Barcelona´s 1st English Radio station

Radio Free Barcelona, the city's first English-language station, has started. But they promise it will be more than a group of moaning expats taking to the airwaves.
If you flick the dial on your radio in Spain, you should have little problem finding an English-speaking radio station somewhere.

There is already a raft of stations, mostly on the Costa del Sol, the Canary Islands and in the Balearics, where they are gabbling away in ingles.

It has to be said, though, they are mostly filled with the familiar fare of expat preoccupations, Seventies hits, BBC news and a DJ talking inanely.
Now there is a new kid on the block ? and it's promising to do something a little different.

Radio Free Barcelona hit the airwaves last week for two hours with little fanfare.
So far, it only has the unpopular early Saturday morning slot between 9-11am on Radio Gracia 107.7 FM with which to make its mark.

We don't want to have a group of expats moaning about problems with Telefonica. We all know about that and it will not attract people to the station ? John Barrass, presenterBut instead of going down the same road as many other more commercial stations, it will be a station in English for everyone living in the city.
And that means the natives too.

So their 'round table discussions' will focus on things which the average Catalan might get steamed-up about, as well as British, American or Indian expats.
Such as: new parking restrictions in Barcelona, the regional government's latest lunatic scheme to spend your money or those loutish tourists who will insist on visiting the city.

Presenter John Barrass says: "We will have a mixed group of expats and Catalans to make our roundtable discussions address things which everyone here is concerned about.
"We don't want to have a group of expats moaning about problems with Telefonica. We all know about that and it will not attract people to the station."