{"id":20617,"date":"2026-09-09T09:40:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T09:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiomaria.org.au\/eng\/?page_id=20617"},"modified":"2026-09-09T09:40:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T09:40:43","slug":"a-brief-history-of-radio-maria","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.radiomaria.org.au\/eng\/a-brief-history-of-radio-maria\/","title":{"rendered":"A Brief History of Radio Maria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Radio Maria was founded in 1982<\/strong> as a parish radio station in Erba, in the province of Como.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its aim was to enable elderly people who could not go to church every day to participate in Holy Mass.<\/strong> From the very beginning, it stood out for its programming, entirely spiritual in character and devoted to the Catholic faith<\/strong>, with no advertising revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1987, the \u201cRadio Maria Association\u201d was established with the arrival of Emanuele Ferrario as its first President and Fr Livio Fanzaga as Managing Editor.<\/strong> The parish radio station was transformed into a Catholic broadcaster that first expanded throughout Italy and subsequently across all five continents. Roberta Zappa was already working in the broadcasting studios at the time.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1998, on the initiative of Radio Maria Italy, the \u201cWorld Family of Radio Maria\u201d was established.<\/strong> Today, Radio Maria also broadcasts throughout Europe via digital satellite (Eutelsat Hotbird) and around the world through stations based in individual countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audiradio data estimated Radio Maria\u2019s average daily audience at 1,644,000 listeners in the first half of 2009.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Operating costs are covered mainly by donations from listeners, with no income from advertising.<\/strong> In addition to financing its technical infrastructure, the money received is used by the World Family of Radio Maria to establish new Radio Maria stations throughout the world.<\/strong> Under Italy\u2019s 2005 Finance Act, Radio Maria received funding for the enhancement and modernisation of its broadcasting equipment in its capacity as a nationwide community radio station. Since 2006, Radio Maria has also received donations through Italy\u2019s 5 per mille tax-allocation scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radio Maria relies on the work of a very large number of volunteers<\/strong>, both at its headquarters, where they work as production and mixing-desk assistants, and throughout Italy, where they are responsible for mobile studios and the promotional network. In addition to its central editorial office in Erba, Radio Maria has other editorial offices around the country. Only around twenty people work full-time as employees in programme production and administration, while all programme hosts are volunteers and are selected among members of the clergy, including bishops, religious sisters and lay people. Under the station\u2019s statutes, which explicitly define it as Catholic and state that its sole purpose is the dissemination of the Catholic faith, all programme hosts must be Catholic. They are required always to express the teaching of the Catholic Church, with reference to the Church\u2019s Magisterium, particularly the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Sacred Scripture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The broadcaster\u2019s principal purpose is, in the words of Pope John Paul II, the \u201cnew evangelisation\u201d<\/strong> (cf. the encyclical Redemptoris Missio), and to help Christians grow in faith and on their journey towards holiness. To this end, the station also promotes initiatives encouraging social participation and involvement that have a strong educational dimension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radio Maria\u2019s most important and most widely followed programme is undoubtedly A Christian Reading of Current Affairs and History, in which Fr Livio discusses current issues.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of great importance in the broadcasts of Fr Livio Fanzaga, the station\u2019s director, are the messages given by Our Lady in her apparitions to the visionaries of Medjugorje.<\/strong> These are phenomena on whose origin the Church had not yet officially pronounced, while nevertheless giving a positive assessment of the messages and of the conversions taking place in Medjugorje, developments which the station follows closely. In particular, on the 25th of every month there is a prayer vigil awaiting the monthly message from Medjugorje.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Programming includes broadcasts devoted mainly to catechesis, Sacred Scripture, theology and current affairs within the Church. There is general catechesis accessible to everyone, as well as catechesis specifically for young people. The schedule also includes readings from the Bible, courses on spirituality, liturgy, Mariology and Church history, biographies of saints, and explanations of the teaching of the Magisterium. Eight hours of prayer are broadcast every day<\/strong>, ranging from prayers familiar to all practising Catholics \u2014 the Our Father, Glory Be, Hail Mary, Creed, Act of Contrition, Angelus, Hail Holy Queen, and other prayers drawn from popular tradition \u2014 to live prayer broadcasts from parishes, monasteries and religious communities, as well as hospitals, prisons and military barracks throughout Italy, including the recitation of the Rosary and celebrations of the Eucharist. In the evening, there is a time of prayer led by children. Every day, time is devoted to the Rosary and the Liturgy of the Hours \u2014 Lauds, the Midday Prayer, Vespers and Compline. The schedule is completed by a number of public-service, cultural and human-development programmes, including phone-in programmes with a doctor, a dentist, a child psychologist, an educator and an educational specialist. All these human disciplines are approached from the perspective of faith. Many programmes are devoted to the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Particular emphasis should be placed on the broadcasting of specific catechesis for children and young people<\/strong> \u2014 especially the Friday evening youth catechesis \u2014 as well as for engaged couples and the sick.<\/strong> Alongside catechetical programmes, the morning schedule (10.15 a.m.\u201312.00 noon), afternoon schedule (6.00\u20137.30 p.m.) and evening schedule (9.00 p.m.\u2013midnight) frequently include in-depth programmes on religious, cultural and historical subjects, featuring experts in the relevant fields. Another regular programme is the Sunday evening Round Table, in which both lay people and members of the clergy may take part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radio Maria includes short musical interludes, consisting mainly of religious music composed by both clergy and contemporary lay composers, often drawn from the repertoire of ecclesial movements, with only a small proportion taken from classical music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One characteristic feature of Radio Maria is that listeners are able to phone in at the end of every programme.<\/strong> There are three principal news slots: a review and commentary on the day\u2019s press at 8.45 a.m., which also covers current political, economic, social and general news; a summary of the main news from the world and the Church at 1.30 p.m.; and a delayed rebroadcast at 7.00 p.m. of the Vatican Radio news bulletin originally transmitted at 2.00 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the programmes is Fr Livio Fanzaga\u2019s \u201cmorning coffee\u201d (<\/strong>caffeino mattutino<\/em><\/strong>)<\/strong>, a kind of rhyming \u201cbittersweet satire\u201d based on a topic from the day\u2019s news, as well as the rhyming joke featuring the Shark and the Pufferfish, in which the Pufferfish represents the typical parish priest \u2014 patient, prudent and\u2026 well-fed! \u2014 while the Shark symbolises the non-Catholic who would like to convert but never quite manages to do so. These \u201crhyming youth catecheses\u201d were collected in a book published in 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The theme song used for Radio Maria programmes is the song Ballata per Maria<\/em> by Roberto Bignoli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radio Maria\u2019s publisher in Italy is the Radio Maria Association, established in 1987 in order to take over the broadcaster. From 1987 to 2020, the Association was chaired by Emanuele Ferrario. Its current President is Vittorio Viccardi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technical aspects<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radio Maria has always paid particular attention to technology. It is the Italian radio station with the largest number of transmitters \u2014 more than 850 \u2014 distributed throughout the country.<\/strong> This gives it the widest coverage of any Italian radio broadcaster, comparable to that of RAI, and enables it to be received without difficulty even in remote areas, such as mountain villages, where no other radio signals are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because Radio Maria developed in Italy during the second half of the 1980s, before the Mamm\u00ec Law regulating Italian broadcasting, it acquired numerous transmission facilities in strategically important locations, ensuring excellent signal coverage, particularly in major cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radio Maria is also one of the few Italian broadcasters to transmit in mono. This choice reflects the fact that its output consists mainly of spoken rather than musical content, which can be transmitted at good quality without stereo sound. By concentrating the energy of the FM transmission within the 15 kHz bandwidth used for mono \u2014 apart from a small amount used for RDS \u2014 a mono signal, for the same radiated power and coverage area, is less susceptible to interference than a stereo FM transmission. The stereo component of an FM signal uses a form of amplitude modulation (DSB), which is considerably more vulnerable to interference than frequency modulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radio Maria is a member of DAB Italia. Radio Maria broadcasts can be heard on DAB+ channel 12C, at a frequency of 227.360 MHz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since March 2010, Radio Maria has also broadcast throughout Italy via digital terrestrial television (DVB-T), where it can be heard by tuning a television receiver to channel 789 or, for users with a Sky decoder, to channel 5789. Radio Maria is carried on digital terrestrial television through the Rete A 1 multiplex.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The radio station can also be listened to through a digital media player, through the free app for Android and Apple mobile devices, both smartphones and tablets, or through various apps such as Radio Maria Play and Radioplayer. In addition to its YouTube channel, a live stream is also available on the website: https:\/\/radiomaria.it\/ascolta-la-diretta\/<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, it was the most-followed radio station on Facebook, where it now has almost three million followers.<\/strong> Fr Livio\u2019s Blog<\/strong> is also widely read and is devoted to evangelisation and to spreading the messages of the Queen of Peace. (4.5 million users in 2005.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As evidence of the broadcaster\u2019s widespread popularity, in 2014 Radio Maria took part in the national \u201cCuffie d\u2019Oro Radio Awards\u201d<\/strong>, winning by a wide margin in both the \u201cMy Best Radio\u201d<\/strong> and \u201cRadio Personality\u201d<\/strong> categories. Radio Maria received 52.2% of the vote, while Fr Livio received 48.5%, compared with 15.1% for the runner-up, Giuseppe Cruciani. Radio 105 came second among the radio stations, with 11.7%, and Radio 24 third, with 10.8%. In addition to Cruciani, Fr Livio finished ahead of several long-established figures in Italian radio, including Linus, Marco Mazzoli and Fiorello.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radio Maria broadcasts in 85 countries across five continents<\/strong>, through 130 stations broadcasting audio in 83 languages.<\/strong> Some 30,000 Radio Maria volunteers serve more than 40 million listeners worldwide.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Radio Maria, un miracolo di volontariato. Origini, storia, attualit\u00e0 dell\u2019emittente cattolica pi\u00f9 ascoltata nel mondo<\/em> [Radio Maria: A Miracle of Voluntary Service. Origins, History and the Present Day of the World\u2019s Most-Listened-to Catholic Radio Broadcaster<\/em>], interview with Fr Livio Fanzaga by Angelo Montonati, Sugarco Edizioni, 2012. ISBN 978-88-7198-629-6 \u2013 Updated edition<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Radio Maria nel mondo<\/em> [Radio Maria in the World<\/em>], publication of the World Family of Radio Maria Association.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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