The first in a series
Antulio “Kobbo” Santarrosa spoke exclusively with Spokesman about a few questions around his figure and his character from La Comay, with whom he returns to the small screen today at 17:55 via TeleOnce.
The “hell” he claims to have lived on Mega TV, what happened to Rocky The Kid, his arrival at TeleOnce, his “enemies” and his second retirement are just some of the issues discussed as part of the series that begins today with this newspaper.
Santarrosa ended his six-year retirement in Florida on January 28, 2019, with La Comay returning to Mega TV.
In this way, he brought back the character who had been on the air for 14 years in SuperXclusivo, by Wapa TV, from where he was fired in January 2013 after a boycott that managed to cancel many commercial guidelines.
His motivation to leave his horse farm in Florida, to sell it and to fight on local television, he says, arose from a lack of control over the island.
“We lived in Ocala, which is a country and we had a fabulous house, but we felt a little lonely. And before an offer made to me by Raúl Alarcón (SBS president), I decided to come to Puerto Rico “, he indicated.
However, his return was much more motivated.
To the reaction of his wife Iris Lugo to this decision, he commented that “she always follows me and does what pleases me and makes me happy. He supports me in everything. “
The puppet did not regret returning from the television.
“I didn’t regret it because the six years were fantastic, I did things I wanted to do. I wanted to have a farm or a farm here in Puerto Rico. When the Wapa thing happens, I retire, go to Orlando and see the town of Ocala, and say, “Here we will make our dream come true,” he recalls.
Describe his time on Mega TV as “hell”
December 18, 2020 was his last program on Mega TV, with Rocky The Kid, when he decided not to renew his contract.
He said that in his first months at the Spanish television station (SBS) he felt at ease. However, “after that it was hell, it was hell. And what I’m saying here, Raúl Alarcón (SBS president) knows I wrote it to him; not one, not two, not three, five, ten times … of the things that happened at Mega. I’m not going to go into details, but Raúl knows all the hell I lived there “, he insisted.
He explained that a month before informing him of his decision, he wrote him an extended e-mail.
“I have something good and that’s what I write because this is my test. I was very sorry, but I had to say, “I can’t take it anymore!” I was there for two years, but for the first two months or so I said, “It will be repaired.” But the rest was hell. My employees can tell you that they also suffered it “, he underlined.
Santarrosa stated that “the people from Mega treated me very well. I have no complaints about them. It is a conglomerate that did not have a series of things so that I could do my program well “, he specified.
His time on Mega TV was not without controversy either. In June 2020, he faced a boycott over the racist expression of La Comay’s expressions against the president of the Victory Citizenship Movement (MVC), Ana Irma Rivera Lassén. While in October of the same year, the upset was caused by the release of a photo in which the candidate for mayor of San Juan, Manuel Natal, appeared with the daughter of Alexandra Lúgaro, candidate for governor by MVC.
In social networks, before the announcement of his departure from television – on December 11, 2020 – some pointed out that this was due to the end of the general election.
“What happens is that they are coincidences of life. The policy is over, but people don’t know my contract is over. If that were the case, I wouldn’t be here (on TeleOnce), ”he said.
His entry into TeleOnce, he says, was precisely at the request of its owner Lenard Liberman, president of Liberman Media Group, which acquired Univisión Puerto Rico.
“Mr. Liberman called me, he wasn’t ready for that. I had quite a few meetings because I wanted to meet not only TeleOnce, but also him. He showed me that he is very interested and knows, because there are people who do not know television and are in the environment. He knows a lot about television “, said who signed a contract for two and a half years.
Kobbo announced that he would have no restrictions on the channel to express himself freely and control politicians.
“Everyone says he’s lying, the agreement that we and Mr. Liberman have is that La Comay must be La Comay. La Comay will be La Comay. Of course, I want to do other things that I can’t say now because I want to grow. This is not a change in La Comay, because he will always talk about gossip, “buzzing”, vacillation, but I want to delve into other things that the city will benefit from. After a while, they will see it “, he anticipated.
“Rocky wanted to be”
Today he will reveal the animator who accompanies the doll, “considering that Rocky the Kid was not allowed”. Kobbo said he asked Alarcón “in favor” to allow the announcer to continue on SBS Radio and join TeleOnce, as well as his other employees who work on channels other than Mega TV.
“Rocky wanted to be, everything was broken, but before I said, ‘Don’t worry, I don’t want you to get hurt.’ His father (Roque Gallart) works with him, his brother (Rogie) is a programmer there and I would have felt very bad that they retaliated against Rocky and his family. It was sad, “he said.
By the way, he did not intend to bring back his old partner Héctor Travieso, who left shortly after starting the program in the last stage.
He added that Naughty had been with me about a month before and said, “I have to go.” I asked him if something was happening, if he was sick or his wife and he told me no. “
He admits that many hate him
On the other hand, the producer also talked about his “enemies”.
“It all depends on what is meant by the enemy. I have a lot of people in the environment who then hate me. An example, when La Comay came to Mega, Telemundo made a lot of changes, and Wapa and Univisión. That bothers the press, not the public. Now that we are on TeleOnce, put the stamp on which both Telemundo and Wapa will make their readjustments; He’s already shaking because he’s a strong character. And they can be enemies, “he argued.