Julián Isaac

The feat had a name of its own, and it is printed on the clothing: “Gran Reto 750.” So shows the photograph of August 31, 1985 that accompanies this entry, in which five men pose in the T-shirt of the challenge — Joffre Maestracci, Ricardo Sarmiento, Julián Isaac, Néctor Citino and Ramón Mata. The image expands what this Archive had recorded until now: the mark is credited to Isaac and Mata at the microphone, but behind them there was a team. The names of Maestracci, Sarmiento and Citino are included here exactly as identified by the person who keeps the photograph; the exact distribution of duties among them during the 125 hours remains to be documented.

The record passed on: the RETO 14.5.0

The mark of Isaac and Mata did not go untouched. In September 1989, from the other end of the country, RC 14.5.0 AM — Radio Cachamay, of Puerto Ordaz — set out to beat it with the RETO 14.5.0: the announcers Carlos “Caco” Hernández and Carlos Eduardo Bertorelli, together with the operators José Alfonso Mata and Elvis Rondón, completed 150 straight hours of team broadcasting, with the station's doors open so that anyone could certify that they were live on the air. The 150 hours of the RETO 14.5.0 broke the record Isaac had set four years earlier: two generations of announcers, at two ends of the country, measuring the endurance of the voice. The full account of that feat is in the entry for Carlos “Caco” Hernández, published in this same Voices collection.

After la Todopoderosa

Isaac was later general manager of Radio Caracas Radio — where it fell to him to lead the station's transition from the youth music format to the news one — and from 1988 he built a career at RCTV: presenter of El Observador and vice president of news (1997–2000) and of marketing until 2007. He died in Miami in December 2015.

Article in progress

Article in progress…… Still to be documented is whether his voice appears in miniteca jingles or in the spots for the Poliedro sound clashes sponsored by Caracas 750, and photographic material from his time at the station. If you keep recordings or photographs, contribute to the MiniTK Archive.

Social media

• · No social media — Julián Isaac died in 2015. If you keep material from his time at Caracas 750, write to us through the contact form

Credits and sources

• · Wikipedia, “Julián Isaac”: biography, joining Caracas 750 in 1983, the 125-hour record with Ramón Mata (1985), career at RCR and RCTV.
• · El Cooperante, “Fallece de un infarto Julián Isaac, récord mundial en radio y exvicepresidente de RCTV,” and El Impulso (26-12-2015): matching obituaries.
• · Cuando Era Chamo, “Caracas 750 Dinámica”: Julián Isaac among the station's leading announcers (that source's spelling “Julián Isaacs” is normalized to “Julián Isaac” following Wikipedia and the press).
• · Proyecto Caracas Memorabilia: “Pegaditas 750” hosted by Ramón Antonio Mata Bellorín and Julián Isaac (Q.E.P.D.).
• · Internal cross-reference (the record passed on): the account given by Carlos “Caco” Hernández to Culturaminiteka.com (protagonist source) — Radio Cachamay's RETO 14.5.0 (September 1989): 150 straight hours as a team that beat the 125 hours of 1985; see his entry in this Voices collection.
• · Photograph of the “Gran Reto 750” team dated August 31, 1985, with the five protagonists identified (Joffre Maestracci, Ricardo Sarmiento, Julián Isaac, Néctor Citino and Ramón Mata): material contributed to the CMTK Archive. The name of the challenge can be read printed on the T-shirts.
• · Under documentary verification: the participation of his voice in Caracas 750 spots for guerras de minitecas and the exact role of each member of the team during the 125 hours.