10 years that made history in the Albanian media

This was the ideology that led Top Channel in 10 years: independent, righteous, free and set to defend the interests of the country and the common people.

10 years ago, the electronic media in Albania, same as the country itself, was poor in technology, in way of thinking and in ideas. It was non-professional and entirely informal.

But the decisions and the ideas of a man changed this environment and revolutionized the television screen, turning it into a generator of progress and social vanguard.

Only 20 people, most of them very young, were the ones that heard Dritan Hoxha speak for the first time about a big television, in a building where there were no equipments or offices. Before installing the appliances for setting up the studios that would keep millions of Albanians in front of the screens, today’s Top Channel existed only in the mind of Dritan Hoxha.

Top Channel was not only a television. It created models that were followed by other media, in order to resist to the competition. The technological standard grew, bringing in Albania high-end electronic products, by increasing the professional, ethical and moral level of the media. The clichés were broken and new ways were paved, in which the TV media in general walked in the last 10 years, becoming the vanguard of the country’s progress.
 
The first news edition was followed by programs that turned into institutions.

Fiks Fare, an investigative satirical program, took the attributes of an uncorrupted judge, and people still stay in queues for seeking a solution to their problems, when the state institution doors have been closed for them.

“Shqip” was born and grown as an exhibition of the Albanian thought, and of all creative people inside and outside the country, as a display of the beautiful Albania and the ideas that aim to make it progress.

“Top Story” turned into a professional debate arena, the studio where the political horoscope made the predictions for the future developments.

Albania was the only country where the state cultural institutions did not produce anymore humor, while the Albanian music was degrading and being deformed by an army of amateur singers and media that turned the Albanian tradition into a market product.

Top Channel pushed further the initiative that was born at Top Albania Radio, the production and promotion of the Albanian music. Special musical programs became the launching pad of new talents, and Top Fest is today the biggest festival of the Albanian modern music, bringing singers from all Albanian lands.

In a country full of problems, Portokalli brought humor in every home, produced a new generation of artists and created a model that is being imitated by other electronic media in the country.

In a country where not everyone had a TV at home, Dritan Hoxha made the biggest investment step, by bringing the digital technology, which had just entered in the developed Western Europe, an economic adventure for everyone. But courage is the virtue of the successful people, and success was not delayed.

The parade of achievements is even longer, and all of this in only ten years. In only 10 years, the Albanian media environment has changed, making the media more credible than the politics, the courts and other state institutions.

Without Top Channel in the mind of Dritan Hoxha, the media and our society would not be what it is now. Dritan Hoxha not only walked faster than the time, but he also thought and worked faster than the time, achieving in 10 years what needed decades.

Top Channel