The abatement of the medium-wave antenna in Pescara San Silvestro took place on July 7, 2022, 50 years after its installation. A video is available on the Facebook page of “We who listen to the medium waves” Source
Perhaps the officials who decided on the shutdown could have given a less symbolic date, but the public broadcaster’s website speaks clearly: as of September 11, 2022, medium waves will no longer be usable. In the country that invented radio, the last medium-wave broadcast towers will soon fall, without even waiting for the centennial: the first “circular” broadcast by URI (which became EIAR and finally RAI), dates back to October 1924. The news had been circulating since September 2021, when it was learned that the new service contract, the agreement RAI has with the state to guarantee public service, specified that decommissioning would take place within a year. This is the culmination of two decades of cuts: on May 15, 2004, the medium waves of Radio2 and Radio3 had been shut down and merged into the unified Radio 1 network. Then more cuts continued in 2013and 2014. There were few facilities left. And in September there will be a denouement. Will Guglielmo Marconi turn in his grave?
In the press release published on its website, the San Marino broadcaster does not mention the two radio stations that broadcast from Monte Titano: Radio San Marino (102.7 MHz) and Radio San Marino Classic (103.2 MHz): will these also be broadcast on digital terrestrial TV? Source
RTV San Marino will get frequencies from Raito cover the Italian territory. During a meeting of the board of directors of the Italian public broadcaster, held on June 30, 2021, the proposal to transfer frequencies to the San Marino station was unanimously approved. The general manager of RTV San Marino, Carlo Romeo, recalls that thirty years ago it was the then general manager of Rai Sergio Zavoli who aired this possibility. The agreement between the two governments is now awaited, essential for the decision to become operative. It will probably have to wait until 2023, when, with the passage to DVB T2, Rai’s increased availability of transmissions will allow it to host the San Marino station in its multiplex, thus enabling it to serve the peninsula.
Buongiorno Slovakia, an online newspaper published in Italian since 2009, talks about the proposed increase in the radio and television licence fee and the difficulties of approval after similar initiatives had been rejected in recent years Source
RTVS, radio and television of Slovakia (Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska) has accounts in the red. In the last ten years, attempts have been made several times to adjust the canon to make up for it, but they have always failed. The last one was in 2016, when the Minister of Culture proposed to raise it to 7 EUR (about 50% more). Today citizens pay 4.64 EUR per month, pensioners 2.32 EUR, rates set 17 years ago. The current proposal (to go up to 8.5 EUR, 83% more) will have a long and difficult path: to be approved, it will have to pass the inter-ministerial evaluation, reach the Council of Ministers and finally be voted by Parliament. More details here
There is also controversy in Germany
In Germany from 2013 the cost of the annual fee is set at 17.50 EUR per month, with plans to rise to 18.36 EUR from 2021 Source
When you touch up a concession fee it is never roses and flowers. In Germany in 2022 the increase will only be 86 Cents per month, but in Saxony there is resistance from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Eurosceptic nationalists of AFD (Alternative für Deutschland). The newspaper Nordbayern warns of the possible convergence between the two political forces to block the increase; an approach defined as “typically East German”. But Nordbayern is also critical of those who minimize it by saying that the figure is modest, because in both cases the management of public service is not questioned. This is something to be said about, because during the pandemic (according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Passau) the ARD and ZDF networks with their special programmes created a climate of permanent threat without sufficiently questioning the measures taken by the government.
The situation in other European countries
The AGI service compares the cost of the fee in different European countries. In the photo, the bronze horse, five metres high, work of the Sicilian sculptor Francesco Messina installed in 1966 in front of the historical headquarters of the RAI in Rome, Viale Mazzini 14, has become the symbol of the public broadcaster Source
In Italy, according to a study by Anci (Association of Italian Municipalities) conducted in 2011, the radio and television fee was the most hated tax: it was evaded by 25% of the population. To avoid it, in 2016 the Renzi government reduced it from 116.50 to 90 EUR per year and linked the payment to the electricity bill. In France the annual fee is 139 EUR, but advertising has been abolished from the public networks. In the United Kingdom, on the other hand, the fee is £157.50 (173.50 EUR), and if you use a black and white TV set, reduced to £53. In Spain the tax was abolished in 2010, but according to a study by the University of Santiago de Compostela, it costs citizens 98.80 EUR in fees. More details and rates from other European countries can be found in the article published by AGI Agenzia Giornalistica Italia. Curious also the case of Austria: the amount is not uniform, but between 41.86 EUR in Oberösterreich / Vorarlberg and 53.46 EUR in Steiermark.
The Museum of Radio and TV in Turin reopened to the public on 26 September 2020, with a layout redesigned during the lockdown break. Notice boards, lighting and scenography have been redesigned, as well as the assortment of pieces, flanking the equipment used by the public broadcaster in 94 years of activity with multimedia itineraries that narrate the evolution of the public broadcaster’s television programmes. Historical relics tell of the ancestors of radio, from the telegraph to the first radio receivers.
L’articolo (Italiano)
Un nuovo percorso espositivo racconta 94 anni di storia della Rai attraverso apparecchiature, programmi, costumi e arredi di scena
Una panoramica delle sale espositive che raccontano, con apparecchiature d’epoca, l’evoluzione delle trasmissioni radiotelevisive FonteTra i microfoni usati negli studi radio, alcuni quasi centenari, c’è questo esemplare con il marchio della Eiar (Ente Italiano per le Audizioni Radiofoniche), subentrata nel 1927 alla URI (Unione Radiofonica Italiana) che nel 1944 sarebbe la RAI Radio Audizioni Italiane e dal 1954, con l’avvento della televisione, Rai Radiotelevisione Italiana Fonte
Ha riaperto al pubblico dal 26 settembre 2020 il Museo della radio e della Tv di Torino, con un allestimento ridisegnato durante pausa del lockdown. Bacheche, illuminazione e scenografia sono state ripensate, come pure l’assortimento dei pezzi, affiancando alle apparecchiature usate dall’emittente pubblica in 94 anni di attività dei percorsi multimediali che raccontano l’evoluzione dei programmi televisivi dell’emittente pubblica. Cimeli storici raccontano gli antenati della radio, dal telegrafo ai primi ricevitori radio.
Un raro registratore “portatile” degli Anni Trenta, con la registrazione, su nastro metallico, della voce di Benito Mussolini FonteIl percorso museale è stato arricchito con arredi di trasmissioni storiche della Rai: sullo sfondo, al centro, la cabina di Rischiatutto, il telequiz condotto da Mike Buongiorno tra il 1970 e il 1974 FonteI costumi indossati da Adriano Celentano e Mina nel corso della trasmissione “Alla ribalta”, andata in onda nel 1964 FonteIn aggiunta alle teche, la zona espositive comprende delle isole tematiche: questa è dedicata ai microfoni Fonte
