Bringing the Nation to the "Provincia". Promotional Strategies and Entertainment on TeleSanterno

This chapter traces the history of TeleSanterno, a local TV station founded in 1974 in Casalfiumanese (Emilia-Romagna), which exemplifies the complex interplay between national and local dimensions in Italian private broadcasting. Emerging from grassroots experimentation, it rapidly evolved into one of the most watched local channels in Italy, under the patronage of entrepreneur Domenico Berti. TeleSanterno blended regional folklore, dialects, and everyday stories with nationally recognized formats and celebrities, embodying the cultural and economic ambivalences of Italy’s provincia. Events like the fake UFO landing in 1979 encapsulate its imaginative reach and promotional ambition, while the central role of Daniele Piombi symbolizes its national aspirations without losing sight of its local roots. At its peak, the channel localized national imaginaries while aiming for broader visibility, before declining after Berti’s bankruptcy in 1983. TeleSanterno’s story reveals how the provincia functioned not only as a geographical label, but as a lens for rethinking media, identity, and cultural production at the beginning of the 1980s. One of the most challenging knots to untangle in our research as the Bologna Unit of ATLas – Atlas of Local Televisions, was the relationship between the “national” and “local” dimensions (Ortoleva 1995, pp. 43-45). At a certain point, rather than trying to resolve it, we chose to preserve the ambivalence between these two levels. Sometimes one aspect prevailed without ever completely overshadowing the other. This is particularly pertinent for the case of Telesanterno, a broadcaster founded in Casalfiumanese, a town near Imola (Emilia-Romagna), in 1974.