In an essentially analogue Italy, when we had not yet connected the country to the nascent Internet network, on Rai, on RadioTre, a pioneering experiment is broadcast: it is called “Radiotext“, is part of the current affairs program” A certain speech “by Pasquale Santolibroadcast every day, since 1976, for an hour and a half from Monday to Friday at 3.30 pm. 1984 “Radiotext” is half an hour of “micro-telematics” (or “poor telematics”, as he defined it Evening print).
The peculiarity of the program, indeed its uniqueness, is the fact that a large part of the program was used for broadcasting software by radio: apparently incomprehensible sounds that the computers of the time transformed into programs. Three target computers: lo Sinclair’s ZX Spectrum 48k, the M-10 Olivetti and the Commodore 64 (“practically 98 percent” of the Italian market at the time).
The program “was made by Arci Media / IT League, an association that promoted the use of personal and home computers on a mass level in Italy, organizing conferences, seminars and low-cost study courses. Its curators, Luigi Grimaldi and Giovanni Sighele, were members of the Informatics League of Florence. Technical collaborators of the broadcast were Sara Maggi and Fabio Guidiwhich came from Controradio’s experience in Florence. Carlo Moroni, one of the leaders of the Information League, explained the intent as follows: The audience to which we address is very varied: students, teachers, professionals, housewives. Everyone can take advantage of the information that will be transmitted by radio, creating first-rate software for free “.
According to RadioCorriere Tv, which had announced the program, was the “first example of software transmission in Europe” (but in the Netherlands there had already been a similar case). The first episode aired on May 11, the last on June 29 of the same year. Many expected a second cycle that did not happen.
Why did Rai engage in this program? The then director of RadioTre Enzo Forcella explained it in an interview with Evening print recovered from the usual, precious, Quattro Bit blog: “First: to experience the impact of ‘widespread’ computing and its market penetration tool, the personal computer directly from the radio operator’s point of view . I think that the integration between the two ‘signals’, the radio one … Second: to investigate the relationship between broadcaster and users in this phase of profound technological and cultural transformation induced by consumption, which we could already define as mass, product informative From the famous cover of Time to specialized magazines, from basic programming courses on sale at newsstands to real computer magazines, from computer clubs to computer science experiences applied to regular school courses, I think the need to ‘attend ‘also the radio as a more complex, richer and, of course, more up-to-date communication system. ”Enzo Forcella was far ahead, then the Internet would come.
Thanks to the work of Quattro Bit, the eight episodes have been recovered and can be heard in full on the RaiPlay Sound website.