Xavi Bundó: "The only thing I've received from TV3 is two or three vetoes."

BarcelonaI reach out for the obligatory handshake but am met with a friendly embrace, even though it's the first time we've met. This ability to break down formal distances is surely one of the ingredients that explain the connection he's achieved with listeners, which allows him to host the most-listened-to weekend radio program in Catalonia. He doesn't give many interviews and says he doesn't make scandalous headlines, but I find myself with a radio personality deeply rooted in the ground and aware of his place in the world, in a world of inflated egos.

Let's start with the question, and so we've got it over with: you're ready to take on The world on RAC1 when Jordi Basté steps aside?

— Asking if I'm ready is assuming that I'll be the one to take over, which is getting ahead of myself. The day the changeover occurs, which I believe and hope will take many years, someone will have to decide what, and then we'll meet.

There is a second question, which is whether you are willing to do it.

— I find this one more interesting because it would require a considerable amount of internal conversation and an even more important family conversation. It's a very difficult and exhausting job. I've been with Basté for five years, I've seen what it was like, and that was when I was just another editor, not a director. Now that I'm a director, imagining that every day of the week... It seems like a job only the highly gifted can do, or it's a job that costs you your life. I should think about it very carefully.

Have you spoken to him about this eventuality?

— Damn, this is a very personal thing. And I think Jordi is such a beast of a radio personality that there's no one better, anywhere, to do it. The day he gets tired, the company will decide what to do, and maybe he will too. But anticipating a conversation about a possible replacement is very difficult for me.

Now you'll tell me what's coming back to you...!

— I won't say there hasn't been someone who's commented. He himself has said so publicly on occasion. But they've always been very informal conversations.

Does it bother you to be seen as the heir?

— A lot. I'm telling you the truth. And it depends on who's saying it, of course. Are we talking about someone inside the company who has to make a decision at a specific moment, is it said in the industry, or is it said by an overheard who knows what? You never know if the comments are well-intentioned or not, because sometimes they're not just a pat on the back for you, they're a slap on the other person. Someone hates that person and uses you as a way to get at them.

Yes, but in the end you lead the second most listened to program in the house.

— I'm going to deny the biggest one. It's not the second-ranked show in the house. I'm somewhat critical of this EGM thing, because weekends, given how everything is measured, are a universe apart. It's happened on occasion that a weekend show has surpassed a weekday show, and I've heard someone with an ego say, "We have more listeners." No, it's just a matter of how things are. RAC1 holds up right now are all its time slots, but especially the two transatlantic shows in the morning and afternoon. The weekend shows are doing very well and holding up, but we're not the second-ranked show, nor would I want to be included in a ranking.

In any case, when you already have a show that exceeds half a million listeners, what other options do you have if you want to grow?

— I don't know if the future should be about growing in that direction and wanting to do something much bigger. I have to think about everything very carefully, because I see the suffering involved in doing these kinds of shows and the toll it takes on a personal, psychological, and family level, because it's so intense. You have to be very prepared. Besides, I've never asked anyone for a job. I haven't gone to an office and said, "I'd like to do this show." I haven't called to be given something on TV. Now, I fully understand the question, because I've been doing eleven seasons and I'm closer to the end than the beginning. This seems obvious to me: I can't imagine reaching 2036 and still doing the show!

Is there a cost associated with working on weekends that is starting to weigh on you?

— Yes, of course, but not because of the work itself, which I really enjoy, since the weekend program gives me a lot of freedom. I'm talking about family fatigue. I don't like to whine, but I have two children, a 9-year-old and a 5-year-old, and, as I often say, life is built on weekends, and I haven't been able to build this life with them. I haven't been able to go see them at basketball games or go away for a weekend.

What do you do from Monday to Friday?

— A disaster! I take the kids to school and on Mondays and Tuesdays I pick them up and make their lunch at home, but starting on Wednesdays I prepare the program. If we don't have family things to do, I find time to read and be quiet at home during my breaks, but it can't be for many hours at a time, considering there's a midday break for eating together. I don't go out much. I do read a lot and I love movies, although I watch them much less than I'd like since I had children. Obviously [pointing to her body] I don't exercise and I don't have a hobby of these specific ones, like sailing. I'm a boring guy!

It won't be that much. So why do you think you're winning?

— First, by inertia. We've been number one for nine seasons, and it's not that leadership is hard to lose once you achieve it, but it does maintain a winning momentum. We've connected very well with certain people. And I suppose a bet I made to make the show not be special has worked out. I mean, I was already coming fromThe world on RAC1, where there's information, but also entertainment. So, my formula was to apply the same criteria that apply during the week.

"A radio station is, above all, an illusion. It's a magician's trick." These are lines you wrote five years ago, when RAC1 was doing twenty.

— Yes, it's a cliché, that thing about the magic of radio, but I think there's a lot of truth in it. There's a mystery, although less and less, because now there are photos and videos that show how it's done. It's that thing about being live, knowing that you're sharing the same physical and temporal space between the listeners and those of us who create the radio... All this gives it something different. And knowing that you're playing a game of risk: things can happen here. You can make mistakes, someone might get angry, someone might make you laugh, and not everything is planned. There's risk, excitement. And illusionism is simulating what isn't. In the end, radio is a pretty poor thing: four walls and some guys in front of a microphone or, sometimes, just one person. But an entire universe is created, like literature, using the imagination of others.

An artist, then?

— We're actually a lot of actors. I'm not going to compare myself to one actor, really, but there's that element of cheating a little, of playing with you if you let us play. And of playing different roles, too. My show lasts seven hours, so I'm not the same Xavi Bundó at seven in the morning as I am at eight, eleven, or one in the afternoon: I play different roles all the time.

You're one of the few radio broadcasters at your level who doesn't do television. Don't you like it?

— Television makes me very uncomfortable because it's a difficult place to control. In radio, I'm very used to being in control of everything, whereas in television, there's always someone telling you what to do, and I find that difficult. Aside from the language: it's like someone once asked me if I'd go to Madrid to do radio. And I don't think I'd know who I was talking to. It would seem very presumptuous to think I'm ready, because I've never done it. That said, if I ever came across an interesting project, I'd definitely consider it.

Has TV3 never sounded you out?

— No, no. TV3 has never sounded me out, nor do I think they plan to, given the current circumstances. The only thing I've received from TV3 has been two vetoes. Or three, I can't remember. They called me on several occasions for some of their programs, such as the one FAQS, and I detected a certain nervousness when I was invited. One day, they ended up calling me shortly before I was due to go to tell me it was better if I didn't go, because there had been a lot of calls and a lot of tension, and I don't know what. I don't know if things have changed, if those nerves have passed or not, but I suspect I'm not the number one candidate to do any kind of program on TV3, nor is anyone at TV3 even considering me to do anything. Besides, I've had the impression for a long time that there's a gigantic barrier that means anything coming from RAC1 isn't welcome on TV3.

But this wasn't the case before. In fact, for a time, the perception was exactly the opposite, with programs like Basté, the Oscars... Catalunya Ràdio complained that at times it seemed as if RAC1 was TV3's station, not them.

— Yes, that's true. I've heard that too. But you have to differentiate between the corporatism of a company and what you do to get the best for your company. If you prioritize synergies and that the same people who make the radio also make the TV, that's one thing. But it's another thing to believe that, given that there's another radio station that sometimes has more listeners than yours, maybe there are people from there who are capable of making certain content, but then your heart doesn't move you to offer them something. Because, besides, they're communicators of your country. Thinking in these terms makes us very small, in general. Perhaps TV3 considered at the time that having the Oscars, having the Basté, having the Clapés... In general, RAC1 talks a lot about TV3 and, in general, it speaks well.

Is RAC1 too dependent on a few specific names?

— Of course it's dependent. There's a dependence on Basté, Clapés, the Óscars, Giró, Pozo... And it's normal, because, from my point of view, they're the best. When your team has Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Valdés, Piqué, Puyol... If they all leave, the team falls apart. But this is a good situation, because it means we're in the best of scenarios. From there, the challenge is, if one day any of them disappear, to find a good replacement. And, beyond Clapés and Basté, who are clearly star signings from another station, if you look at the roster, it's made up of people created within the company: Pou, Óscars, myself, Vallhonesta, Xavi Puig, Marc Giró...

I was thinking about something Eugeni Sallent told me when he was the station's director, more than twenty years ago. He admitted that his stars were very well paid but his crew weren't as well paid, and that this made the project somewhat fragile.

— The program directors are very good, but so are those working at the grassroots level. They don't just grab onto whatever comes along. That said, it's obviously not the station that pays its workers the best, but there's only one that pays very well, which is Catalunya Ràdio. Generally speaking, media outlets aren't well paid. From this point on, I'm also in favor of my colleagues receiving salaries much more in line with their work, but it's also true that the economic situation in the media isn't what it was 30 years ago.

And how are we doing on parity? On the radio, there is an overwhelming majority of male presenters. And among the collaborators of the Clear path They are also the majority.

— We have fought for parity, and we continue to fight for it. I, for example, had a conflict with the last report from the collective Where are the women?, because I think I was wrong, and I told them so. They corrected it, but not everything I think should be corrected. In the discussion groups, we have parity, even if it's 60%-40%. Some weekends there may actually be more than 60% men, but sometimes we also exceed 40% women. We try to balance it out. As for collaborators, there are also more men, and we always try to work to add women. It's not easy, because the process is always slow, but I think we've all evolved. And so have I. My team is very female, and we also spend all day debating these things. I've always been very feminine.

In what sense?

— I've been here for eleven years, and there's never been a time when there have been more men than women on the team. In fact, I've often worked alone with women, and this also helps me a lot. As for radio, it's clear that there are more men than women, many more men directing programs, and it's something we definitely need to work on. The thing is, I can't speak for the management of the house; I speak only for myself and do what I can.

Let's take a look back. Chus Suárez, It all started with you.

— Ha ha ha! Poor thing, she's fed up with me, because every time they ask me about my origins, I talk about her! Chus Suárez was my Spanish teacher at the Sant Nicolau School, in high school. And she's the person to whom, in a conversation I remember now, on the way out of the schoolyard, I explained that I wanted to study audiovisual communication and that I liked radio. I'm from Sabadell, which has a very powerful radio station, but I already knew I couldn't get in at seventeen because, being small, it was a professional station. And she said to me: "Man, my brother-in-law is the director of a radio station, the one in Matadepera." And I went with my friend, Albert Castellví, to do a program called... The first touch!

Wow, a very original name!

— [Laughs]. At that time, I didn't know RAC1 existed. It had been running for two years and they had maybe 5,000 listeners! So, we went there, did our first show, and yes, It all started with you, so you should be grateful that this is not the case lately.

You were on Catalunya Ràdio for two summers. Rear Window and in The morning of Catalunya Ràdio, with Pere Mas. But you didn't continue.

— I would have liked to continue, yes. We built very good relationships with many people there, and I met my wife there. Of course, I wanted to continue at Catalunya Ràdio, the leader at the time, with Toni Bassas directing the morning show and people like Puyal and Gorina. That was incredible. But they only offered me very small things, like collaborating on the midweek holiday programs, three or four times a year. And then, through Laura Rosel, I got an offer from RAC1. At that time, in fact, there were two better offers than those from Catalunya Ràdio: one was better paid, at the COM, and the other had potential for growth. And I chose the one with potential for growth.

Well, the time has come for people to know the legend that surrounds this moment of leaving the public.

— [Laughs] Are you really going to ask me this?

Of course. A boss asked Pere Mas to tell him which of the summer writers had performed best, so he could keep him. He mentioned your name, but the manager in question would write it down incorrectly, because they ended up choosing another one with a name similar to yours.

— I don't know how true it is. Pedro always tells me that, and I don't know to what extent he has 100% proof that it was true. But I find it very funny to think they got the name wrong. I felt bad about that moment because things had gone very well with Pedro.

With Ricard Ustrell, he has somewhat lived parallel lives. They both started at Matadepera Ràdio, moved to Ràdio Sabadell, did weekend magazines, became parents relatively young, and even did the opening speech in Sabadell. And another legend: once, one of them was awarded a Radio Association prize, but after a few calls, it ended up being for both of them. ex aequo.

— Damn, I don't know this one. They did give us an award. ex-aequo, But now I don't know if this means that he says that they gave it to him and then they added me.

In any case, what's your relationship with her? Rivals, colleagues...

— It was one of the biggest rivalries on weekends, with him, for three seasons. He's... Look, I admire him for many things, because he has huge ambition and extremely competitiveness. He did so many things on weekends, so it was very difficult to compete with them. I think we won two of the three seasons, but the EGMs, for a long time, were a toss-up of a coin. And absolutely stressful. And he, knowing what he's like, would have experienced it that way too.

Is it calmer with Roger Escapa?

— Well, it's different. It also happened that I was making my debut back then, and so was he, and we both had that initial energy. With Escapa, I already had a four-season run and a somewhat more established audience, but it's still a super-competitive rival.

You're nearly 40 years old, which puts you in the middle of your career. Do you feel young or old?

— No, I'm an older person. I've always been an older person. I'm a cautious person, and therefore, I don't think I've ever had this youthful effervescence. At 40, I already look like a 50-year-old, even with my gray hair! I feel much older than I am young, very clearly, in all aspects of life. And I've always identified much more with people older than me. When I'm seated at a table, I tend to want to meet those who are older than me. In fact, my wife is eight years older, and I've always felt more comfortable with older people than with younger ones.