Stefano Santoni

I was born in 1967, the year of the Monterey Pop Festival and the Summer of Love, year zero for rock music. Maybe it was a sign of destiny. I joined the staff of Radio Rock Roma 106.6 FM in 1991 and left voluntarily in 2000, when the atmosphere inside the Roman station had long since become unbreathable. I reunited with the old friends who'd left the same station, contributing, I hope, to the birth and growth of www.radiorock.to, a Pod Radio founded in 1998 after the reasons that had inspired Radio Rock FM, and the engine that had driven its growth, had been lost. It would be wonderful to work with music full-time, but I never had the opportunities, and in all likelihood not the ability either, to do so. I work as an IT security specialist, and some time ago I wound down a sporting activity in five-a-side football, which saw me play in almost every division from Serie A to Serie D. I'm honored to collaborate with OndaRock, Italy's #1 music webzine. A musical omnivore and chronic seeker, I've long been trying to create a Rock 'N Roll Time Machine, a series of programs that can tell, in an almost complete way, the deeds and countless stories of rock music from Chuck Berry to the twenty-first century. In researching this history, I've come across wonderful stories and legends, bands that redefined the history of rock with just three chords, and incredibly talented musicians who never had the gift of songwriting. I've relived the life of Keith Moon, incredibly balanced between genius and madness, and I've been moved reading about the fragile, self-destructive lives of songwriters as talented as they were psychologically fragile, like Nick Drake or Tim Buckley. The passion for music is an extraordinary journey.