Earlier with
Uri and, since 1927 with
Eiar, in Italy there is the first true public monopoly strongly based on the social role of what the Regime, even with several conditions, gave recognition to the medium.
"In that period radio entertaining capability was not even hypothesized". A piece of evidence was the very first radio schedule, all oriented towards culture and pedagogy to improve social relationships. At the same time, anyway, Fascist radio created good information, even though visibly controlled, showing an excellent technical ability and a not so ordinary regard towards expressive structures of that new medium. In addition, and this is very interesting, Eiar will have developed soon, even if step by step, a
fairly good regard towards audience predilections: it’s not an accident the explosion, in the 30’s of
"light" music in radio scheduling, event that will have become driving force for the entire record industry. Spread of radio and record appearance were, at the time, strictly woven. In 1927 70% of radio broadcasts were musical (24% classical, 14% folk songs, 10% dancing, 1% religious) while 12% was assigned to news and 7% was dedicated to children.
In 1931, after years of distrusts and blasts towards the new mass medium, also Vatican installed its radio station (Radio Vaticana). Fascist regime tried very soon to cage the contents but it could not impose its rhetoric. So Fascist radio couldn’t be totally fascist. It was remarkable, to this end, the fact there was a
very large gap between Regime’s intellectuals and radio audience’s predilections. in 1938, for example, there were venomous remarks against
”canzonette” (easy listening songs) considered as degradation bringers, while three years before Marinetti, father of Futurism, hardly challenged audience’s bad taste. In fact, however, because of its relative ease and cheapness,
radio technology from 30’s on 50’s gained in a short time the widest spread, it was in effect the first radical innovation among the mass media after printing invention. As usual, technology, when is well tweaked, generates new contents, languages, imaginaries and also producer and products, consumer goods and consumers. In this years radio and broadcasts administration, also because of the cost of transmission technology and studies, is primly entrusted to governments.
Broadcasts are in AM, but it’s maybe the most vivid period in radio history, when experimentation is at most, when “live broadcast” concept is at its highest stage and when broadcasts are written in a perfect and meticulous way. In this period of radio transmission story the most of
Via Asiago, 10 production comes to light. Perfectly symmetrical, to some degree, with radio post-pioneer period (30’s – 60’s) is the period of birth and increase of the so-called “free radio stations”, that is the 70’s. Also for this instance, setting free of taste and expressive structures comes before new organization and production modalities. This kind of autonomy is the one that, in a measure, manifest itself as in fascist radio interstices as in the creases of an institutionalized mass media system. In the period of maximal crisis for cinema, music shows improvement signals, although its fruition style changes: expense for juke-box decreases while increases the one for the records. As for TV, narrow collective fruition is left behind, in favor of two styles that get stronger each other: a) private and household audience and b) pop music concerts (from rock singer-songwriters to other expressive forms), that gradually begin to become out-and-out media happenings.
For a long time have cohabited strongly politicized radios (movement radios) and Radio Stations that privileged musical proposal: these ones won the day and started hinged changing processes in media market, even succeeding in defining national and generation awareness processes. Utilization of radio as an emotional release medium was also characteristic of the cultural phenomenon of pirate radio stations in Great Britain. As well as in that case music confirmed their success. It’s unmistakable, in fact, that radio moves along national culture industry between absorption and disablement, suspended between approving tendencies and sudden revolutionary impulses. A plain case of
"absorption" is just embodied by
free radio stations: coming off the system but with an high degree of agreement with the system itself (overlaps and superimpositions with some segments of phonographic industry on the one hand, on the other hand of information industry), they put themselves as further changeover factors of/in musical taste. As well as technological media “on audience side”, really performing a social representation role, often improving personal identity. One of private radio stations peculiarities, in fact, was the interaction with the audience: live phone calls and
"dedications". Launched a few years before by Radio Montecarlo, the “dedication” was a space in the schedule “on demand”:
the audience became, in a measure, the radio flux maker.