DISCUSSING BOOKS
On the trail of the growth of an
Nikola Vončina, 2003, Shows with best rating from 1964-1971. Contributions to the history of radio and Television V, Zagreb: Croatian radio-television
Fifth volume of the series of monographs about the history of Croatian radio-television by Nikola Vončina, presents a history of national television from the period between 1964-1971. Archivist and statistic data collected by Voncina testify how foresighted it was to invest in connections and transmitters — until 1971, the whole, rather unsuitable geographic area of Croatia was covered with TV-signal, which was accompanied by a huge increase in the number of television sets in homes. The period of the greatest rise of the »new« medium, the time when it had definitely settled in peoples’ homes, was also the time of a very high-strung international geopolitical situation, as well as domestic. In the period of liberalization of Yugoslavia, that ended with student movements in 1968 and 1971, television was the greatest arena for conflicting political options. In the context of the federal organization of TV-centres TV Belgrade had unquestionable political advantage, which was reflected in the rivalry between the Zagreb and Belgrade TV centres (for example in the battle for the separate Croatian Evening News), or in other words, a long-term organisational fight that resulted with a separate, federal, that is to say, national, Croatian radio and TV program. Nikola Vončina, a founder of the television and radio archives centre, chronologically examines this landmark period, following shows and programs (informative-political and documentary) with best ratings. This approach somewhat facilitates covering the history, but also burdens it with abundant statistical data (documents, statistics, ratings, notes, laws, yearbooks, program plans, official memos and other archivist material), while lacking in conclusions. Still, it is a fundational, rich and needed book — like all the books from Voncina’s monograph series — which will present an abundant archival starting point of all future researches in the field of audio-visual medium in Croatia.
Ivo Škrabalo |
