In 1962, broadcasting in Malta reached another important milestone. For the first time ever, Malta Television introduced a sports programme.
The series was produced and directed by the late Lewis Portelli who had already become a household name with his production Sports Magazine on Rediffusion.
The new, 15-minute television programme was screened every Thursday. Conditions at MTV were still rudimentary but Portelli, in his inimitable way, soon had the series rolling. It became one of the most popular programmes on the local station.
I still remember the first programme of the series.
It was November 1, 1962 just 10 days short of my 17th birthday when Portelli previewed the Cup Winners’ Cup match between Hibernians and Atletico Madrid.
His guest that day was Joe Griffiths who gave a very interesting lecture on the plan Hibs were expected to adopt to try and avert a heavy defeat in Madrid.
The series went on to break all local broadcasting records and on Friday, December 1, 1971 the 500th edition of the programme was shown on MTV.
This edition also marked the 10th year in the career of Portelli as its presenter and producer.
On this special occasion, the programme featured congratulatory messages to ‘Sports Panorama’ and Portelli sent by FIFA president Stanley Rous, renowned RAI TV sports commentator Nando Martellini, the president of the Malta Sports Writers Association Fr Hillary Tagliaferro and the BBC World Service Sports team made up of Alex Turnbull, Paddy Feeny and Brian Saunders.
During the transmission, Frankie Camilleri interviewed Portelli and highlights from past editions of the programme were shown on television.
Portelli needs no introduction.
He started broadcasting on Rediffusion in 1956. In 1962 he presented a sports programme on MTV called ‘Fil-kamp tal-Isports’ and a month later introduced ‘Sports Panorama’ which was directed by another pioneer of sports broadcasting, John Hurle Hobbs. In 1963, Portelli started, ‘Riżultati Sportivi’ on MTV.
During his long and colourful career, Portelli covered many international sporting events for Rediffusion and MTV starting with the Rome Olympics in 1960 and the World Cup finals in England in 1966.
He was also a member of the National Sports Board between 1963 and 1971.
During the running of ‘Sports Panorama’, Portelli was assisted in no small way by Camilleri.
An ex-referee, Camilleri started pre-senting sports programmes on Rediffusion in 1946 along with Carmelo Costa and Joe Griffiths.
Camilleri was also a continental football correspondent for Times of Malta and contributed regularly for Italian sports paper Corriere dello Sport.
When Portelli gave up the programme, it passed on to other sports journalists. Camilleri, Fr Hillary, Mario Meli and Henry Calleja all had their turn on the programme together with a host of others.
Today, broadcasting in Malta has made giant steps forward but the names of those pioneers will never be forgotten.