Santiago do Rego - Periodismo en Primera Persona - PGM 203
·57 min·4 clips
Santiago Dorrego explains how he invited Quentin Tarantino to his wedding during an elevator ride in Los Angeles.
1. BCNRadio's 'Periodismo en Primera Persona,' hosted at the Argentine National Congress Library, opens its eleventh season with Santiago Dorrego, host of TNTecno and weekend news anchor on TN.
2. Dorrego is a licenciado en periodismo, began at La Prensa sports section in 1994, and has worked across print magazines, television production, web content, and streaming throughout a career of over 30 years.
3. The episode's core thread is how journalism has changed from a defined institutional profession into a hybrid of creator, entertainer, and journalist—and what that means for Dorrego personally and professionally.
4. Dorrego describes the physical print newsroom—at magazines such as Gente, Rumbos, and Nueva under La Nación Group—as the professional environment where he felt most at home, and expresses genuine sadness at the near-disappearance of print magazines and newspapers.
5. He identifies a post-pandemic crisis in workplace mentorship: new employees ask first how many days they must appear in person, and the apprenticeship model where experienced practitioners teach juniors in real time is collapsing across all industries.
6. On the current state of journalism, he argues that today nothing stops anyone from practicing the trade—YouTube provides global unlimited distribution, smartphones shoot in 8K, storage is free—but notes that the paradox is that total resource abundance may reduce the ingenuity and hunger that scarcity once forced.
7. Dorrego entered La Prensa in 1994 after a chance encounter with sports editor Jorge Trasmonte, who was first to interview him and pulled him into sports over information general; the same day Pablo Perantuono entered as an intern alongside him.
8. He worked at Canal 13 in Telenoche Investiga from 2001, then at the La Nación magazine group as editor of Nueva and Rumbos, and as editorial director of First, before returning to Canal 13 for Telenoche Especial.
9. He describes a 2005–2006 blog called 'Mondo Goloso' where he filmed amateur candy and alfajor tastings before YouTube existed, shot on a low-resolution digital camera, which featured future on-air journalists Mauro Z., Carlitos Joaquín Prat, and Paula Bernini as background colleagues.
10. TNTecno's origin story: Dorrego had sent annual idea-sheet proposals to TN news director Carlos de Elía for years, and in 2008, when he was literally walking out the door to accept a content manager role at portal Terra, de Elía offered the technology show as the only remaining retention incentive.
11. The first episode of TNTecno, shown on air at BCNRadio, featured Dorrego and co-host Federico Bimaier with a brief hesitation before Dorrego's first on-air response—a timing artifact of not yet having their rhythm together.
12. The show's theme song is 'Whitewash' by the band Gin Blossoms, chosen by Dorrego because its intro runs exactly 30 seconds—matching TNTecno's opening—though the band was largely unknown and the song never a hit outside of the show's use.
13. Dorrego's thimble collection numbers approximately 200 pieces gathered across personal and professional travels worldwide, initially intended as personalized gifts for his grandmother, a seamstress who had worked making dresses.
14. Notable pieces include a Twin Towers thimble from before September 11, 2001, no longer commercially available; British royal commemorative thimbles from King Charles's coronation and the weddings of William and Harry; and a wooden thimble from Maldives brought by a friend.
15. When Dorrego arrived home from Spain with the thimbles as his grandmother's gift, her first response was to ask where the duty-free perfume she had originally requested was—establishing the comic tone that defines the thimble story.
16. He names editor Félix Villaverde—described as the best news editor in Argentine broadcasting, who had edited Tato Bores, Alberto Olmedo, and later TNTecno—as the person who most shaped his understanding of audiovisual storytelling.
17. Other mentors named include sports editor Jorge Trasmonte, TN news director Carlos de Elía, Silvia Dopico (editor of Para Ti), and Federico Cuervo, Ricardo Ravanelli, Roberto Mayo, and Miles Zapata.
18. The show's format includes the guest choosing two music tracks, a 'Premio Gracias' (Thanks Award) the guest gives to a mentor, and a 'Minuto DeLorean' time-travel segment; the tone is warm, anecdotal, and free-flowing.
19. This episode is best for Argentine media professionals, journalism students, and listeners interested in the behind-the-scenes history of Argentine television and technology journalism.
20. Listeners outside Argentina unfamiliar with Argentine television, TN, or the media personalities referenced will find the episode's dense proper-noun references hard to follow without prior context.
