Radio Rochela

Radio Rochela was a Venezuelan television series focused on comedy, which was produced and broadcast by Radio Caracas Televisión. The program's format was to parody the political-social situation, immigration, marginality, politicians, artists, soap operas and contests such as Venevisión's Miss Venezuela, among others. Since 2012, all of its programs have been broadcast on the TV Venezuela network.

He achieved international fame, becoming known not only in Latin America, but also in Spain and other European nations.

History

Beginnings (1959 - 1964)

Towards the end of 1959, a group of students from the UCV, in Caracas, made a series of humorous presentations at the Faculty of Architecture. Among them were Cayito Aponte, Charles Barry, Juan Ernesto López (Pepeto) and Beto Parra, among others.

The Argentine producer Tito Martínez del Box watched one of these presentations and couldn't stop laughing, which is why he invited these students to participate in El Show de las Doce, which was hosted by Víctor Saume. In this way, the students made several presentations on the program, which aired at noon, live on RCTV.

Their success was such that in 1961 they obtained their own program, which was called The great crusade of good humor and, later, Radio Rochela; with which it was transmitted until January 24, 2010, the date on which the channel stopped transmitting for the second time.

National Success (1964 - 1992)

It broadcast every Monday at 08:00 p.m. m. on the RCTV channel, being one of the most followed programs in Caracas in the early sixties, and later nationwide.

Tito Martínez del Box created, in 1964, El Show de Joselo in which the comic actor Joselo (who worked very successfully at Radio Rochela, where he began his career in 1960) was the main figure.). This last program in 1974 went to Venevisión until 1980, then returned to RCTV in 1981 and the following year it returned to the so-called La Colina channel.

Radio Rochela is considered the longest-running comedy program in history, according to the Guinness Record, a title it earned when it had only been on the air for just over 40 years. Juan Ernesto López, "Pepeto", assures that the name Radio Rochela was given by the actor Edmundo Valdemar.

During the 1980s, the Mexican actor Carlos Villagrán joined the cast of comedians after his dismissal from El Chavo del 8 on Televisa, and who at that time was working on the programs Federrico and Kiko Botones.

Competition with Venevisión and audience decline (1992 - 2002)

At the beginning of 1982, a competition for Radio Rochela emerged on Venevision, with Miguel Ángel Landa's then-newbie Bienvenidos, a white and family humor program that, unlike Radio Rochela, was profitable for all audiences, this added Because later in 1992 many actors and writers of the show were fired and others resigned and were later hired on the competing channel Venevisión, where other comedy programs such as Cheverísimo and Sal y Pimienta emerged, the latter being a series based on the characters of Radio Rochela.: Flora & Hydrangea; These productions had considerable success because in the case of Sal y Pimienta the original writers and actresses Nelly Pujols and Irma Palmieri were retained, this caused a lawsuit between Venevision and RCTV for the rights to Flora and Hortensia, which was won by RCTV who re-released the sketch without the original actresses, being replaced by Norah Suárez and Martha Piñango.

In April 1993, the then Minister of Transportation and Communications Fernando Martínez Mottola had announced the suspension of the transmission of this program together with Cheverísimo, alleging that they promoted anti-values such as "tacky." But public complaints managed to reverse this measure. In reality, the reason for this was the product of a parody about a purely political event.

Decline and end (2002 - 2010)

On June 4, 2007, a week after RCTV's official departure, a Radio Rochela special was made that was broadcast on Globovisión during the program Aló Ciudadano. On July 16, RCTV resumed broadcasting via cable and satellite, and also did so with its "Radio Rochela" with Wladimir Giménez as executive producer and Álvaro Ignacio "Nacho" Palacios as chief scriptwriter.

The closure of "Radio Caracas Television" - RCTV..... (is the end of) the longest running comedy show (at 48 years) in the world: Radio Rochela. This beloved show is a Monday evening fixture that is the most watched program on Venezuelan television.
The closure of Radio Caracas TV... (is the end of) the longest comedy program (with almost 48 years) in the world: Radio Rochela. This very dear show is a Monday evening program, which is the most seen on Venezuelan TV.. Duke Romero Banks

On January 18, 2010, this program was broadcast for the last time by RCTV Internacional, due to the cessation of transmissions by the transmitting channel, on January 24. On this occasion, as when the government of Hugo Chávez decided not to renew the concession to the station that broadcast it (RCTV) in 2007, there were many protests against its closure.

The program being broadcast weekly for 51 years. The 52 weeks were multiplied by 51 (years), minus the days that RCTV was off the air due to closures in 1961, 1978 and the beginning of the 80s (due to fires that the channel had), along with the non-renewal of Its concession in 2007 for 49 days, the accounts would give a total of 2,652 episodes of the 52 seasons.

In 2012, a network was launched to replace RCTV Internacional exclusively for the United States, this would be called TV Venezuela and since its launch all the old Radio Rochela programs are broadcast on a delayed basis on Mondays at 08:00 p. m..

Program format

Radio Rochela is a program with no fixed format and, due to its casualness, it gives the impression that there would be a lot of improvisation; This is even noticeable by the absence of presenters (except in a few programs). The sections (called "episodes" in television slang) are not usually named but, with the names of the protagonists themselves, the viewing public has an idea of it.

The jokes and situations are generally very local in nature, both culturally and in language. The program was broadcast for two years on the American Spanish-speaking network Galavisión, belonging to Univisión.

The Woaperó sketch broke the audience record: it reached 94.8% audience share. "Aflojaaa", the cry of "El chévere", Charles Barry's character, was one of the emblems of the Show of the Twelve. The producers of Radio Rochela made it a rule never to parody sitting presidents of Venezuela, except for the last broadcasts with Hugo Chávez.

Other well-known episodes include: "The Optimist", "Miss Advice", "The Little Girl", "My Little Brother", "Super Louse", "The French", "Saturnino", "Pretty Venezuela", "The pharmacy", "Flora and Hortensia", "Casanova", "Fixed focus", "The Colombians", "The Portuguese", "Félix Gonzalito", "Afloja!", "Papu-papa", "The hot line", "Lilí and Lulú", "El Hermano Cocó", "Happy Harry", "The Jordans", "Rafucho the Maracucho", "The Vampires", "Chef Guevara", "El Chunior", "Escarlata y Perolito", "Juanito el machazo" and "El doctor Criollin."

Miss Chocozuela

Miss Chocozuela was a parody that Radio Rochela made every year of Miss Venezuela, which was always broadcast on the Monday following the day of the contest (or a week after). It was presented in the parody as the "great event of laziness", it consisted of choosing the ugliest woman in the country.

They were attached to the situations of the original contest, such as musicals, gala costumes, etc. In the parody, instead of the names of the federal entities of Venezuela that each of the misses represents, strange names were used such as Miss Hielito Capital, Miss Muñequitos, Miss Estatizada, etc., or names referring to the situations of the time such as Miss Bolívar Fuerte, Miss Apagones, Miss Poder Popular, etc.

The names were also parodied, such as the presenter Daniel Sarcos, who was parodied as "Daniel Charcos", and the presenter Maite Delgado, parodied as "Maite Delado"; It should be noted that the misses were performed by men and, in some cases, by women.

The lyrics of the musicals were also changed, such as the Miss Venezuela anthem (which began: "on a night as beautiful as this", while the Miss Chocozuela anthem was "on a night as cool as this"). The presenters of Miss Chocozuela classified it as the most boring and annoying show.

This parody has been made since the 60s since at that time the Miss Venezuela pageant was broadcast on RCTV from 1962 to 1972 when Venevisión acquired the rights.

Distribution

Many popular Venezuelan comedians have worked on Radio Rochela. All members have had the ability to characterize famous people (whether politicians, artists, etc.) because the program constantly parodied or made references to celebrities and politicians.

Living actors from Radio Rochela

Production

• Author Rights Owner of the original work - Radio Caracas Television C.A.
• Produced by - Radio Caracas Television C.A.
• Vice President of Dramatics, Humor and Varieties RCTV Radio Caracas Television C.A. - José Simón Escalona.
• Creative Director of Humoristic Contents / Chief of Writers. - Alvaro Ignacio Nacho Palacios.
• On Thursdays and Fridays were the recording days of the program, with some exceptions.