What was Daniel Barjacoba like, according to his brother: “He was capable of pulling a witty comment out of nowhere”

When he was young, between 8 and 10 years old, he really enjoyed the horror book series Goosebumps, by R. L. Stine. Already a teenager, he listened on repeat to the album Californication, by Red Hot Chili Peppers. During the 2003 Copa del Rey final, which Mallorca won, cameras captured a boy running towards the players, dressed in white, with a microphone in his hand, to try to get the first statements amidst all the joy: “That boy was my brother,” says Manel Barjacoba, the younger brother of IB3 Ràdio director Daniel Barjacoba (born in Binissalem), who is nicknamed Dani. Before anything else, though, Sílvia arrived, the older sister, with whom Dani is practically a year apart: she was born in 1985 and he in 1986. Indeed: this year is Dani’s 40th. And Manel, the youngest of the three, who is seven years younger than the journalist, tells us about it.

He has many memories of Dani's childhood and adolescence. He says he was “an extremely cheerful and very curious child,” and that he can boast of having had a sense of humor and wit to make jokes from a very young age, something Manel still admires. At home, it was mainly Sílvia who suffered the jokes: “They loved each other very much, but Dani knew how to annoy her.” You could say he was a bit mischievous. “He was (and still is) a person capable of pulling out a witty comment out of nowhere.”

He was also extremely organized: “I don't know if I'd say I had an almost unhealthy obsession,” he says, laughing: “I had notebooks where I wrote down things that belonged to me. If I had four t-shirts, I'd note it down. I kept track of savings, everything was recorded!” This mentality also carried over to the way Dani played video games; at least, that's how his younger brother remembers it: “He played a lot of Sonic, and he had a notebook where he wrote down the routes. If he lost, he'd note if the path was to the right or to the left, and then he'd repeat the instructions to beat the level.” With Manel, Dani played FIFA quite a bit: “He'd turn down the volume of the commentators and broadcast the match himself. He did that even when he was playing alone,” he recalls.

Football was one of his great passions. He played at the Binissalem School and reached the youth category, but he tore his cruciate ligaments (all three brothers have had them) and had to give up football. At that moment, radio was already a part of his life. Manel recounts how it all started: “At the end of a school year, they asked him to narrate the event. He did it so well that they invited him to participate in Ràdio Robines, in Binissalem. For a while, he hosted a music program where neighbors made song dedications, and they also made prank phone calls. It was very wholesome and very funny humor,” he recalls.

And around sixteen or seventeen years old, the opportunity to collaborate with Radio Manía Mallorca arrived. At that moment, he was already very clear that he wanted to study Journalism, which has finally become his profession: “It's an essential part of him,” says Manel. Of course, he continued to play pranks: “I was with him in the booth during the broadcast of a Mallorca match. It was the Junior Eurovision era. And Dani introduced me on the connection with the journalists from Madrid as if I were Mallorca's representative at the festival. He made me sing some song or other!” recalls his younger brother.

About Dani, he assures that he is the person “everyone in the family goes to for advice” because “he knows how to listen.” In fact, he assures: “Over the years, I've realized that he's someone you can talk to about any topic. Even when we don't agree, I always end up learning something from our conversations.”