Friends and family remember longtime CHCH host Emilio Mascia

Emilio Mascia, known to CHCH viewers in the 1960s as the host of Italian Panorama, died last weekend at the age of 94. On Saturday, his family and friends said their final goodbyes at a funeral service held on Hamilton Mountain. “Whether it’s his viewers on air, versus anyone he met in person, he loved them with the same affection,” said his son, Anthony. To Anthony, Emilio Mascia was first his dad and his best friend, and second, a teammate directing the longtime CHCH program Italian Panorama. Mascia was also the founder of Telelatino Television (TLN) and a broadcaster on CHML radio. But 52 years ago today, Anthony remembers the first World Cup game broadcast in Canadian venues during a time when no one thought it could be done. “So he went and reprinted all the tickets and said ‘Okay, if there’s no signal, then you get your money back,” Anthony said. “The places were packed. The police had to came in, we had lineups down the road.” In the days leading up to the service, Anthony heard from the Hamilton community, learning new stories about his dad and how he changed lives.