Usko Volmar Abel Santavuori (16 January 1922, in Viipuri – 1 June 2003, in

Espoo Espoo (, ; sv, Esbo) is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärvi ...

) was a Finnish

sensationalist In journalism and mass media, sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encourages biased or emo ...

radio reporter. He achieved fame by groundbreaking programs where he took himself and the microphone to participate in various extraordinary events, such as diving and parachuting, instead of remaining a passive observer. Santavuori's most significant feat was his early reality show in 1950, where he committed a fake burglary, and was arrested by the police, who had no idea of that the criminal they'd come to arrest was a journalist and everything they said was being recorded and later broadcast. The only official who was notified of the event in advance was the

chief of police Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the b ...

, who had given his blessing. Santavuori's program aroused discussion due to the

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened ...

and uncouth language used by the arresting officers. The fake burglary was used as a basis for the 1951 comedy, ''

Radio tekee murron ''The Radio Burglary'' ( fi, Radio tekee murron) is a 1951 Finnish crime comedy directed by Matti Kassila and starring Hannes Häyrinen. The idea for the movie came from an actual radio program done by sensationalist reporter Usko Santavuori, in ...

'', where the protagonist is a young reporter with a penchant for the kind of novel programs Santavuori himself was famous for. In his life outside the radio, Santavuori worked as head of

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...

for the oil company Esso.

External links

YLE archives, containing the original recording of the fake burglary
1922 births 2003 deaths Mass media people from Vyborg Finnish radio personalities Finnish radio presenters 20th-century Finnish journalists {{Finland-bio-stub