My first television broadcast was from Belgrade, from the Champions Cup between Radnicki women’s handball players and Romanian Rumentul. The next day, my mentor Nikola Soldatov’s comment read: “There is no need to tell the viewer what he sees, don’t describe, comment on the events,” says Kalinski.

The proximity of the City Park did its thing. It was the sports heart of Skopje. The city stadium, the handball, the basketball court, and not only the matches of “Vardar”, “Rabotnicki” but also their daily trainings, were a strong magnet for us, says the legend of Macedonian sports journalism – Zlatko Kalinski about his childhood in Skopje and about the first moments when he was overwhelmed by the sports magic.

Kalinski, although officially retired after a prolific four-decade career, has recently been active on Facebook with the “Toa e fudbalot” (That’s soccer) podcast, where he gives his opinion on matches from the current World Cup in Qatar.

Kalinski has reported from 10 Olympiads, 16 world championships in athletics, 4 world championships in football, basketball, handball, skiing, i.e. in a career of 42 years, he has produced a total of 2,352 broadcasts.

– I had a wonderful profession, a wonderful working life, I don’t regret anything, I feel completely fulfilled by what is left behind. I never wanted to or tried to copy someone because I knew it would be a failed act and a big mistake. Could the suggestive voice and expression of Soldatov, the fire of Mladen Delic, the calmness of Boris Mutić, the expression of Milka Babović be copied? I tried to be myself, understandable to the viewer, to share the emotions with him, the admiration of the magnificence of the moment or the disappointment. I wanted to be recognized as Zlatko Kalinski – adds Kalinski.

I started “devouring” the sports pages early

Kalinski spent his childhood and youth in two locations in Skopje. Until the earthquake, that is, until he was 10 years old, he lived on the border between Bunjakovec and Debar Maalo, 50 meters from the cafe “Nadzak” in the family house. Unfortunately, the earthquake in 1963 changed their lives forever after the house almost completely collapsed. His father was seriously injured and transported to Belgrade, and in the meantime they got a shed in Taftalidze, a neighborhood that was not yet urbanized at the time.

– It was an unforgettable period of my life. There was not a lot of traffic, so as children we had a lot of freedom of movement and space to play in the streets as well. The athletes and the kayakers were also interesting to us. At our house, since I have known myself, all possible newspapers were always bought. I started “devouring” the sports pages early. There were particularly beautiful articles in “Politika”. Television also appeared. I didn’t miss the sports broadcasts. I started playing volleyball quite by accident. In high school, I was a student at the “Georgi Dimitrov” high school, and professor Taki Dzhikov formed a volleyball section in which he invited me, together with Vladimir Bogoevski, Zoran Dokuzovski, Mile Petkovski, from which the “Student” club grew. I played in the position of playmaker and reached the Second Yugoslav League – says Kalinski.

I did not think about journalism as a future profession at all

As his high school days approached, Kalinski did not even think about journalism as his future profession. He hesitated between studies in literature and economics, and the decisive influence was the professor and former athlete Taki Dzhikov, who knew about his love for sports and believed that Zlatko could have been a successful coach, so he enrolled at the Faculty of Physical Culture.

– We played in an interesting volleyball tournament in Herceg Novi, from which we returned with a nice winning cup. People from the club asked me to write an article for the Trudbenik newspaper, which was published. My uncle, the famous Macedonian writer Blagoja Ivanov, was working as a journalist at Radio Skopje at that time. He read the article and commented: “You could be a good sports journalist. If you express your desire, I can connect you with colleagues from the Radio’s sports editorial office.” The next day he took me to the doorstep of the Editorial Office and left me with the words – “That’s all from me, everything will depend on you”. He pushed me into the hands of Branko Davidovski, Ivko Pangovski, Gotse Sipkovski, Zoran Jordanovski, Aleksandar Stikov, Ljupco Dimitrovski, familiar voices that I listened to every day and for a long time it seemed unreal that I could become part of that company – recalls Kalinski.

Nikola Soldatov was the best possible mentor

It was the fall of 1975, I was 22 years old when I caught the virus of journalism, a disease for which there is no cure for the rest of my life, says Kalinski, who after a year’s experience as a freelancer, received his journalist ID.

– I was lucky because radio was the best school for young journalists. In addition to the support from my colleagues from the Sports editorial office, I could also learn a lot from the journalist aces in the radio, such as Blagoja Stoilkovski, Gradimir Jovanović, Angel Varnaliev, Mirce Tomovski, and nothing was difficult for me. I was also in the team of the first presenters of the radio’s morning and evening programs. Seven, for me, beautiful years spent in radio. Namely, for a long time I had an open invitation from Atanas Kostovski to replace the radio badge with the television one, which I finally accepted in 1982. Television, seemingly a related medium to radio, is essentially very different. I was welcomed by much older colleagues – Atanas Kostovski, Nikola Soldatov, Ivan Mirovski and Goce Jankovski. Soldatov was the best mentor I could get in the medium – says Kalinski.

The first radio broadcast was more accidental

It took Kalinski a year of experience to get his first broadcast. Then it was time to wait for the transmission and the craft first had to be well formed before the senior colleagues let you on the air.

– In the radio, principles were established in the education process. I went to Vardar’s training sessions with a tape recorder and when the coach would divide the players into two goals, I would start the “transmission”, which was listened to by the editor and senior colleagues. Weaknesses were slowly eliminated, so that in my case I was thrown into the fire relatively quickly. In television as a “baked” reporter from the radio, I immediately sat down to comment. The first radio broadcast was more accidental. Namely, Vardar’s volleyball players played in the European Champions Cup and short calls were planned from the “Rabotnicki” gym in the “Fun Sports Afternoon” show. But the brilliant game of Vardar and the atmosphere in the hall did their thing, I received a message from the studio to go with the broadcast to the end. My first television broadcast was from Belgrade, from the Champions Cup between Radnicki women’s handball players and Romanian Rumentul. The next day, my mentor Nikola Soldatov’s comment read: “There is no need to tell the viewer what he sees, don’t describe it, comment on the events,” says Kalinski.

Preparation is key

On the radio, Kalinski’s first major reporting was the Balkaniad in archery at Kamnik, in Skopje, and his first foreign reporting was the World Wrestling Championship in 1977 in Lausanne, from where he reported on Shaban Seidi’s silver medal. As a TV commentator, he did his “baptism of fire” at the 1982 World Championships in Kayak and Canoe on calm waters in Belgrade.

– In my opinion, preparation is key. Enter the broadcast fully prepared for any situation. This was the working principle of the colleagues from Televisija Zagreb, probably the strongest commentary team in ex-Yugoslavia, using professional literature for all the sports that were part of the program. Our editorial office only subscribed to the newspapers “Nova Makedonija”, “Vecher” and “Sportske Novosti”. Each of us had our own scope of sports commentating, so we were forced to create personal documentation. I was subscribed to several sports magazines, especially athletic, basketball, skiing, without which it was difficult to successfully comment on these sports, especially athletics – concludes Kalinski.

Prepared by: Nikola Petrovski