Sunday, October 21, 2007

The death of a master

I went to bed really late last night. I was dealing with the update from Ubuntu 7.04 to 7.10. Supposedly, this post would talk about it. But I want to bed and turned the radio on as I love falling asleep on Saturday and Sunday nights listening in Onda Cero to La Rosa de los Vientos, a radio programme that has been talking about history, science and mystery for the last 9 years, driven by radio master Juan Antonio Cebrián.

They were only broadcasting music. This sounded really weird to me. I started to listen to other radio stations and I managed to listen the end of a section in the programme of Iker Jimenez in Cadena Ser, where they were saying farewell to Juan Antonio. I went back to Onda Cero and waited until the next hourly news report where they confirmed that he had died yesterday afternoon because of a heart attack, at the age of 41.

I started listening to him in Turno de Noche, maybe the best night radio programme I have ever listened to, in 1991 (I guess). I was studying in High School and he was a great company when studying for exams. I felt alone when sports programs ended and nothing but boring music or gossip ones were the only thing to listen to. He was not only company. He also taught me lots of stuff about Ancient Egypt, the Order of the Temple, both World Wars and many other stuff. Not to talk about paranormal experiences, parapsychobiophysics and other hidden sciences related things. And, in Turno de Noche (not in La Rosa de los Vientos), it was really great the final hour of humour so I usually fell asleep with a smile on my face.

I am not one of those fans who follow their myths looking for an autograph, that disturbs them when they walk peacefully by the streets and so on or that even would love to become a friend of their idols. But Cebrián was a different person: he sent such good feelings like quietness, proximity, ... even friendship. His legion of fans felt him like a friend. As it never happenned to me with any popular person, I would have really loved to have him as personal friend, I could have talked with him for hours.

I know I shall have the chance to fulfill that dream, because we'll meet one day in Hades. And I shall be "Encantado y feliz, como una lombriz", as he always said, when that happens and we'll have all the discussions we could not make before. Until then, you will not be missed, because I know that Bruno, Carlos and Jesus (the other Cs in the 4Cs) will carry on with the spirit of your manners of making radio. The show must go on!

As a final epitaph, I will include here this mourning video that I found in one of the dozens of sites dedicated to Juan Antonio. It made me even shed some tears. How not?



I still wonder why it is always the best ones who first leave soon. My condolences to Silvia and Alejandro.

¡Fuerza y Honor!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was told about his death last night. I couldn't believe it. Words are not enough to explain why this has affected us that much.

Now it's our duty to keep his flame alive.

Adios, maestro.

Unknown said...

The words in you blog are beautiful. You are right about the concept of Cebrian as someone who had the ability of making his dreams contagious.

That is more important than all the topics he mentioned in his programs.