(ANSA) Rome, October 6 - Italy's state-run RAI broadcasting corporation climaxed the 90th anniversary of its first radio transmission Monday by 'turning off' normal television programmes to reproduce reports on the airwaves of significant historic events. RAI's president and director general, Anna Maria Tarantola and Luigi Gubitosi, reminded listeners that RAI is a public service that "never gets old" despite its age, adding that it is "our past but also our future". "Celebrating 90 years of radio means remembering the very roots of the RAI and public service broadcasting," they said in a joint statement, "but it is also an opportunity to reflect on the great potential offered by the media of our time". Radio reports being beamed on the special TV slots on all RAI TV channels included the dispatches informing Italians of the assassination of U.S.
President John Kennedy in 1963, Pope John XXIII's 1962 'sermon on the moon' on the eve of the Second Vatican Council, the victory of Gigliola Cinquetti with the classic Non ho l'età (I'm Not Old Enough) at the 1964 Sanremo song contest and the slaying of anti-Mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in Palermo in 1992 as well as landmark sports events. Every day as many as 35 million Italians use radio, Flavio Mucciante, editor in chief of Rai's Radio 1 channel, said during the 8 am GR1 news programme, adding that "those who predicted a slow decline in the face of the frenetic development of technology lost their bet". "Today it is the most modern instrument there is, capable of invading other media which become vehicles for its distribution". RAI's first ancestor, the Unione Radiofonica Italiana (URI) was formed in 1924 with the backing of the Marconi Company following a model adopted in other European countries.
URI made its inaugural broadcast - a speech by Benito Mussolini at Teatro Costanzi - on 5 October of that year.
Guglielmo Marconi's S.A.
Radiofono-Società Italiana per le Radiocomunicazioni Circolari (Radiofono) held 85% of URI shares and Western Electric's Società Italiana Radio Audizioni Circolari (SIRAC) held the remaining 15%. Under a 1923 Royal Decree, wireless broadcasting became a state monopoly under the control of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, and URI was commissioned to provide services for a minimum of six years. However, when URI's contract expired in 1927, it was succeeded under another royal decree by the partially nationalised Ente Italiano per le Audizioni Radiofoniche (EIAR), which became Radio Audizioni Italiane S.p.A.
(RAI) with investment from Società Idroelettrica Piemontese (SIP) in 1944. During the reconstruction following World War II, much of RAI's early programming was influenced by the "Reithian" style of the BBC.
The emphasis was on educational content.
Programs like Non è mai troppo tardi and Un viaggio al Po introduced people to what life was like in other parts of the country, at a time when most people couldn't afford to travel. Over the following years RAI made various changes to its services as they became less didactic and more commercial. RAI reorganized its radio stations in November 1946 into two national networks, Rete Rossa and Rete Azzurra ("Red Network" and "Blue Network").
RAI added the culture-based Terzo Programma in October 1950.
On 1 January 1952 the Rete Rossa became the Programma Nazionale (focusing on informational content) and the Rete Azzurra became the Secondo Programma (with a greater emphasis on entertainment).
The three radio channels eventually became today's RAI Radio 1, RAI Radio 2, and RAI Radio 3.