Pepe Domingo Castaño, died this Sunday in the Hospital of the Zarzuela of Madrid at 80 years of age, has been one of the best-known radio voices in Spain, especially for the musical and sports programs on La SER and COPE. “We don’t know what to say because Pepe was everything to us,” lamented his colleagues who followed in his footsteps after presenting the program ‘Tiempo de Juego’ on this same radio station together with his radio colleagues Paco González and Manolo Lama. The popular radio presenter has died suddenly at the Zarzuela Hospital, surrounded by his family, as explained by Cadena Cope.
He was born in Drono-Lestrone (A Coruña) on October 8, 1942, although he moved to Padrón as a child and there he lived his childhood and part of his youth. He was a Dominican novice in an Asturian seminary and studied teaching. His first job was as an accountant. Later, through a press advertisement, he started working at Radio Galicia, in Santiago de Compostela, where he remained for two years, until in 1966 he moved to Madrid.
Their first years in the capital were hard, going through financial problems until finding the desired job at any Madrid radio station. He worked selling books and recording audio versions for ONCE. He collaborated for a time on Radio Juventud and La Voz de Madrid, but he had the great opportunity at Radio Centro, where he remained for five years and where he trained as a professional by presenting a musical program titled “Disco parada”.
Your first Waves
In 1973 was called by Cadena SER, station where he presented “Viva la radio”, “Sintonía sobre Ruedas” and for five years “El Gran Musical”, together with Joaquín Luqui, a program with which he achieved great popularity and received 1975 his first Ondas. He has also worked on television. He began in spaces on TVE such as “Biblioteca Joven”, “A Todo Ritmo”, “Voces a 45”, “La Casa del Reloj” and later he was hired as a presenter on “300 Million”, where he was fired in 1982 and presented a complaint against Televisión Española, which he won in court.
Pepe Domingo returned to SER again, where he made various magazines, including “Madrid, Ahora”, which was followed by “Aqui, la SER”, and in the nineties he directed and presented the local program “Hoy por hoy Madrid”. . From 1988 he collaborated in “Carrusel Deportivo”, presented since 1992 by Paco González, in which he was in charge of making the live advertising spots, and until the beginning of 2006 in the nighttime sports program “El larguero”, by José Ramón de la Morena. Castaño thus became one of the most successful entertainers on Spanish radio.
Pepe Domingo’s career
In September 1995, and after thirteen years away from television, he returned as a ppresenter of the “Número Uno” contest, on Telecinco. After SER removed Paco González from the direction of the “Carrusel Deportivo” space in 2010, which ended with the journalist’s departure to the COPE network, Pepe Domingo Castaño followed him in mid-July after the Soccer World Cup and since then performed the functions of presenter-entertainer of the weekend space “Playtime”.
recorded some albums that were successful in Latin American countries, achieving a gold record in Mexico in 1979, where his songs “Motivos”, “Neniña” and “Terciopelo y fuego” were widely accepted, although in Spain they went unnoticed, with the exception of the song “Viste pants jean “. In 2009 she collaborated in the documentary series “On the Camino de Santiago”, for National Geographic. He has also published several books, the poetry book “Andadura” (1978) and “Carrusel, Diario de un Año” (2006).
He won the Popularity Award from the newspaper “Pueblo” (1971); four Ondas awards (1975, the 1996 Special for “Carrusel Deportivo”, 2002 and 2005); the Antena de Oro in 1989 in its broadcasting section and another in 2010 for her career; “The Golden Microphone” from the Federation of Radio and Television Associations of Spain (2005), Diego Bernal Award 2011 from the Association of Journalists of Galicia.
He too Prize for Arts and Sciences Applied to Sports of the 2011 National Sports Awards; the I Joaquín Prat Radio Prize, awarded to him by the Spanish Radio Academy in 2014; The Bravo! of Radio 2016 and 2018 of the Episcopal Conference; 2019 Gala Award from the Madrid Sports Press Association; or the 2019 Manuel Alcántara National Sports Journalism Award.
The COPE tribute
Related news
“The day we never wanted to come has arrived. This morning Pepe Domingo Castaño died at the age of 80. We don’t know what to say because Pepe was everything to us“, has published the program Tiempo de Juego on his X account (former Twitter).
The day we never wanted to come has arrived. This morning Pepe Domingo Castaño died at the age of 80. We don’t know what to say because Pepe was everything to us.
The radio will never sound the same without you. This family will never beat the same again without you… pic.twitter.com/EVuaRSvYYP
— Playtime (@tjcope) September 17, 2023
“The radio will never sound the same again without you. This family will never beat the same again without you but, for you, we will continue* We still don’t know how we are going to do it but we will continue to fill the void you leave us with life and radio. We love you Pepe, we love you and We will always love you as you have taught us, with joy and united“, underlines the message published by Tiempo de Juego.