The radio series “Spotlight”, on the occasion of World Radio Day, presents a two-hour episode entirely dedicated to radio and shortwave broadcasts, from the early 1960s until the first years of the transition to democracy.
In the first part, listeners are transported to a working-class and refugee neighborhood, to a “dream district”. On the occasion of a text by the creator of the series, Thomas Sideris, who grew up in such a neighborhood, we follow the sorrows and dreams of poor people, as they try to survive, cornered in the popular suburbs, hunted most of the time because of political opinions, trying every day to make a living. Their only outlet is a small radio, permanently tuned to shortwaves.
In the second part, listeners will listen to the story of a boy growing up in the Greek countryside in the 1950s with a radio receiver as his only companion. His life will be identified with radio shows and his personal story will acquire elements from the radio history of post-war Greece, as he tries to heal its wounds from the Civil War and immigration. A compilation of radio broadcasts of stations from Greece and abroad, from the early 1950s to the early 1980s. A radio history of 30 years, which is at the same time the history of Greece from the first post-civil war years to the first years of the transition to democracy.
Research – presentation: Thomas Sideris
Broadcast: Saturday 17 February, 06.00-08.00 am (Athens time)
