Italy Silences Free-for-All Radio Station

Italy’s free-for-all radio show, featuring would-be terrorists, a Mussolini impersonator and abusive soccer fans, came to an abrupt end today when secret servicemen forced it off the air.

Listeners heard three secret service officials enter the Rome studio of the Radical Party radio station and confiscate reels of tapes and broadcasting equipment.

The tapes contained thousands of messages from mostly anonymous telephone callers who were offered the freedom of the airwaves after financial troubles forced Radical Radio to suspend its usual news and information broadcasts.

Many Italians saw the offer as a chance to let off steam and rang in by the thousands to insult the government, the police and each other.

Spaghetti and the Bible

One man rang with spaghetti recipes, an evangelist quoted Bible passages and an abandoned husband pleaded with his wife to return home.

Up to 2,500 calls a day, which were broadcast uncensored, included impressions of Pope John Paul II mouthing obscenities, Fascist leader Benito Mussolini and former President Sandro Pertini.

But most of the one-minute messages over the last two weeks came from callers claiming to be terrorists and uttering bomb threats or from soccer fans who turned the airwaves blue with insults against rival teams.

A magistrate ordered an inquiry on the ground that some calls violated Italian law by defending fascism and insulting the republic, but until today the broadcasts were allowed to continue.

The radio station editor, Paolo Vigevano, was issued a formal notice that he could face criminal charges, and the telephone calls were replaced by music programs.

‘Submerged Italy’

Leaders of the small but vociferous Radical Party said their idea had uncovered a “submerged Italy” full of misery.

But sociologists dismissed it as a kind of oral graffiti.

The party, which has 11 deputies in parliament, is used to controversy. Last September its president, Enzo Tortora, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for drug trafficking and involvement with the Camorra, the Neapolitan Mafia.