José Luis Sastre to lead Cadena SER’s evening flagship Hora 25 from 31 August

A new voice for Hora 25

José Luis Sastre has been named director and presenter of Hora 25, Cadena SER’s flagship evening news programme. He will take over from 31 August, the start of the next radio season, replacing Aimar Bretos. Until now, Sastre was the deputy director of Hoy por Hoy, the station’s morning show, where he worked closely with outgoing host Àngels Barceló. The journalist will be joined by Esther Bazán, who will anchor the first half‑hour of the programme (20:00–20:30) on weekdays.

We will do what we do and what we know how to do at SER, with the strength of its newsroom and its stations: plural, independent and necessary journalism.

A chain of changes

The appointment is the final piece in a cascade of moves triggered by Barceló’s departure from the network. On 22 May, after 21 years with the station, she announced she was leaving, citing disagreements with Prisa executives over the ideological direction of her programme and her panel of commentators. The company had pushed for fresh voices and greater plurality in the morning debate; Barceló insisted on full control over her contributors, and her strained relationship with Fran Llorente, Prisa Radio’s head of content, also played a role.

Background: Barceló’s exit

Once her exit was confirmed, Prisa turned to Aimar Bretos to lead Hoy por Hoy, the most‑listened‑to morning show in Spain. Bretos accepted, vacating the Hora 25 mic. The network then looked in‑house, and Sastre — Barceló’s loyal second‑in‑command for seven years — was the natural choice. On the day of the announcement, Barceló bid farewell on air with a message to listeners:

Take good care of José Luis Sastre.

She also said,

We turn the page; I am the left‑hand page, now it’s time to fill in the right one.

Audience and competition

Hora 25 is the evening benchmark in Spanish radio. The latest EGM audience survey (first wave 2026) credits it with 1,075,000 listeners, ahead of COPE’s La Linterna (1,046,000) and Onda Cero’s La Brújula (551,000). Sastre will thus compete directly with Ángel Expósito and Marta G. Aller in the evening slot. Both Sastre and Bretos have this year launched television projects — Sastre presents El juicio, while Bretos fronts La noche de Aimar on LaSexta — but radio remains their primary stage.

What Sastre brings

Sastre, 43 and originally from Alberic (Valencia), first worked on Hora 25 back in 2008, coincidentally again as Barceló’s deputy. Known for his measured delivery and dry wit, he built a loyal following with the segment Las crónicas de Sastre on Hoy por Hoy. His appointment means that, for the first time in recent memory, all of Cadena SER’s main news voices will be male — a point noted by some commentators. The new season begins on 31 August; the network hopes the reshuffle will safeguard its leadership in the fiercely competitive Spanish radio market.