A passer-by (let’s remember, his name was Mario Marotta, he was 52 years old) killed by the police in Rome during a demonstration against the Spanish embassy. A very lively PSDI congress complete with slaps among the delegates. The exit of the French Franc from the monetary snake. The civil war in Lebanon. These are some of the topics that the journalist discussed on Monday 15 March 1976 Ruggero Orlandothe legendary and gesticulating RAI correspondent from “New York”, read and commented on the front pages of Italian newspapers. Thus was born “Prima Pagina”, the Rai Radio 3 broadcast created by Enzo Forcella which is currently celebrating its first fifty years.
At the beginning the show was broadcast within a container called “Quotidiana”, which included, after the music and the radio newspaper, a review of newspapers entitled “Prima Pagina”: half an hour of readings by journalists from different newspapers who took turns at the microphone in weekly shifts. After less than seven months, in October 1976, “Prima Pagina” was enriched by “Filo Diretto”: listeners intervened to comment and ask questions on the hottest topics of the day. The novelty was launched by Eugenio Scalfaridirector of “la Repubblica”, the newspaper born in January of that year.
In half a century there have been hundreds of journalists, Italian and also foreign (generally correspondents from Italy) who have set the alarm clock at dawn and have reached the Rai studios (in via Asiago, in Rome, or in the regional offices), supplied with water and coffee, to tackle the reading of the newspapers and give a voice to the listeners. A happy alternation of voices and points of view, which brought many protagonists of Italian journalism in front of the microphone of “Prima Pagina”. Some names: Miriam Mafai, Marcello Sorgi, Lietta Tornabuoni, Stefano Folli, Sergio Romano, Franca Zambonini (for many years head of the Roman editorial team of Christian family), Gian Antonio Stella, Gad Lerner, Mimmo Candito, Gian Paolo Ormezzano, Luigi Pintor, Fiorenza Sarzanini, Francesco Merlo, Igor Man, Marco Tarquinio, Concita De Gregorio, Alberto Chiara, Flavia Perina, Nello Scavo, Annachiara Valle, Lucia Capuzzi, Antonio Polito, Tonia Mastrobuoni, Andrea Fabozzi, Paolo Valentino, Massimo Franco.
Some more lively, others perhaps more sleepy, with coughs and rustling of pages (with the articles sometimes getting lost on the desk). A commitment that also involved university professors (such as Giovanni Sabbatucci and Alessandro Campi) and brilliant priests who later made careers. As don Matteo Zuppison of a journalist, who hosted the program twice: the first week of December 2001 and the Christmas week of 2008. Today Zuppi, cardinal, archbishop of Bologna and president of the CEI, toasts half a century of broadcasting with these words broadcast on Radio 3: “I too am celebrating 50 years of Prima Pagina. It was a particular, very interesting experience for me: both the reading of the newspapers, with a few coffees necessary to avoid getting confused between the lines, and the conversation with the listeners which was always interesting, stimulating, sometimes full of critical issues, but in which the radio carried out its function. So best wishes for the next 50 years. A lot has changed in communication, but Prima Pagina remains a wonderful experience in which there is the role of the radio which provides content, as it must to do, but also that of the listeners to discuss together, to dialogue.
The program remains a plural, open and free space. And half a century after his birth the current director of Radio 3, Simona Salareiterates the importance of “keeping this great window of democratic discussion open”. The broadcast, today edited by Cristiana Castellottibegins every day at 7.15am immediately after the conclusion of the international press review of Radio3 mondo. We start with 15 minutes of reading the titles, half an hour is dedicated to in-depth analysis, while between 8 and 8.45 there is space for interventions from listeners (with live phone calls or reading of messages). “It is a space for discussion between the journalist and trained and passionate listeners, who have the idea of commitment in their heads and who often deal with topics outside the spotlight,” observes Simona Sala.
It is precisely the phone calls from the listeners that give the inspiration for the theme that he addresses at 10am “The whole city is talking about it”an in-depth broadcast with guests chosen in just under an hour, a rare opportunity, in the information panorama, for a civil and non-yelling exchange of ideas.
A personal testimony. Having hosted “Prima Pagina” “in emergency” on some occasions (when the journalists on duty were forced to leave on duty or, sometimes, they didn’t hear the alarm clock…) I would like to add that “Prima Pagina” is also a comforting act of faith in journalism. I realized this when the listeners, after having had their say, add: “Now I would like to hear your opinion as a journalist”, or “You who are a journalist, explain to me, help me understand…”. You feel burdened with a significant responsibility, but it is also a great satisfaction.
