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In the north-easternmost region of Italy, Friuli Venezia Giulia (Friuli Venezia Giulia), there is a rich abundance of radio programmes.
The radio diversity has its origins in the pirate radio stations of the 1960s. At the beginning of the 1970s, private radio was officially authorised in Italy and many former ‘pirate’ stations became ‘private’ stations that were allowed to broadcast alongside the public RAI.
In the years that followed, the network expanded rapidly – politicians mostly stood idly by and watched as one radio station after another went on air without control or coercion. At its peak, in the 1980s, Italy experienced an unprecedented range of radio programmes.
As Austria to the north still had a strict monopoly (i.e. only the ORF was allowed to broadcast on FM), many private radio broadcasters in Carinthia and Styria took advantage of this and broadcast from Italian mountains close to the border. After all, private radio was legal here.
For example, the well-known Radio Uno was broadcast from Monte Forno near Tarvisio/Tarvisio for many years. There were also other programmes such as Radio Valcanale and finally Radio Bakkano.
At the end of the 1990s, the radio scene in Italy began to change again: Large networks (such as RDS, RTL 102.5 etc.) bought into smaller local stations because they were in financial difficulties.
This process continues to this day and the diversity of the Italian radio scene is steadily decreasing. In addition, the full FM band is causing problems for new stations, as it is virtually impossible to obtain new frequencies (this was already officially prohibited by law in the 1990s; previously, you could put as many frequencies into operation as you wanted).
Today, the radio scene is still more diverse than in Germany or Austria, but contains more and more nationwide programmes, although here and there you can still find a small regional station in Italy that broadcasts good music.
The FM band is still quite full, especially in the flat part of Friuli.
Pictures of transmitters from the region can be found here: to the transmitter pictures of Friuli Venezia Giulia
In Veneto there is an extraordinarily large number of programmes. In the flat part, the band is really almost full. A very liberal system developed in Italy in the 1970s. Today there is still a large selection of radio stations.
The radio diversity has its origins in the pirate radio stations of the 1960s. At the beginning of the 1970s, private radio was officially authorised in Italy and many former ‘pirate’ stations became ‘private’ stations that were allowed to broadcast alongside the public RAI.
In the years that followed, the network expanded rapidly – politicians mostly stood idly by and watched as one radio station after another went on air without control or coercion. At its peak, in the 1980s, Italy experienced an unprecedented range of radio programmes.
At the end of the 1990s, the radio scene in Italy began to change once again: Large networks (such as RDS, RTL 102.5 etc.) bought into smaller local stations because they were in financial difficulties.
This process continues to this day and the diversity of the Italian radio scene is steadily decreasing. In addition, the full FM band makes it difficult for new broadcasters, as it is virtually impossible to obtain new frequencies (this was officially prohibited by law in the 1990s; previously, you could operate as many frequencies as you wanted).
Today, the radio scene is still more diverse than in Germany or Austria, but contains more and more national programmes, although here and there you can still find a small regional station in Italy that broadcasts good music.
Pictures of transmitters from the region can be found here: to the transmitter pictures of Veneto