lit a candle 5h agoOdd thing, shock. I had only just come across a clip of Polemica en el Bar from years back, one of those late night rabbit holes on YouTube, and this morning the news says he has died in Punta del Este at seventy four. Never followed Argentine radio closely but that programme stayed with me.
Their story
Oscar Mario González Oro, known across Argentina as "El Negro" Oro, was a radio and television host whose morning programmes helped define a golden era of AM radio. He died on 25 September 2026 in Punta del Este, Uruguay, at the age of 74. Argentine news outlets including Infobae and…
Oscar Mario González Oro, known across Argentina as "El Negro" Oro, was a radio and television host whose morning programmes helped define a golden era of AM radio. He died on 25 September 2026 in Punta del Este, Uruguay, at the age of 74. Argentine news outlets including Infobae and La Nación reported his death the same day. For nearly four decades he was a familiar companion to audiences who tuned in for information, humour and the sense of not being alone.
Born in Mendoza on 16 October 1951, González Oro moved with his family to Buenos Aires as a child. He attended school in Mendoza and later in the capital, studied law and psychology for a time, and took theatre classes with Héctor Bidonde, Augusto Fernandes and Lito Cruz. Music remained a lifelong pull: he dreamed of singing, studied piano, and later recorded an album of songs he performed on air. His first sustained radio work included a 1989 programme on FM Playa Verde in Pinamar and producing and hosting overnight shows on Radio del Plata in Buenos Aires.
In 1998 media entrepreneur Daniel Hadad recruited him for the launch of Radio 10. From 4 January 1999 his programme El oro y el moro became a flagship of the station's second morning slot, drawing hundreds of thousands of listeners in Greater Buenos Aires and helping Radio 10 rise to the top of the AM ratings. He shared the air with colleagues including Eduardo Feinmann, Laura Ubfal, Fernando Carlos and Claudio Zin, interviewing presidents, ministers and popular artists while insisting that radio should bring joy and company as well as news. He also worked in television on cycles such as Polémica en el Bar, Cotidiano, Posdata, Noches negras and Los unos y los otros, and briefly hosted Nosotros a la mañana on El Trece. In 2009 Editorial Planeta published his book Radiografía de mi país.
After El oro y el moro ended in 2014 he continued on Radio Rivadavia and returned to Radio 10 with Negro y regreso. In March 2021, on Rivadavia's La vida misma, he announced his retirement from daily broadcasting and settled more fully in Punta del Este, where he had moved during the pandemic. He was briefly married early in adulthood and raised two sons, Agustín and Pablo. In 2016 he publicly confirmed a same-sex relationship, saying his children had helped him live more openly. Friends and listeners remembered his catchphrase "Dale gas" and his belief that radio should make people feel accompanied.
He died in Punta del Este on 25 September 2026. Tributes from Argentine media and colleagues marked the passing of a voice that had grown up with several generations of listeners.
Biography adapted from Spanish Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), Infobae, La Nación and Argentine radio obituaries. Wikipedia ↗
Photos
1Oscar González Oro (cropped from a 2011 Radio 10 event photograph)
by People Forever
From social media
2Posts by Oscar, and posts about them, kept here so they are not lost.