Eugeni Sallent, former director of RAC1 and TV3, dies

BarcelonaA discreet man, generous with talent, and always kind, Eugeni Sallent was the executive who led the birth and growth of RAC1 from the engine room of management, propelling it to the forefront of Catalan-language radio. The station confirmed his death on Tuesday, at the age of 63, from cancer. His resume also includes a stint as director of TV3 during the turbulent years following the 2010 financial crisis. Born in Sabadell in 1962, Eugeni Sallent i Garriga was the son of the founder of Educa, a company dedicated to educational games and puzzles. A computer scientist by training, he also completed a master's degree in business administration at EADA Business School, and this dual background allowed him to become an information systems consultant for the Generalitat's IT Center in the mid-1990s. From there, and remaining in the public sector, he was appointed manager of the Catalunya Ràdio group of stations, a position he held when the newly launched private station, RAC1 (and its sister station, RAC105), was launched by the Godó Group. It was a somewhat risky venture, as the station was launched without listeners and at the same time as another private initiative, Ona Catalana, which was said to have more powerful political backers. From his position as managing director, and largely thanks to recruiting disaffected talent from Catalunya Ràdio when the tripartite coalition came to power—such as Jordi Basté and Toni Clapés—he led RAC1 to become the most listened-to radio station in the country, a position it still holds. In 2007, his achievements were recognized with the National Communication Award. And in 2010, he received the Quim Regàs Journalism Award in recognition of his career. In 2012, however, he returned to the public sphere, this time to head TV3. He did so without a single dissenting vote from the public broadcaster's governing board: the members nominated by Junts and the PP voted in favor, while the two board members appointed by the Socialists abstained. He replaced Mònica Terribas, and his role, despite being the director of the station, again focused more on management than content: it was the period of the great economic downturn, and the then-president of the public broadcaster, Brauli Duart, was counting on him to try to weather the storm of having to watch Corpora Convergència cut its public funding and advertising revenue plummet. However, the television station, which had achieved the top spot in 2010, managed to maintain its position as the most-watched in the country. Sallent left the post in 2016, dissatisfied with what he perceived as the blatant politicization of the director and news director positions, both at TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio, following the change of government in the Generalitat that brought Esquerra to power. Under the agreement between Convergència and the Republicans, the former party was awarded control of TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio's news programs, while ERC retained the symmetrical positions, in a system known internally as "the zipper." Sallent left quietly, but years later, in the book Objective TV3He explained: "I'd had enough. And I didn't like the political circumstances at the time. I'm not going to say anything politically incorrect, because I'll get a lot of flak for it, but I didn't agree with the way the parties were handing out positions. It's very difficult to get ahead in that company if you try to do your job from a strictly professional perspective."

Sallent spent the rest of his career at Mediapro, often in positions of responsibility abroad, such as in Italy and Latin America.