In Spain, there is no news bulletin on radio or television that, after giving the time to its listeners, does not add: “one hour less in the Canary Islands.” On Thursday, José Antonio Pardellas, the journalist who insisted on using that phrase until it became widespread, died at the age of 88.
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According to sources from his family confirmed to Efe, the veteran broadcaster passed away in Tenerife, where he lived. Born in Vigo in 1938, Pardellas studied Geography and History at the University of La Laguna and began working in the communication field in 1958, at Radio Juventud de Canarias.
In 1964, he won a position through a competitive exam at Radio Nacional de España (RNE), a public network to which he dedicated most of his career and which he directed in the Canary Islands between 1981 and 1994. During that period, he led the merger in the islands of Radio Nacional de España and Radio Cadena Española, a process he later took charge of for the entire country as director of Territorial Stations.
A reference for several generations of broadcasters, Juan Antonio Pardellas is the father of another veteran Canarian journalist, Juan Manuel Pardellas, former correspondent for EL PAÍS in the islands, former director of Diario de Avisos, and general director of Communication for the Government of the Canary Islands between 2019 and 2023.
Pardellas presented programs from the islands for all of Spain such as Españoles en la mar (also worldwide through Radio Exterior) and Revista de Historia, on Radio 3. But above all, he is remembered as the father of “one less in the Canary Islands,” a catchphrase he popularized during his time on the program Protagonistas, by Luis de Olmo, by insisting on using it every time he mentioned the time to highlight the uniqueness of the islands.
Del Olmo himself recounts the origin of that phrase in the book Luis del Olmo, Protagonista: “Our correspondent in Tenerife, Pardellas, told me about the confusion the program caused due to the peninsular times that marked its development. That’s how we came up with talking about one hour less in the archipelago.”
Among other recognitions, Pardellas had received throughout his career the Ondas Award for career achievement and best radio announcer (1978) and the Canary Islands Communication Award (2010).
