Comfort is not for everyone. Gustavo Lopez he did not finish school and entered journalism in search of a future. The economic well-being was generated by having a bakery in Lanús that he himself attended and that allowed him certain comforts. But he felt that something was missing. He always talks with customers or suppliers went after the round. It was his sister who kick-started his career when she told him about an ad from a sports journalism school. That was the click to leave everything for a few minutes on Radio Provincia for 600 pesos. More than 20 years later, that bet finds him as a star host of radio La Red and ESPN.
News: How did your working year start?
Gustavo Lopez: My idea was to do a program in the morning on radio La Red, where last year I was at noon and in the afternoon. As Novaresio, who was from 9 to 10, left, they asked me if I liked the idea and I said yes. Now, we do a program from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and it seems to me that it will go well for us, almost 15,000 people listen to us via streaming, which is crazy, plus those who listen to us on regular radio.
News: Did leaving sports journalism generate doubts for you to do a general information program?
López: I like challenges, I don’t like to stay in the comfort zone. I’ve been hosting the sports strip for La Red for 11 years and I could stay with it for the rest of my life, but I liked the challenge of talking about other topics. I like entertainment and politics, while economics and other topics have specialized panelists.
News: What kind of journalist identifies as?
López: I am the journalist of common senseI’m looking for that, putting myself in the other’s skin, not being oxygenated by what they tell you or tell you, not being a fan of an idea, that’s good to show it in the media. I have a great responsibility towards people because of the love they show me.
News: Would you conduct a purely political program?
Lopez: When Del Moro left “Intratables” they called me to replace him because they believed that someone other than politics had to come. They wanted him to be the conductor and to have a good cane to make room for the panelists and the guests. I loved the possibility but then I said no, I thought about it for two days and I realized that this prevented me from watching the games so it interfered with my work as a sports journalist.
News: How do you divide work from your personal and family life?
Lopez: Last year I toured the Panamericana from one end to the other and now by offering me the change of schedule on the radio I am taking better advantage of my schedules, I work more, but I feel that I take advantage of more as well. I do the radio program in Palermo, then I go to Martínez to Espn and then to my house in Tigre. With my family we make the most of our moments together. I am at a time when I grow year by year. I dreamed of having a career like this and today I was given much more than I had dreamed of. To think that I attended and did the distribution of the bakery in Lanús listening to the Niembro and Araujo program and at 10 years old I ended up driving it.
News: What was the breaking point to be what you are today?
Lopez: I owned a bakery-confectionery with 15 employees, in good times they earned well and I left all that to earn 600 pesos at Radio Provincia. I played it, it could have gone horrible. I was always related to sports, when I worked in the bakery I understood that it was not my thing. He thought “I’m doing this but I don’t want to do it, I want to do something else”, he didn’t know what. The day I went to journalism school for the first time I said “this is my thing”, I don’t know why but it was like that.
News: What was the hardest thing for you?
Lopez: It was difficult for me to go from being the boss to being the last employee. The first week I thought about quitting every day, they didn’t treat me badly but I was the kid who was going to buy the invoices and after two hours of the program he spoke for a minute. You have to pay the right to a flat, one is not born knowing, then the second week I started to have another vibe with my colleagues and everything was different.
News: How do you see the new generations of journalists?
Lopez: There is everything, when I started we were a few and now we are many. Quality is seen in quantity, there are some who want to be famous in a week and say anything, then you see guys who are prepared and know more than one language or networks and technology. You have to prepare to remain competitive.
News: What do you think of non-traditional media?
Lopez: When I go to journalism school I say that they have a chance that we didn’t have, we depended on going knocking on the doors of the channels, being seen or having someone we knew there. Today everyone can build their own career through networks and technology.
News: How do you remember your crossover with the streamer Ibai Llanos?
López: I think it was good for him because in Argentina he wasn’t as well known. My children told me how I didn’t know Ibai. Then, Look how everything happened, when PSG took him to meet Messi and he said “Where is Gustavo López, I don’t see him?”. I was amused and it seemed strange to me that the media put: “Ibai remembered Gustavo López” in the titles of TN at 8 in the morning.
News: What do you enjoy the most?
Lopez: I have a lot of fun when I’m working, I like to act so I try to be natural, I think that success comes naturally, you don’t have to force something, you have to be as you are. I like to argue or play the angry, the annoying or the loser.
News: Where are you headed in the future?
López: I would like to do an entertainment program or more fun on an air channel. I liked the program that Jey Mammon did or what Guido Kaczka does, also showing a bit of driving style and a certain self-confidence.
