Television then and now!

Times, and people, change. Radio and television are no longer the fastest and most important sources of information since social networks appeared. Those who have a better memory will remember with the nostalgia of some past times when we in Serbia, for the most part, got information by reading a few daily newspapers (Borba, Politika, Večernje novosti, Politika ekspres, Sport…), as many monthly or weekly magazines (Ilustrovana politika, Bazar, Tempo, Praktična žena, Nada, Duga, Sport i svet, Čik, Komunist…).

Newspapers from other republics were also available to citizens. Some read Vjesnik, Večernji list, Oslobodjenje, Večer, Sportske novosti, Dnevnik, Madjar so, Slobodna Dalmacija, Globus, Start, Rilindija, Vijesti, Mladina, SN review…

We had Radio Belgrade (until Studio B, 202, and other local stations appeared…) and one television channel – Radio Television Belgrade.

Radio Belgrade had its audience, and the most listened to programs were Novosti dana, Vreme sporta i razonode, Veselo veče…

Studio B was quite different. With witty and lively presenters, the program went live, and in a short time it became a home in all the houses in Belgrade and the surrounding area as far as its signal reached.

Then Radio Šabac appeared and created a real revolution.

Maybe someone will say that it was the forerunner of the current reality programs, because in the show ČESTITKE, POZDRAVI I ŽELJE (CONGRATULATIONS, GREETINGS, AND WISHES), the wishes of the listeners were fulfilled, and the songs that many then called “trash” (srb. šunda) were broadcast.

With the selected song, congratulations were given on birthdays, getting married, fame, leaving and coming back from the army, going to school, buying a tractor, and giving birth, but also a pleasant lunch and Sunday afternoon.

Seen from this time distance, that show depicted the time, people, and their humble desires and was full of empathy and mutual love.

From daily news to sports

But television, at that time as a new medium, was still a special attraction. Entire families gathered around the “small screen”.

Dnevnik (Daily news show) at half past eight was the most watched, but also the legendary comedy series of Radivoj Lola Djukić and Novak Novak emptied the streets. There are also other unforgettable TV productions:  Kuda idu divlje svinje, Naše malo misto, Kapelski kresovi, Salaš u Malom Ritu, Muzikanti, Grlom u jagode, as well as all the series written by Siniša Pavić…

Big sporting events were a special attraction and joy. All thanks to television.

To this day, the matches of the national football team are retold. At the world championship in Chile, Šekularac was included in the championship team, Džajić‘s goal against England when he “broke” Bobby Moore’s spine was talked about for days and nights, and Katalinski’s goals at Wald Stadium in Frankfurt, Karasijev in Athens, Radanović’s in Split, Piksi against Spain, Augenthaler‘s auto goal at the Maracana, Zvezda’s penalty in Bari… are also remembered.

Memories of the medals and successes of Djurdja Bjedov, Vera Nikolić, Danet Korica, Mate Parlov, Marijan Beneš, Slobodan Kačar, the basketball players in Ljubljana or the spectacular victories of Boba Živojinović and Monika Seleš remain in the annals and on some old tapes…

Unforgettable boxing spectacles in which the world was delighted by the famous Cassius Clay, even though they were held before dawn in our time, left millions of people awake even in the former Yugoslavia.

Following the enormous popularity of television, which at the time represented a new window to the world, weekly newspapers dedicated only to television appeared.

The publishing house Borba launches TV news (somewhat later Politika publishes a Radio TV review) which publishes a detailed TV program, news about famous faces, TV personalities, TV series and movies…

TV news is present at all important events – premieres, concerts, filming of series and movies, fashion shows…

TV news launches various campaigns and awards numerous prizes. For the first time, the best acting couple is chosen. Readers then chose Milena Dravić and Ljubiša Samardžić.

Television presenters and journalists become real TV stars and idols of young people. Mića Orlović, Dušanka Kalanj, Goran Milić, Oliver Mlakar, Željka Fatorini, Saša Zalepugin, Dina Čolić, Mersiha Čolaković, Danka Novović, Kamenko Katić, Dunja Lango, Helga Vlahović, Ljubivoje Ršumović, Minimaks, Biljana Ristić, Minja Subota, Miodrag Zdravković, Ljiljana Marković, Dragan Babić, Svetolik Mitić, Zaharije Trnavčević, Kosara Balabanović, Jovan Šćekić, Perica Slovenski, and especially sports commentators Mladen Delić, Marko Marković, Dragan Nikitović, Vladanko Stojaković, Boris Mutić, Božo Sušec, Petar Lazović, Zoran Popovski, Sead Hadžijahić, Milorad Djurković, enjoy immense respect from viewers and are on the front pages of newspapers devoted to television and radio.

In addition to Tito’s, the front pages of newspapers also featured photos of Yugoslav actors, popular singers and athletes.

Singers from all republics were equally represented: Ivo Robić, Arsen Dedić, Zaim Imamović, Safet Isović, Djordje Marjanović, Cune Gojković, Tozovac, Majda Sepe, Mišo Kovač, Zdravko Čolić, Kićo Slabinac, Miki Jevremović, Neda Ukraden, Nada Mamula, Tereza Kesovija, Lola Novaković, Ivica Šerfezi, Dubrovnik troubadours, Sedmorica mladih… as well as actors: Mija and Čkalja, Nela Eržišnik, Bata Živojnović, Boris Dvornik, Karlo Bulić, Relja Bašić, Milena Dravić, Olivera Katarina, Gidra Bojanić, Paja Vujisić, Dragan Nikolić, Smoki Samardžić, Bata Stojković…

Athletes were also on the front pages: Šekularac, Cerar, Daneu, Džajić, Djurdja Bjedov, Parlov, Vera Nikolić, Plećaš, Stekić, Beneš, Svetozar Gligorić...

Experienced, top professionals, dedicated to work, literate, educated, and constantly improving themselves worked in the media. Television was the most watched, and newspaper editors competed to come up with a better and more read section dedicated to television.

Mistakes were remembered

Of course, in such an exciting and dynamic business, there were also small mistakes that the media skillfully placed on the front pages of their newspapers.

Inventive editors of TV News created a wonderful action “Mis i mister lapsus” (“Miss and Mister Slip”) in which funny and comical situations were collected when the presenters were usually “tongue-tied” and pronounced a word, thought or sentence incorrectly.

It was, in the true sense of the word, the time of television. Some of those slips are still recounted to this day.

It is interesting that ordinary viewers “hunted” for mistakes and sent them to the editorial office. Sports commentators made most of these witty blunders, but others were not without mistakes either.

Dragan Nikitović: “Tadija Kačar is older than his younger brother”, Božo Sušec: “They are a harmonious couple. He and his horse”, Marko Marković: “There is no more time to finish the game”, Kamenko Katić: “Tomorrow will be warmer, because it’s getting worse”, Ljerka Draženović: “Comrade directors, we received news that the eggs are still jumping”, Mira Adanja Polak: “Men don’t have their own women’s day”…

Every tabloid owner also has his television station

These were different times. In front of the cameras and microphones were people who were trained for that job. TV viewers could learn a lot from them. Television had the task of informing as well as educating.

And today? What is offered to viewers in Serbia now?

When you look at the biographies of the people who run television and edit those programs, nothing special can be expected from the hundreds of channels that are available to viewers.

The question is: what television experience do they have, where did they acquire that knowledge and from whom did those who now edit TV programs learn the journalistic trade?

Today, there are more television channels than journalists at the time when there was one TV channel and several radio stations in Serbia.

Who are these people who are now speaking to us from that magical box, how did they get to the small screens and what messages are they sending us?

It would be normal for television owners to have an obligation to inform citizens objectively, to bring educated, cultured people to the studio from whom something can be learned, but, unfortunately, today, televisions mainly serve to give its owners and leaders power, influence, and money.

In Serbia, almost every tabloid owner now has his own television.

What is the role of the regulatory body (REM) and until when the viewer, who is obliged to pay a subscription to national television, will be forced to watch violence, primitivism, inappropriate scenes, and individuals who need serious help and care?

They would give anything for better ratings

These days, there is a fierce debate in Parliament on whether reality shows should be banished from small screens or at least their broadcasting should be moved to nighttime slots. The opposition is demanding the removal of REM, accusing it of being the main culprit for destroying the media image in Serbia with its inaction and incompetence, listing many examples in which content with scandalous scenes of violence, fights, and simpletons dominate.

Ratings and shares are important to editors and television owners, so the more bizarre and miserable it is, the more it attracts the attention of viewers.

TV stars are called TV presenters who built their careers and brag about it in reality shows and other weird “formats”, as the owners of those televisions call those contents, bragging about the ratings and shares of those “formats”.

Sex scenes, insults, kicking, and cursing are aimed at raising ratings, and the announcement of one of those self-proclaimed stars that he will host a program without clothes fits into the brains and “formats” of those media magnates.

I would not like to mention the names of people who consider themselves TV stars, but for months the gaffes of those self-proclaimed “shares queens” who call a priest archpriest-Stafford, and for the retired patriarch Irinej to say “his light” is an insult and humiliation of this honorable profession.

When it happened, I expected that those two bizarre and ugly examples would enlighten those who decide who will be allowed to appear on the screen, but alas. It got worse.

The more primitive, down-to-earth, cheap, and hideous, the greater the chance for that person to be the flagship and the face that these television stations are proud of.

The fact that the common people make fun of them, and the tabloids and bosses make them stars, is only proof of the direction in which the profession, which has been the dream of many generations for decades, is headed.