The Bari branch of the Italian Radio Auditions Authority (EIAR) was inaugurated in 1932 with the broadcast of a message from Benìto Mussolìni. The Duce intended to use the new facilities, the most powerful to the south of Rome at the time, as a propaganda tool. Until 1943, the programs - produced in Albanian, Arabic, Greek, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Hungarian - maintained a colonialist and anti-Semitic orientation, exalting Italy's self-proclaimed "civilizing mission" in Africa and the Middle East.

With the armistice of September 8, 1943, Radio Bari was born as the "Free Voice of the Government of Italy." The frequencies immediately passed into the hands of the Allies who, even before occupying the structures of civil and military power, took control of the "war by waves." The radio was proving to be an essential tool in the fight against Nazifascism. Thus, shortly after the landing of the Eighth American Army in Tàranto, Eisenhower entrusted Radio Bari to Ian Greenlees - an English intellectual who had trained at the Croce Institute in the 1930s.

On September 14, 1943, the offices were occupied by a military editorial staff. However, Greenlees established a second editorial staff, made up of anti-fascist civilians, connected to the Laterza publishing house. This was an unheard-of innovation and a veritable cultural laboratory that aired segments such as "the voice of workers" or "the voice of parties," which accustomed Italians to the exchange of ideas and political programs. But above all, there was "Italy fights," managed by Alba De Cespedes, who coordinated partisan actions by disseminating Allied command messages, naturally in code.

In Bari, freedom of information thus preceded freedom of the press, as it took several months to dismantle fascist legislation.

Sunday music broadcasts, in particular, were a resounding signal of the regained freedom. They were recorded at the Piccinni Theater, and among the conductors were also refugees from Nazi internment camps. Relayed by Radio London, the musical broadcasts played a prominent role in transforming Italy into a free and democratic country.

One of the concerts was Tommaso Fiore's "Hymn to Freedom." It was broadcast on the eve of the congress of the National Liberation Committees in Bari in January 1944.