Antenna 3 Lombardia

Antenna 3 ( Full name in 1977 Antenna 3 Lombardia)

Country	Italy
Programming
Language(s)	Italian
Ownership
Owner	Sandro Parenzo
History
Launched	3rd November 1977
Links
Website	http://www.mediapason.it/antenna3/

Antenna 3, formerly known as "Antenna 3 Lombardia" and also known as "Antennatre" is a private TV station. It was founded in 1977 by Renzo Villa, a clerk of the municipality of Varese, who became a self made TV publisher. Enzo Tortora, a famous Italian showbiz personality, was instrumental in its founding.

Antenna 3 was one of the first Italian private tv stations, born once the state monopoly on television broadcasting was ended by the little TV station Telebiella. Among almost 1500 private TV stations born in those years in Italy, Antennatre, was, that time, the biggest one, with one of the most modern broadcasting centers in Europe, and the biggest tv studio, the so-called "Studio 1".

It was established in Legnano, a small town in the suburbs of Milano, close to Malpensa airport. A lot of very famous Italian TV personalities showman worked or started their career at Antennatre such as Ettore Andenna, Massimo Boldi and Teo Teocoli, Amanda Lear, Renato Rascel, Giorgio Faletti and Walter Chiari. Cino Tortorella worked at Antenna3 as director and writer.

Other important Italian television directors, such as Beppe Recchia and Paolo Beldì, and Davide Rampello worked in Antenna3 too. The owner of the TV station himself, Renzo Villa, was one of the anchormen. A lot of famous technicians and managers of Italian television started their career working for Antenna3.

The tv shows were based on audience engagement and on Enterprise generated content. The Italian songwriter Roberto Vecchioni, for example, who was graduated in classical literature and was a high school teacher, had an afternoon show that helped students on air with their homework, such as with translations from Latin and Ancient Greek.

Renzo Villa, was the owner of the tv station until 1987 but from 2004, the station, which still exists today, has been owned by Telelombardia.

After this death in 2010, Renzo Villa's family, as well as some of his former employees and friends, founded a charity association in his memory.

Bibliography

• Aldo Grasso, La Tv del sommerso, Milano, Mondadori, 2006. ISBN 88-04-56194-7
• Giancarlo Dotto e Sandro Piccinini, Il mucchio selvaggio. La strabiliante, epica, inverosimile ma vera storia della televisione locale in Italia, Milano, Mondadori, 2006. ISBN 88-04-53952-6
• Joseph Baroni, Dizionario della Televisione. I programmi della televisione commerciale dagli esordi a oggi, Milano, Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2005. ISBN 88-7078-972-1
• Renzo Villa e Roberta Villa, Ti ricordi quella sera?, Edizione Televideo3, 2010. ISBN 978-88-905616-0-3