, twelve or fourteen years later depending on the calculations, led to its entrance in the journalistic martyrology and the beginning of its legend: disputed by some, but a legend that endures in the collective subconscious as something worth living.

Attempts to rescue its report have been closer, disjointed and fragmentary, but no one doubts that despite its tragic end, and as happened with the newspaper "Madrid", many of those who participated in it and many of those who were its listeners, mostly young people, still feel a void filled only by the memories of an adventure that was part of their lives and certain values that it transmitted to a whole generation. The blowing up of Antena 3 Radio -which some called "antenicide "by means of a shady political-commercial operation- was not as physical as the Madrid headquarters, but it was herculean: it ceased to be on the dial.

The soul of that business was Manuel Martín Ferrand, a multifaceted journalist with extensive experience in the media when he started a channel that wanted to be a television station but had to start with radio. Behind him were prominent newspaper companies such as ABC and La Vanguardia. He brought together renowned journalists such as José María García, Jesús Hermida, José Antonio place, Yale and Amilibia, who practically jumped into a pool without water; others who were still young but already had some experience such as Miguel Ángel Nieto, Miguel Ángel García-Juez and José Cavero; and a pleiad of journalists who were making their first steps in radio and who made a name for themselves in that house: Luis Herrero, Antonio Herrero, Gomaespuma, Nieves Herrero, Consuelo Berlanga, Consuelo Sánchez-Vicente, etc.

They had to deal, logically, with the current situation, which was dominated by the long shadow of the socialist governments of Gonzalez under the protection of his repeated absolute majorities. The independence that it wanted to boast from the beginning was stumbling with the discomfort of this quasi-monopoly political status . Thus, it gained a well-deserved reputation as a channel critical of the powers that be: from the mornings of the hard-hitting Antonio Herrero to the nights of the indefatigable and unspeakable Supergarcía on Hora Cero. "Truthful news and independent opinions" was one of the slogans -guide - of the radio station, which was joined by television in 1990. This independence ended up being annoying. Other economic and business factors also came into play and model radio ended its days in the summer of 1992.

They took place in different historical and media contexts, but both companies, "Madrid" and Antena 3, did not go unnoticed in their time and left their mark: one under the death throes of Franco's dictatorship and the other in the midst of an atmosphere of democratic oppression towards independent media. Both had to walk, in the happy expression of the former director of the newspaper Antonio Fontán, "along the uncomfortable paths of discrepancy". Both disappeared, or rather were "disappeared", and left their readers and listeners orphans, but their spirits still survive. Like the good Cid, they won a battle after death, and we, the living, must perpetuate their report in this society where exemplarity unfortunately does not abound.