Vanguardia de la Ciencia

Vanguardia de la Ciencia was a Spanish science podcast and radio program which was broadcast on the shortwave band by Radio Exterior de España, one of the stations of Radio Nacional de España (RNE). The program aired weekly, without interruption, from April 1995 until June 2007. It was available for download as mp3-files from the web pages of RNE from September 2003. The program was created by Ángel Rodríguez Lozano. A total of 98 programs are still available online. In addition to "Vanguardia de la Ciencia", Lozano also hosted another popular science radio program and podcast, "El Sueño de Arquímedes".
History.
"Vanguardia de la Ciencia" had a large audience worldwide. Although exact numbers of downloads and listeners are unavailable, Radio exterior de España has 80 million listeners, only surpassed by the BBC and Radio Vaticana. In addition, "Vanguardia de la Ciencia" was retransmitted by several radio stations in Latin America and Spain. The program was popular throughout the Spanish-speaking world.
In June 2007, "Vanguardia de la Ciencia" and "El sueño de Arquímedes" were abruptly terminated. In the correspondence section of one of the last programs, Lozano explained, in response to a letter from an outraged listener, that the decision to terminate the program was made due to a re-structuration of RNE, and that he was but one of 4,150 employees who had to leave. In the previously referenced interview, he explained that everyone older than 52 years had to retire early, and that he was 54 years old at the time.
The decision to terminate the programs was widely criticized in Spanish-speaking blogs.
Format.
The program aimed at being accessible to everyone with an interest for science. Some basic knowledge of science was required to get the most it, as it often went into some technical detail, especially in the interviews. The audio production was of top quality.
Cienciaes.com.
After the closure by RNE of the radio programs "Vanguardia de la Ciencia" and "El sueño de Arquímedes", Lozano created the website "Cienciaes.com" (Ciencia para escuchar) in 2009. There, the "Vanguardia de la ciencia" podcast is continued, along with several other Spanish-language science podcasts.