On April 29, 2001, for the first time in its history “La Patada” failed to be broadcast. That was a decision of San José radio station Radio Monumental, which owned the license, under threat of being sued by lawyers for Catholic priest Father Minor de Jesús Calvo, who ran Radio María, also in the Costa Rican capital, whose manner of running the station was mentioned a number of times by Medina in his program.

“El Compadre” (The Buddy), as Medina was affectionately known, sought an injunction in court on June 22 that year and won a ruling in his favor that ordered the station to air his programs uncensored.

At the time Medina was killed he was writing a book on the Radio María case. “I have in my possession 50 hours of taped interviews and eight files containing very valuable documents. There are still a lot of things to be told,:” he recounted during the last interview he gave to the Costa Rican weekly Universidad.

Passionate about radio, he also became involved in other fields – cycling, soap operas, shows. His investigative work touched a nerve here and there.

In 1979, during the Tour of Costa Rica cycle race, he accused a number of race officials of wrongdoing. Anonymous written threats were shoved under his door.

“I had to change my telephone number more than two or three times. We faced it all – intrigue, jealousy and even the falsity of so-called friends,” he wrote on that occasion.

The threats reappeared in 1993, after he exposed irregularities in the importation of sports shoes by a powerful company. As time went by the case was forgotten. Medina was above all a brave an who would not allow himself to be intimidated. Even so, he was afraid to die like his brother Jairo, who was shot to death in a Medellín, Colombia, street on August 14, 1985.

Since receiving the first death threats, Medina used to carry a .38-caliber revolver in his car’s glove compartment. It was still there the day he was shot. Neither on that day did he wear a bulletproof vest that a friend had lent him.

He was the father of five children, grandfather of 14 and great-grandfather of a newly-born girl. “They are the most beautiful in the world,” he used to say.

A gentle-looking man, Medina did not tolerate mediocrity. He was up-front and said what he thought. Old-fashioned, he wrote his scripts on an ancient typewriter. He would type through the night, pecking away at the keyboard that gave life to his characters – who faithfully reflected Costa Rica’s idiosyncrasies.