Il 3 January of the 1954 the era of the was beginning in Italy television. That day 66 years ago, Rai - after three decades of radio alone - debuted on the small screen with the television announcer Fulvia Colombo, who kicked off the regular broadcasts of the National program, the current Rai 1. That day the first episode of the TV news and episode number one of the “Sports Sunday”, the longest-running program on Italian television, still on the air today (we are at almost 3.300 episodes).
At the time, the public company was still called Italian Radio Auditions, but the TV revolution also led to the change of the company name, which on April 10 of that same 1954 was changed to RAI – Italian Radio and Television.
The following year, with the Chamber and the Senate busy electing the new President of the Republic, the premiere was broadcast commentary of a parliamentary sitting.
In 1956 Rai debuted in eurovision with the seventh edition of the Winter Olympics, which took place in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
La full coverage of the country arrived in 1957, 10 years ahead of schedule. On February 3, the public company began broadcasting advertisements for “Carousel”, while on 25 November of the following year the courses of “Teleschool”, intended for children who could not attend compulsory schooling. In 1960, the legendary “It's never too late”, a program that taught reading and writing.
These early public service television broadcasts played a decisive role in thebring down the illiteracy rate. Not only that: it was just after the arrival of TVs in millions of homes that Italy reached a satisfactory level of linguistic unit, with the establishment and dissemination of a standard Italian capable of supporting (or overlapping) the regional and dialectal dialects. Suffice it to say that on January 3, 1954, only 20% of the population was able to speak an Italian that was understandable throughout the country.
Il second channel arrived in 1961 (coinciding with the start of the centre-left), while Rai3 it only saw the light of day in 1979. The objective of the third network was to give a voice to the Regions, established in 1970, but then a national newspaper was also created at the share of the PCI.
