Antenna 3, formerly known as "''Antenna 3 Lombardia''" and also known as "Antennatre" is a private TV station. It was founded in 1977 by Renzo Villa, a clerk of the municipality of

Varese Varese ( , , or ; lmo, label= Varesino, Varés ; la, Baretium; archaic german: Väris) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 has reached 80,559. It is the c ...

, who became a self made TV publisher. Enzo Tortora, a famous Italian showbiz personality, was instrumental in its founding. Antenna 3 was one of the first Italian private TV stations, born once the state monopoly on television broadcasting was ended by the small TV station Telebiella. In those years Atennatre was the largest out of 1500 private Italian TV stations. Attenatre had one of the most modern broadcasting centers in Europe, and the biggest TV studio, the so-called "Studio 1".November 3, 1977 start of a media adventure, article written by Pierantonio Idini, who started his career as junior cameraman at Antenna 3
/ref> It was established in

Legnano Legnano (; or ''Lignàn'') is an Italian town and ''comune'' in the north-westernmost part of the Metropolitan City of Milan, Province of Milan, about from central Milan. With 60,259, it is the thirteenth-most populous township in Lombardy. Le ...

, a small town in the suburbs of

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, near

Malpensa Milan Malpensa Airport is the largest international airport in northern Italy, serving Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria, as well as the Swiss Canton of Ticino. The airport is northwest of Milan, next to the Ticino river dividing Lombardy and ...

airport. Several very famous Italian TV personalities showman worked or started their career at Antennatre such as Ettore Andenna,

Massimo Boldi Massimo Antonio Boldi (born 23 July 1945) is an Italian stand-up comedian and actor. Biography Boldi was born in Luino on 23 July 1945. In 1955 his family moved to Milan, where he joined evening classes and began working as a window-dresser an ...

and

Teo Teocoli Antonio "Teo" Teocoli (born 25 February 1945) is an Italian actor, TV conductor, singer and writer appearing in about 30 mostly Italian productions since 1975. Selected filmography * ''Paolo e Francesca'' (1971) * '' The Boss and the Worke ...

Amanda Lear Amanda Lear (; born 1939) is a French singer, songwriter, painter, television presenter, actress, and former model. She began her professional career as a fashion model in the mid-1960s, and went on to model for Paco Rabanne, Ossie Clark, and ...

Renato Rascel Renato Rascel (), stage name of Renato Ranucci (; 27 April 1912 – 2 January 1991), was an Italian film actor and singer. He appeared in 50 films between 1942 and 1972. He represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1960 with the s ...

Giorgio Faletti Giorgio Faletti (; 25 November 1950 – 4 July 2014) was an Italian writer, musician, actor and comedian. Born in Asti, Piedmont, he lived on Elba Island. His books have been translated into 25 languages and published with great success in Euro ...

and

Walter Chiari Walter Annicchiarico (8 March 1924 – 20 December 1991), known as Walter Chiari , was an Italian stage and screen actor, mostly in comedy roles. Biography Walter Annicchiarico was born in Verona, Italy on 8 March 1924 to a family originally ...

Cino Tortorella Felice "Cino" Tortorella (27 June 1927 – 23 March 2017), was an Italian television presenter, best known for creating and conducting the Zecchino d'Oro festival of children's songs. Zecchino d'Oro and Topo Gigio Cino (hypocorism of ''Felice' ...

worked at Antenna3 as director and writer. Other important Italian television directors, such as Beppe Recchia and Paolo Beldì, and Davide Rampello worked in Antenna3 as well. The owner of the TV station himself, Renzo Villa, was one of the anchormen. Many famous technicians and managers of Italian television began their career working for Antenna3. The TV shows were based on audience engagement and on enterprise generated content. For example the Italian

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

Roberto Vecchioni Roberto Vecchioni (born 25 June 1943) is an Italian singer-songwriter, singer-lyricist, lyricist, teacher and writer. Biography Vecchioni was born in Carate Brianza, Province of Monza and Brianza, to a Neapolitan family . In 1968 he graduated i ...

, who was educated in classical literature and was a high school teacher, had an afternoon show that aided students on air with their

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and Ancient Greek homework. Renzo Villa, was the owner of the TV station until 1987 but from 2004, the station, which still exists today, has been owned by

Telelombardia Telelombardia is a Milan-based Italian local television network that offer entertainment programs, news and weather bulletins, sports and political debates, variety shows and paid programming. See also * Qui studio a voi stadio ''Qui studio ...

. After his death in 2010, Renzo Villa's family, former employees, and friends, founded a charity association in his memory.

Bibliography

* Aldo Grasso, ''La Tv del sommerso'', Milano, Mondadori, 2006. * Giancarlo Dotto e Sandro Piccinini, ''Il mucchio selvaggio. La strabiliante, epica, inverosimile ma vera storia della televisione locale in Italia'', Milano, Mondadori, 2006. * Joseph Baroni, ''Dizionario della Televisione. I programmi della televisione commerciale dagli esordi a oggi'', Milano, Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2005. * Renzo Villa e Roberta Villa, ''Ti ricordi quella sera?'', Edizione Televideo3, 2010.

References

Television channels in Italy Television channels and stations established in 1977 Free-to-air Italian-language television networks {{italy-tv-station-stub