Before politics, TV was a great passion of Silvio Berlusconi. Net of laws and agreements, which also had a decisive importance, that of the knight was an extraordinary adventure for the broadcaster, today looking back to the 80s of the very pioneering debut of Canale 5.
Exhilarating years in which Tycoon Berlusconi was in the front row deciding castings, shots and purchases with great intuition and energy.
It all began with his personal friendships, the famous years spent as a young singer and improviser on cruise ships and with the qualities of barker for which he was number one in Italy: we wanted maximum persuasive skills, for example to convince Mike Bongiorno at the apex success in leaving Rai to begin the adventure of a private TV where only he was able - and rightly given the results - to see an enormous future.
It was 1978, it was called TeleMilano, then Canale 5 and super Mike with a leap in the dark overpaid became the first champion of Berlusconi as a TV entrepreneur. That is the historical beginning.
All the witnesses of those early years - from Carlo Freccero to Giorgio Gori from the faithful Fedele Confalonieri to Antonio Ricci - tell of that period with the distinct sensation of having made the history of private television in Italy.
After Mike came the Mundialito, the world champions tournament in Uruguay, 1980: Berlusconi snatches the rights to Rai and from that moment football on TV will never be the same.
Berlusconi entered Italian homes exercising great confidence with the spectators, looking back it was a sort of communication training ground without which he probably would not have won the trust of his voters when he decided to take the field.
The quiz and football came first, then the stars with Corrado to kick off the unexplored TV land of the south and the shopping of the TV stars the first telemarket ever seen in Italy of the Rai cathode ray tube changed from the football market of which was the protagonist.
Costanzo, Baudo and Carrà arrived and for those who are not old enough to remember it, there are no current comparisons on TV. Not everyone was happy: Carrà didn't do much, Baudo - the only case - to go back to his mother Rai (who also gave him the penance to stay a few seasons) sold a building and returned some money.
