Giancarlo Santalmassi (20 October 1941 – 4 June 2025) was an Italian journalist and radio presenter, from 2005 to 2008 he was the editor-in-chief of Radio 24.

Life and career

Santalmassi joined

RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...

in 1961. He was the first Italian journalist, after his appointment as head of service, who proposed an American-style TG host. On the morning of 16 March 1978, he was the first to announce on television (extraordinary edition of TG2, 10:01:30 am) the news of the

kidnapping of Aldo Moro The kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, also referred to in Italy as the Moro case (), was a seminal event in Italian political history. On the morning of 16 March 1978, the day on which a new cabinet led by Giulio Andreotti was to have underg ...

and the annihilation of his escort by the

Red Brigades The Red Brigades ( , often abbreviated BR) were an Italian far-left Marxist–Leninist militant group. It was responsible for numerous violent incidents during Italy's Years of Lead, including the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro in 1978, ...

, a case that was followed by him day by day until the discovery (9 May) of the statesman's body. Other events he reported include the attack on

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

(13 May 1981) and the

tragedy A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a tragic hero, main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsi ...

Vermicino Vermicino is a village and civil parish (''frazione'') of the Italy, Italian municipality of Frascati, in the Province of Rome, Lazio. In Italian language its name means "''little worm''", in an unused form. Geography Located near Ciampino (4&nbs ...

(11–14 June 1981), followed for three days live on television by the entire country. Between 1992 and the beginning of 1993 he edited two editions of ''Nonsolofilm - Voglio scoprir l'America'', a film cycle with a studio debate focused on the USA, on the occasion of the five hundredth anniversary of the

Discovery of America The human history of the Americas is thought to begin with people migrating to these areas from Asia during the height of an ice age. These groups are generally believed to have been isolated from the people of the "Old World" until the coming o ...

. In 1994 he was appointed deputy director of GR RAI and in 1998 director of

Radio RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels and ...

. In those years he inaugurated and hosted the radio program Zapping. In 1999 he moved to Radio 24, where he hosted the broadcasts ''Viva Voce'' (political talk show) and ''Hellzapoppin. In 2000 the story of the Italian-American Derek Rocco Barnabei followed, accused of murder and subsequently sentenced to death after a questionable trial. In the 22 March 2002 episode of ''Viva Voce'', the former President of the Republic

Francesco Cossiga Francesco Maurizio Cossiga (; , ; 1928 – 2010)
. was an Italian politician who served as President of ...

heavily criticized

Antonio D'Amato Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language–speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular m ...

, then president of

Confindustria The General Confederation of Italian Industry (), commonly known as Confindustria, is the Italy, Italian small, medium, and big enterprises federation, acting as a private and autonomous chamber of commerce, founded in 1910. The association netwo ...

(Radio 24's owner). For this reason, in 2003 he was removed from radio. He returned in October 2005 and took over the direction of the programs and the newspaper. He immediately introduced an innovative (for radio) column of ''Letters to the Editor.'' He revived the ''Viva Voce'' program, later assigned to

Alessandro Milan Alessandro Milan (born 5 December 1970) is an Italian radio and television presenter and journalist. Television * Funanboli – (7 Gold ''7 Gold'' is an Italy-based television network, Founded in 1999 by the Italian business people Giorgi ...

. He also edited the program ''Una poltrona per due'' for some time. During the broadcast of 5 April 2006 he was the protagonist of a live quarrel with Giulio Tremonti. After this he would be removed from conducting the program. Santalmassi died on 4 June 2025, at the age of 83.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santalmassi, Giancarlo 1941 births 2025 deaths 20th-century Italian journalists 21st-century Italian journalists Italian newspaper journalists