“Radio Brindisi on air” opens the chapter of Radio Canale 94

On Friday 19 April at 6.00 pm, the Brindisi Mediaporto (Viale Commenda) hosts a new presentation of the book “Radio Brindisi on Air. From Mamma Rai to Free Radio” (Edizioni Brundisium.net). On this occasion, the chapter of Radio Canale 94 opens with the participation and intervention of numerous protagonists who have animated the radio station over the years.

Radio Canale 94 was one of the most famous radio stations in Brindisi. Founded in 1976 by Giovanni Gervasi and other friends, the radio acquired great popularity thanks to successful broadcasts such as “Vinci la Grecia con Noi” and the football radio commentary of Brindisi Calcio, Gioventù Brindisi and Pallacanestro Brindisi in its most exciting early years in professional world.
Canale 94 has been a social point of reference in the city, promoting initiatives such as the cleaning of the Tancredi Fountain and urban improvements.

The historic headquarters in via Marco Aurelio 41 represented a meeting center for young aspiring DJs and speakers. The Coordination of Musical Groups was born within the radio, with dozens of young local bands joining. The radio has also contributed to local and national music promotion, collaborating with important record companies and entering the Sper circuit for national advertising. The closure of Radio Canale 94 and Novaradio in 1988 marked the end of an era, but its impact on the Brindisi community has endured, leaving a memory of unity and fun.

“Radio Brindisi on Air” tells of how many boys and girls, with a great desire to give voice to their aspirations, their creativity and the desire to have fun in a completely new world, have dedicated much of their free time to a new experience that will remain in the heart and history of the city.
The volume is a journey through time that takes you back to the years when radio waves carried not only music, but also ideas, thoughts and hopes. It is a long process of research, consulting sources and listening to testimonies. The phenomenon of free radio in the Adriatic city is an extraordinary example of how the energy and passion of a few can have had a profound impact on the lives of many.

The book

As throughout Italy, even in Brindisi, starting from the mid-seventies, the radio has played a crucial role in the evolution of the social context and in the diffusion of ideas.

Through testimonies, interviews and archive documents, in the pages of Greco and Saponaro’s book we relive the often emotional moments in which the radio became an increasingly shared communication vehicle. The volume consists of two parts. The first, edited by Domenico Saponaro, is in turn divided into two chapters, the first of which is a general discussion of the historical, regulatory and social context that saw the birth and evolution of free radios, with the transformations that arising both in the technical field and on the socio-cultural and communication process level. The second chapter of Saponaro is a cross-section of history dedicated to Radio Video Brindisi, the first private radio in the Brindisi scene, a journalistic and musical “laboratory” as well as the “cradle” and nursery of figures who have become relevant, not only locally, on the radio and television scene , information and culture. The second part, written by Marco Greco, is the detailed story, chapter by chapter, of the events that have individually affected the city’s numerous private radio stations since their exciting conception. Testimonies and contributions have meant that this volume, in its entirety, can be the first, unpublished, moment of organic rationalization and historicization of the phenomenon, with the hope that it can be configured as a tool for future research on one of the most interesting periods of our recent history. The preface is by Antonio Celeste, the afterword by Mino Taveri, two of the best known and most accredited journalists locally and nationally.

The authors

The authors Marco Greco and Domenico Saponaro are two pioneers of free radio in Brindisi still active on Ciccio Riccio’s frequencies. After the publication of “La Città Emergente” (Edizioni Brundisium.net) and “I Dreamed of Robert Johnson” (Edizioni Brundisium.net), they dedicate another interesting contribution to the musical history (not only) of the city of Brindisi.

“The event is part of the collaboration agreement between the Brindisi Bibliomuseale Center and the Brundisiumpuntonet Cultural Association, aimed at promoting local culture, history and talents”.