Why World Radio Day?

“In a world changing quickly, we must make the most of radio’s ability to connect people and societies, to share knowledge and information and to strengthen understanding. This World Radio Day is a moment to recognize the marvel of radio and to harness its power for the benefit of all,” said UNESCO Director General, Irina Bokova in her message on the occasion of the first World Radio Day.

On November 3, 2011, during its 36^th General Conference, UNESCO recognized the “transformational power of radio” by establishing World Radio Day on 13 February, which marks the day when the United Nations Radio was launched in 1946. The initial idea came from the Spanish Academy of Radio and was formally presented by the Permanent Delegation of Spain to UNESCO at the 187 session of the Executive Board in September 2011.

Since the first broadcast over 100 years ago, radio has proven to be a powerful information source for mobilizing social change and a central point for community life. It is the mass media that reaches the widest audience in the world. In an era of new technologies, it remains the world’s most accessible platform, a powerful communication tool and a low cost medium.

Radio technology, which began as “wireless telegraphy,” owes its development to two other inventions, the telegraph and the telephone. Since the end of the 19th century, when the first successful radio transmissions were achieved and to this day, radio remains as important means of communications as ever. With the advent of new technologies and media convergence, radio is being transformed and is moving onto new delivery platforms, such as broadband internet, mobiles and tablets. In the digital era, radio continues to be relevant, as people digitally tune in via computers, satellite radio and mobile devices.

Radio is especially suited to reach remote and marginalized communities, while simultaneously offering a platform for information sharing and promoting public debate. Radio plays an important role in emergency communication and disaster relief. It is also one of the most important ways to widen access to knowledge, promote the freedom of expression as well as encourage mutual respect and multicultural understanding.

World Radio Day aims to raise awareness about the importance of radio, to encourage decision makers to provide access to information through radio and improve networking and international cooperation among broadcasters.

The resolution is being submitted to the United Nations’ General Assembly, at its 67th session in September 2012, for endorsement.

Quotes on radio

“Radio affects most intimately, person-to-person, offering a world of unspoken communication between writer-speaker and the listener”.
By Marshall McLuhan

“Since the use of African languages on FM radio seriously emerged over the past decade and a half, because of news broadcast and discussions, illiterates who were in the past cut-off from any knowledge of what is going on round the world are beginning to follow events around the globe”.
By Kwesi Kwaa Prah

“TV gives everyone an image, but radio gives birth to a million images in a million brains.”
By Peggy Nooman

“The radio only has one side when it should have two. It is now a mere distribution device so I would make a suggestion: turn this device into a media distribution where the listener not only hear but also speak and where the listener is not an isolated subject but is interconnected. From this perspective, the radio should go from being a supplier entity to be organized by subject networks sending and receiving”.
By Bertolt Brecht

“One has only to consider the number of languages used in some countries to realize that TV cannot compete with radio in servicing multi-ethnic and multi-linguistic audiences”.
By Gareth Price

“That was the big thing when I was growing up, singing on the radio. The extent of my dream was to sing on the radio station in Memphis. Even when I got out of the Air Force in 1954, I came right back to Memphis and started knocking on doors at the radio station.”
By Johnny Cash

“Radio, newspapers, they were normal parts of my life. In those days, you had to go somewhere to watch television and leave something to see it.”
By Robert Redford

“Radio will remain necessary to cover news in each region of the world and each country in real time and enable young people to find the “musical color” of their choice”.
By Hervé Bourges

“Radio pluralism is an essential component in the deepening of the democratic process now under way: it allows people greater access to a diversity of information, and guarantees increased popular participation for sustainable human development… African states must speed up the ending of the monopoly over of the airwaves and give priority to national proponents of independent radio when allocating broadcasting frequencies…”.
From the Bamako Declaration on Radio Pluralism

15 ideas on how to celebrate the Day

Help broadcast the message of UNESCO’s Director-General on World Radio Day in all public, private and community radio.

Select a theme on radio and produce a radio programme or a small public service message to be repeatedly diffused on 13 February 2012.

Organise a small radio/television debates/discussions involving stakeholders (broadcasters, policy-makers, academics, legal fraternity) on the relevance of radio in citizens’ lives.

Organize phone-in radio shows so that the audience or the community can say why radio is important to them or which were the great radio moments they remember.

Interview radio personalities in your country as well as diffuse UNESCO’s interview to one of them.

Diffuse our collection of sound bites on famous UNESCO moments.

Diffuse UNESCO’s recordings on the proclamation of the World Radio Day.

Download, exhibit and distribution UNESCO’s recent publication “Good practices on community media”.

Display and distribute Free and Open software for radio programming and scheduling through UNESCO’s Open and Free Source software portal.

Display and distribute radio training courseware from UNESCO’s Open Training Platform
- Radio Production on Open Training Platform

Display and distribute free materials from UNESCO regarding broadcasting
- Publications on Community Media
- How to get started and keep going: a guide to Community Multimedia Centres
- Publications related to Broadcasting
- Publications produced or sponsored by UNESCO’s Communication and and Information Sector

Join UNESCO in launching the publication “Community Media: A Good Practice Handbook”

Join the National Commission for UNESCO in your country to facilitate celebrating national events
- About National Commissions for UNESCO

Encourage all newspapers/radio/television website editors to place a banner on World Radio Day on 13 February.

Celebrate the Day together with the World Association of Community Broadcasters (AMARC) or local associations of community radios

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