Manwel Borg
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Manwel Borg was a radio broadcaster whose name is mainly associated with Italian songs and music.
Manwel was born in Valletta on 21 May 1951. When he joined Rediffusion at the age of sixteen he started looking for ways how to penetrate the broadcasting world on the basis of his expertise about Italian music. At the national broadcasting station he started meeting all the radio presenters on the island as well as having at his disposal one of the best music libraries in Malta.
His break came in 1980 when he started co-producing with radio DJ Twanny Scerri a Saturday weekly programme dedicated to Italian music and sports reportage. This programme stayed on the air for almost 28 years and Manwel dedicated all his spare time to cultivate his broacasting niche and increase the stature of his programme, especially by the introduction of elements like exclusive interviews with Italian pop singers. Soon Manwel and Twanny became recognised as the local authority on Italian pop music. With the advent of every San Remo Festival and other major Italian song festivals like Festival Bar, they put on special editions of their programme and presented in-depth coverage of the events, thus providing a comprehensive service to Italian music fans in Malta.
Among his proudest achievements as a radio producer was a series he co-produced with Toni Sant in 1990 marking John Lennon's 50th birthday and the tenth anniversary since his murder in New York. The 13-part series featured several interviews with Maltese poets, songwriters, and journalists giving a Maltese perspective on the life of the famous musician.
On Radju Malta he eventually had his own programme entitled Tema, wholly dedicated to Italian music. In Tema, Manwel played titles from Italian hit parades of the past, mostly LPs and 45s which he had in his personal collection and the PBS library.
Often, Manwel was invited to sit on Jury Panels to adjudicate song entries to Festivals. One last such involvement before he passed away after a short illness was as a member of the jury in the elimination phase for the 2007 Malta Song for Europe.
He died on 5 August 2008 at the age of 57