The life “at the edge of midnight” of José María Carrascal, the presenter of the thousand ties who brought opinion to the news

José María Carrascal, who died at the age of 92, had been a correspondent in New York and there he learned almost everything that he later put into practice when Antena 3 made him one of its most charismatic presenters in the early 1990s. He was 60 and it was his first time on a set, although his career in journalism was very long.

He began to make what is known as an author’s news program and introduced opinion for the first time with a critical comment that he made in the news that he reported every day “at the stroke of midnight”, which was the formula he used when the program ended. and moved the spectators to the next one. He said goodbye like this because he never knew at what exact time he was going to appear on the screen.

“A news program is a newspaper and newspapers also have opinions. I decided to do it and it was successful,” he explained in an interview. He was also one of the first to review the next day’s press, commenting on the national covers, but also the international ones. So, for example, every night he announced the opening headline of the Herald Tribune or of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitungwhich he read in perfect German remembering his years as a correspondent for the newspaper Pueblo.

Obviously one of the most remembered aspects of Carrascal were his striking ties that only he dared to wear and which made him the most imitable and parodied presenter of the time. “Television is not only information, but also spectacle,” he admitted about this audiovisual claim. Thus, he broke the rigid figure of the talking head that TVE had and “we managed to connect with the public.” Carrascal brought a cake to the set to explain personal income tax and even sang a rap to the music of The prince of Bel Air.

His naturalness also contributed to this, which was not in conflict with his rigor, when something went wrong in the news and he had the resources to get away with it by explaining to the viewers that a video had not entered correctly and nothing was happening.

In addition to the news, he presented the program Tskin soma humanos, with Javier Sardá. His charisma also led him to give the Antena 3 Chimes in 1992.