One of the armchairs Game time was left empty this Sunday after the sudden death of Pepe Domingo Castaño. A legend of radio and Spanish sports journalism who He has left professional colleagues and great friendsamong them, Paco Gonzalez.
The journalist, who accompanied the 80-year-old announcer in the hospital until the endwas not in the Cope program with his companions, as he supported the family at all times and was present at the Galician’s funeral chapel, which received a massive goodbye.
It was not until nightfall that González entered the airwaves. The Great Game to explain how he felt after the loss of Domingo Castaño. “Very grateful to anyone in any field who has shown their affection for Pepe today”was the first thing he said to Juanma Castaño.
“He deserved it, it is the memory that has to be carried and that up there will make him smile,” added the journalist, who has great memories along with Padrón, such as the tremendous speech that Pepe made live after González was fired from Cadena Ser.
Furthermore, the presenter of Game time He remembered and thanked some of the tributes paid to the legendary journalist on the day of his departure. “El Pepe, un cigar”, which has been played in Getafe, When I found out I couldn’t help but cry“he confessed.
“The ovation from Cornellá or the one from the Bernabéu. The respect from Sevilla. From all the stadiums. That of the Davis Cup, that of Super Cup basketball. Any affectionate tweet that has been posted, even from politics, of course from sport “he added, listing the exciting gestures that they had been saying goodbye to the journalist throughout the day.
It was also shown “very, very grateful and very proud of the colleagues who have shown that they are the team for Pepe’s program”, and acknowledged that from the funeral home he kept thinking “what program are they doing”.
“So, proud to be part of this team,” said the journalist, who immediately afterwards confessed how he felt after saying goodbye to Pepe. “On a personal basis, I have had moments of not wanting to accept it, moments of crying…. and now I’m a little more serene,” he acknowledged.
How do you imagine radio from now on? “I have no idea,” she admits, remembering that he had always thought that his friend would gradually leave the radio. “I have a personal panic for Tuesdaywhich will be the first program I have to do, and look at that chair and see that it is empty“, has explained.
“I have a personal fear now of thinking ‘how does a program start on time without Pepe’, even if it was recorded. I will no longer have a single advertisement for Pepe, nor a game with Pepe at my side.not a program with Pepe by his side, nor a dinner with Pepe,” added the journalist.
The first time they worked together
González, who shared the program with Domingo Castaño for more than three decades, also remembered what the first time he worked with the Galician. “The table in that studio was shaped like a ‘U’, and the one who directs the program stands in the middle,” explained the man from Madrid, who that day was in charge of hosting the program.
“When entering the studio I thought: ‘if Pepe is in the middle, I’ll go to one side, and so calm’because I never thought it was my place to be on the base,” he says, but “Pepe had stepped aside.” That was the moment when Paco González realized that it was really his turn to direct the program.
“I told him, he started laughing, because when he had gestures like that of generosity… well, gestures, He was the most generous person I have ever met.“I didn’t realize I had them,” he says with a broken voice, on the verge of tears. “I made the sign of the cross and said, ‘Let it be whatever God wants,’ and we started the program,” he concluded. journalist.
Pepe Domingo Castaño died early this Sunday at the age of 80 due to septicemia. Apparently, the journalist went to the Zarzuela Hospital for a throat infection that it had gotten worse and that it became complicated there in a very short time.
