Italian radio
"I have in mind a plan that could make radio a household tool, such as the piano or phonograph. the receiver will be designed in the form of a radio music box adapted to receive different wavelengths that can be changed at will by pushing a button. The music box will have an amplifier and a speaker phone built into it. Will be held in the living room and you can listen to music, lectures, concerts (1 ).
With this idea in 1916, David Sarnoff had anticipated a commercial project imaginatively able to contact a large number of consumers, a technological innovation that is able to communicate simultaneously with an increasing number of users, music, talk, news, the radio as a medium of mass communication.
The brilliant idea of \u200b\u200bSarnoff, however, was still an idea alien culturally and technologically-minded era, tied to a mass entertainment based on the use of cinema, popular journalism, the idea of \u200b\u200bbeing able to receive in the home items in the outside world, had not yet been translated into technical organization, industrial and commercial, the more that the commercial use of the radio assumed the breakthrough the home invasion of the intimacy of each individual. Moreover, the objectives of the communications industry had the "wireless telephony", since this was the sector most interested governments.
the beginning of the twentieth century, for these reasons, the radio, crushed by the enormous development of wireless telegraphy, was relegated to the margins of telecommunications, it was also viewed with distrust, because they blamed the excessive power that diffusive exposed to the messages' listening more indiscriminate, indiscreet, and occasionally, so it was decided to shelve the radio still ensure the confidentiality of transmissions, a tendency to secrecy, which was accentuated by the outbreak of World War mondiale.I first draft broadcasting were developed after the war, with the return of peace made it possible that this reversal of attitude that led the way success to broadcasting. Along with the telephone, the radio was one of the few industries to reap huge benefits from the war, in all countries directly involved in the conflict developed as a means of war, thus beginning its transformation.
Towards the end of the second decade of the century, outlining the two opposing systems of broadcasting that will be henceforth regarded as the classic models of the organization radio: the state monopoly of broadcasting in Britain, Germany, France, Italy and the system's private network in the United States of America ( 2).
The great home of the European broadcasting was England, where it was formed in October 1922 the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) which gave so began the first regular broadcasting service on the continent, and was followed by a proliferation of stations in Berlin , Denmark and Czechoslovakia, thus ushering in a rapid process of industrialization and commercialization. From 1922 to 1924 were installed in the United States over a thousand broadcasting stations, apparatus grew from one hundred thousand to nine hundred thousand and Germany at the end of 1924 there was already more than half a million subscribers.
In the United States between 1912 and 1916 were released more than ottomilacinquecento broadcasting licenses, and the huge land mass, unlike Britain, it allowed a wider use of the bands without causing harmful interference into the ether. In 1920 a New York, David Sarnoff, finally obtained his permission and funding to build a model of the Radio Music Box, was born the WJY that "passed in July 1921 directed the boxing match Dempsey-Carpenter, who was heard by more than three hundred thousand people. The great street of the ether had been drawn ( 3).
The radio revolution has invested the most developed countries in the Atlantic, where he showed the first major processes of massification of contemporary history. In Italy the progress of the broadcasting world had little impact, the press did not give much attention to the new phenomenon, if not as a future event and from time to time to express regret for the delay in respect of achievements from other countries.
The first Italian legislation on wireless communications dates back to 1910, a bill drafted by Carlo Schanzer, which assigned the performance of radio communication in the sphere of public services and subjected to restrictive regime of concessions to private companies, from which came the June 30, 1910 Law No. 395 was inspired by military concerns and regarded as the only means of radio communication, ignoring its highly innovative nature. The advent of World War I broke off all ongoing projects and emphasized the concept of antidiffusiva radio, but in the meantime had created a small group of amateurs, certainly not comparable to those of other countries. The attempts of some broadcasters had little effect. As those of "Radio Herald, which began in 1922 in Rome a rudimentary service broadcasting intercepted by a few dozen fans.
It was coincidence that the advent of fascism, the question of the current round of radio and the fact that the radio in the peninsula were to develop in full during the founding of the Fascist regime of Mussolini made it easy to put this important means of communication under its full control.
Mussolini had just settled to the Presidency of the Council was faced with the question of the role of radio in November of '22 when he received a secret memo of Philip Bonacci, a spokesman for a private group interested in promoting the formation of a network radio in Italy. The paper noted that both the public and the Fascist government had important economic and political interests in the rapid development of radio and remembered, however, that "Italy is the only major Powers that is not yet a complete and organized international telegraphic public service by means of a great institution that will facilitate the expansion of the Italian network abroad, where, for obvious political reasons, the Royal Government can not intervene directly with government services.
part of foreign companies has so far been hampered by an unfair propaganda, the creation of a great institution radiotelegraph Italian, with the aim of giving rise to many small companies in Italy more dependent on foreign companies which between them would then d ' Agreement for the control of the services radiotelegraphic Italian (4 ).
The consequence of this was while the other powers that had already developed a system of radio communications, Italy was left without a radio network efficiently. To remedy this situation, Marconi, and a group of private investors had created a company known as SISERT (Italian radiotelegraphic service and radio), was prepared to make available to the system all its patents in exchange for a government grant enabling him to organize a radio system of national and global. Mussolini rejected the request of Marconi especially since at that time the inventor did not have a lot of confidence as a result of a process against him for the failure of the Italian bank's discount when he was president; But the captain opted to cover her shoulders with a decree which reserved to the State all future communications system for the financial year, with the power of the government to grant them concessions to private companies. That same year, Marconi wrote to Mussolini, urging the regime to intervene in the field of radio, stressing the political leader the opportunity to put the radio control in the hands of the state and the great potential of new media for the purposes of propaganda.
With the unofficial support of several government officials were drawn up plans for the creation of the first major Italian radio station, together with the URI (Italian Radio Union), Marconi helped to build a station in Rome that October 6, 1924, began to spread, with the consent of the regime, its first pilot programs, which began in spite of the Fascist anthem "Youth, consisted mainly of music and yet the government propaganda there he found the place. The URI scheme
granted since December '24 for a period of six years the monopoly of broadcasting throughout the national territory, the grant shall be extended for a further period of four years if neither party had notice . The URI undertook to ensure regular broadcasts for six hours a day and build more stations in Milan and in Naples, and finally the government reserved two hours a day for your own communications and the company was obliged to broadcast, in case of emergency, announced on behalf of the State, even the timetable for the ordinary transmissions. Having overcome the initial hesitation, the scheme did so its entry into the field of radio communications and began to see the potential value of radio as a vehicle of propaganda and cultural standardization.
Radio saw its light in this phase of the consolidation process for the new authoritarian power, just as the fascist ruling class, the issue of control of public opinion to overcome the crisis provoked by the murder of Matteotti ( 5).
In July '24 the legislatively created a serious regime of strict controls around the nascent broadcasting, where the restrictions of freedom of the press were bound to affect the radio that was long tributary of the newspapers for information, and could use only for a short time its own agency Radiotelegraphy before the tax was in 1924, Stefani as the sole source for its news programs.
The coincidence of the birth of broadcasting in Italy with the foundation of the fascist state, however, was only occasional in fact the first submissions of the URI had little to do with the new political climate, it was based programs-music, concerts Room, dialect songs. The speech consisted of weather reports, business information and humorous imitations, the news was very short, and the programs were produced in the studio, without diagrams, from makeshift team. The design still prevalent
then considered a marvel as the radio home, like a magic box that annulled the distance, like a toy by the miraculous effects. "In the cafes of the evening program will include a concert radiotelephone; home, the child is asleep enchanted by a beautiful fairy tale that a great writer to tell all the children of Italy. Followed by other miracles: the receiver, which attacked the car, the rastrellerà vibrations of the ether while the machine is at home, the device pocket, the device hidden in his hat. Breathe in the air thinking "( 6).
The squalor of the programs of the URI is not discouraged, however, the first owners of television receivers: who were more interested in the quality of reception rather than curriculum content. Listening to radio is not that collective phenomenon promoted on the basis of mass by the fascist regime, the play is primarily a technical activity related to the knowledge of the instrument, apparatus, around which are formed rapidly, based on the English model many associations, such as the RAI (Italian Radio Association), FIR (Federation Radiocultori Italy) and many more.
The creation of a truly mass audience required that you switch from production of industrial amateurs, who built only on order, to a system that would guarantee quality products. The high cost and lack of mass production hamper the launch of this industry and made it impossible to purchase, so a good radio had an average cost of three thousand pounds more than the license fee, subscription, while the average income year was 3498 lire.Le sales, given the prohibitive cost, were reserved for urban and more affluent classes, in addition, especially in areas Southern, prejudice, illiteracy, isolation, costume backlog of rural masses and the lowest standard of living is certainly not favored the expansion of the new medium. Meanwhile, the URI
agreed to triple the programs, so it was necessary to inform subscribers about programs that would be aired and for this purpose was published in January of 1925 the Radiorario, the weekly magazine of the URI with ( 7).
During the 1925 next to the concerts, radio speech took place: issues of fashion, travel, literary conversations, little remained of the news reported that some information already appeared in newspapers or provided Agency Stefani. The most important of the radio event was the inauguration of the Milan station that stood out immediately for a better organization of programs for the variety of programs dedicated to children with a book of games, stories and songs for ' childhood.
Station Milan also had the privilege to transmit for the first time a speech celebrating the third anniversary of Mussolini ( 8) of the march on Rome and a few months after a speech by Roberto Farinacci. The same station Lombard began to write at the close of transmission, the sports news first: a very important fact because for the first time the radio anticipated the release in the dissemination of news.
In late '25 and early '26 programs of the two Italian broadcasters were enriched, despite the fact that Italian radio remained low, and the number of subscribers grow poorly.
The regular dissemination of news to you in 1929 when it was created, at the insistence of the government newspaper Radio, which broadcasts daily with six gave account of international events, the progress of the scheme and the various political activities and was practically the first big Italians in an attempt to provide a systematic way, information of a current controlled by this simple device the system was able to introduce the policy directly in the homes of all Italians. Lando Ferretti in 1930, then chief of the Press Office gave instructions to the Italian auditions radio, EIAR, (former URI) to prepare the equipment for the live commentary of all open public meetings, sponsored by the government or the party, of course the most important programs of this type were those from Piazza Venezia where Mussolini spoke to the crowd from the balcony of his study.
In 1931 nearly 50% of programs had EIAR musical, news on 22% and 10% were children's programs, the rest from the sport and the end of pubblicità.Alla 'there were 31 in Italy 9 major broadcasting stations, But despite the popularity of radio was increased significantly, had not yet become a constant presence in daily life of Italians, who still held him in vague prejudices. Were some members of the regime, including Arnaldo Mussolini to emphasize what was one of the most important tasks towards the development of radio, which was to comply with stringent standards of liability, so its development was monitored and controlled as the radio was not to spread songs, but perform an educational function. The Supreme Audit Committee on Broadcasting in 1931 showed two main factors of weakness in radio: the limited number of devices with the peasants and but the workers and the need to develop new techniques to use the radio as an instrument of culture. The committee suggested to overcome these obstacles that the government bestow radios to each group of working men's club, school and colleges, and also that the radio would transmit a greater volume of cultural programs through which you could make a cultural and political indoctrination mass.
During the '30s the concerns of the Fascist radio policy focused on these two points. Under the direction of Costanzo Ciano, the Ministry of Communications of radio endowed rural schools, with the aim of reaching not only the students but also their families, the first thousand units distributed were used in turn by local schools and in the evening were offered on loan to the farmers' organizations. In June of '33 was created the Rural Radio Authority, in charge of distributing radio sets in the elementary schools in the countryside. The real objective of rural radio was of course to systematically bring the rural masses to the fascist propaganda, traditionally isolated, and also with regard to rural schools to provide teachers, through radio, an educational tool to make lessons more enjoyable history and civics, considering that many teachers in the past had complained about the fact that the children of their countries had never heard the voice of Mussolini and then fascism and its leaders could not have taken an instant. Computer programs, however, specifically to radio listeners were rural poor and simplistic, began with music, speeches by representatives of EIA, religious programs, scientific. In 1942-43
Giuseppe Bottai, Minister of National Education, initiated experiments in educational use of radio during the holidays, to allow students to study at home. Despite these attempts to overcome the political and cultural provincialism, there was still a widespread reluctance among farmers against a unit that did nothing but disrupt their way of life, linked to isolation, and also cultural programs were nothing but a duplication of what already was in school, so the radio was still considered as an occasional source of entertainment, where the objective of Mussolini's radio in every home was not reached, the end of 1937 the total subscribers amounted to eight hundred thousand EIA and eighteen transmitting stations were in operation.
hinder the purchase of an appliance is still the high cost, certainly not prohibitive for an average working class family. The scheme began, around '33, to consider the idea of \u200b\u200bproducing a popular radio at a price so low that it could also enter into the more modest homes. The program of the "radio People "was announced to the public in 'April of 1937 under the name" table radio ", and offered a model unit in one simple price of 430 francs, payable in 18 monthly installments. The design of the "table radio" set out to give the working classes of the cities and countryside of the opportunity to purchase a radio at a modest price, and also through it, education, music, and culture in general would stop be privileged few.
The formation of a radio audience was actually made with different outcomes from those who wanted the scheme, with a contrast between ground and listen to the incentive management authoritarian instrument as regards the productive apparatus. The radio would then be entered in classes workers mainly as a hobby, even with attitudes of rejection of planning and listening the past, with considerable attention to the radio in other countries, that at the beginning of World War II will form the basis of listening illegal.
The process of standardization of radio in Italy, then, was slow and partial, slow for the working classes were excluded from listening to a lot of time and partly because the amateur tradition and practice of the individual are the real experience of radio, so it is doubtful whether there has been a close relationship between fascist totalitarianism and mass of listeners.
Notes
( 1) Memorandun David Sarnoff for the president of the American Marconi Company, Frank Monteleone, ' "History of Italian radio and television" , ed. Marsilio, Venice, 1992, p.3.
( 2) Antonio Pope, "Political history of radio in Italy" , ed. Guide, Naples
( 3) Franco Monteleone, op.cit.
( 4) Franco Monteleone, op.cit.
( 6) The \u0026lt;\u0026lt;Broadcasting>> perfezionatissimo will be in Italy, \u0026lt;\u0026lt;The Tribuna>>, October 4, 1924, in A. Pope, op. cit. p.24.
( 7) Alberto Monticone, "Fascism at the microphone" , ed. Studium, Rome
( 8) The first speech by Mussolini on the radio is 1924, but due to a technical problem radioascoltari heard only the shock and whistles: This leads to a distrust of the leader to the radio, overcome distrust following a speech to the Americas by the widespread short-wave stations in Rome.
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