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Italian music journalists are divided into two broad categories: those who believe they are the rock stars and those who are inspired by Ernesto Assante, historic journalist of Repubblica, radio host, critic, blogger, technology expert, great disseminator of musical knowledge and who knows how many other things, he died in Rome at the age of 66 due to a damned stroke. A scholar passionate about the history of rock, curious about anything new, always available towards those who worked in the sector, affectionate and welcoming with colleagues: today, if you write about music, “getting away” is almost part of the package, but Assante has always been of another race. And readers and listeners needed to feel that, as well as feel passion and expertise in everything he did. For this reason, now that he is gone, on social media it is all a long goodbye, from those who knew him in person and from those who knew him anyway.
From free radio to Repubblica
Born in Naples in 1958 and educated in Rome, where he attended Giulio Cesare, a high school for politicians and singer-songwriters, he was essentially a boy of the Seventies, of the ’77 Movement. His baptism of fire was the free radio stations – Roma International Sound, Radio Blu – but also the Quotidiano dei Lavoratori, the Avanguardia Operaia newspaper, and the Manifesto, for which he made his debut as a music critic. In 1976 Eugenio Scalfari founded Repubblica, changing the landscape of Italian information. Three years later Ernesto Assante began to write about it, becoming – due to the themes he dealt with – one of the architects of that change. Because Repubblica, understood as the progressive newspaper that it was, puts entertainment news and cultural criticism at the center of its information offering. Because shows need culture, while culture doesn’t need shows. Assante is part of that revolution and starts as a collaborator to become, within a few years, editor-in-chief.
From Raistereonotte to Music
The Eighties saw him among the main animators of that wonderful space of musical dissemination that was Raistereonotte, the nocturnal marathons of Radio Rai conceived by Pierluigi Tabasso in which a new generation of listeners learned to address David Bowie and Fela Kuti, Frank Zappa and the Talking Heads. And in the meantime he does not disdain collaborating with television, whether it is some edition of Domenica In or Doc, Renzo Arbore’s legendary broadcast which hosts the elite of international music. In the Nineties he founded Musica, an in-depth weekly magazine attached to Repubblica that every self-respecting music lover cannot fail to include in their information diet. These are the years in which the partnership with Gino Castaldo is strengthened: together, for decades, here they will be the dioscuri of rock dissemination, in the pieces co-authored, on the radio on Capital, in books such as Blues, jazz, rock, pop – The American twentieth century, in the memorable rock history lessons on the eternal dualism of the Beatles –Rolling Stones.
The passion for technology
Ernesto soon understands that there is another revolution underway, a change of at least as historic importance as music was in the Sixties and Seventies: it’s called the internet. He thus became one of the first Italian journalists to be passionate about technology issues, he immediately inhabited the web, was the creator of Computer Valley and Computer, Internet and Other and director of McLink and Kataweb. A prolific author and cultural animator full of ideas, he has also collaborated with weeklies such as Epoca, L’Espresso, Rolling Stone and recently with Rockol, has edited some articles relating to pop and rock for Treccani and has taught at the University. He did a thousand things, but above all he was a journalist for Repubblica: that was and has remained his home all this time. Now that he is gone, he leaves a wife, two daughters, a huge void in those who grew up reading him and an even bigger lesson for anyone after him who dares to do this job. Which is a beautiful job, as long as there is competence, passion and that spirit of service that many times those who do our job forget at home.