Marcel Bezençon
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Marcel Bezençon (born May 1, 1907 in Orbe ; † February 17, 1981 in Lausanne ) was a Swiss journalist and long-time director general of SRG SSR . He is considered the inventor of the Eurovision Song Contest .
Life
Bezençon studied literature at the University of Lausanne and graduated in art history in 1932 . At the same time he worked as a freelance art and theater critic and then initially published the newspaper Feuille d'Avis . From 1939 to 1950 Bezençon was director at Radio Suisse Romande , from 1950 to 1972 general director at SSR . As part of this, he was largely responsible for the introduction of television in Switzerland and a pioneer of radio programs combining language and music.
From 1954 to 1969 Bezençon was chairman of the programming commission of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). In this function he was largely responsible for the introduction of the European program network Eurovision . During a conference of the program committee at the end of January 1955 in Monaco , he presented the idea for a European hit competition based on the example of the Sanremo Festival . On October 19, 1955, the general assembly of the EBU then decided to hold a Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européenne , later the Eurovision Song Contest , first held in 1956 in Lugano . The Golden Rose of Montreux television entertainment festival, founded in 1961, also goes back to Bezençon.
From 1963 to 1972 he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Swiss Dispatch Agency .
price
Since 2002, the Marcel Bezençon Prize for the best song, the best artistic representation and the best composition (each chosen by accredited journalists, the commentators and the participating composers) has been awarded annually during the Eurovision Song Contest .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Bezençon, Marcel. TV Museum Hamburg, accessed on May 20, 2020 .
- ↑ Our History. EBU , accessed on May 20, 2020 .
Web links
- Therese Steffen Gerber: Bezençon, Marcel. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Publications by and about Marcel Bezençon in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
Maurice Rambert (1931-1936) | Alfred W. Glogg (1936–1950) | Marcel Bezençon (1950–1972) | Stelio Molo (1972-1981) | Leo Schürmann (1981–1987) | Antonio Riva (1987-1996) | Armin Walpen (1996-2010) | Roger de Weck (2011–2017) | Gilles Marchand (since 2017)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bezençon, Marcel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss journalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 1, 1907 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Orbe |
| DATE OF DEATH | 17th February 1981 |
| Place of death | Lausanne |