The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has proposed a number of activities for stakeholders to adopt in celebrating the second World Radio Day on February 13, 2013.
To commemorate the day, UNESCO has urged all countries to celebrate World Radio Day by undertaking activities with diverse partners, such as national, regional and international broadcasting associations and organizations, non-governmental organizations, media organizations, media outlets as well as the public at large.
UNESCO will itself mark the day this year with a special event at its headquarters in Paris which will run from 10 am until 6 pm.
It has also suggested 15 ideas for stakeholders on how to celebrate World Radio Day, including asking them to help broadcast the message of UNESCO’s Director-General on World Radio Day in all public, private and community radios; broadcast messages from World Radio Day supporters, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and UNESCO Artist for Peace, the renowned Panamian pianist and jazz composer Danilo Pérez; or produce a radio programme or public service announcement on one of UNESCO’s themes for World Radio Day 2013 to be broadcast repeatedly on 13 February 2013.
February 13 is a day proclaimed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly to celebrate Radio as a medium; to improve international cooperation among broadcasters; and to encourage major networks and community radio alike to promote access to information and freedom of expression over the airwaves.
It’s an occasion to draw attention to the unique value of radio, which remains the medium to reach the widest audience and is currently taking up new technological forms and devices.
Other activities proposed by UNESCO to celebrate the World Radio Day are:
- Organize and broadcast World Radio Day themed debates and discussions with media stakeholders such as broadcasters, policy-makers, academics, and the legal community.
- Organize phone-in radio shows so listeners can discuss the importance of radio and share memories of great moments in radio history.
- Interview local, regional and national radio personalities on World Radio Day.
- Share recordings of your radio show and other World Radio Day themed broadcasts on UNESCO’s World Radio Day SoundCloud page.
- Diffuse UNESCO’s collection of sound bites on famous UNESCO moments.
- Diffuse UNESCO’s “Did you know that…” audio series on interesting radio facts.
- 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 Radio Production on Open Training Platform.
- Display and distribute free UNESCO products about broadcasting, such as Publications on Community Media, Publications related to media and information literacy, Publications related to the safety of journalists, and publications produced or sponsored by UNESCO’s Communication and Information Sector.
- Join the National Commission for UNESCO in your country to facilitate celebrating national events
- Encourage newspapers, radio or television website editors to place a banner on their sites during World Radio Day on 13 February.
- Celebrate World Radio Day with the Children’s Radio Foundation, the World Association of Community Broadcasters (AMARC) or local community radio associations.
The International Committee for the World Radio Day, constituted by agreement among the most representative broadcasting organizations, has also launched a web platform to exchange radio programmes as a way of celebrating the World Radio Day 2013. Its purpose is to internationally promote the celebration of the World Radio Day through different activities.
The Committee has invited all public, private, online and community Radio organizations as well as Radio professionals and listeners worldwide to participate in the global campaign and join voices to tell the world why Radio still is the greatest media.
The World Radio Day International Committee web platform organizes sound item exchanges in order to promote the medium. The Committee also invites everyone to upload to the website their posts, whatever their link with the Radio world may be, such as public Radio, private Radio, community Radio, independent producer, listener, etc.
All international Radio organizations have also been requested to actively ask their listeners to participate by publishing the promo banners on their website or by sharing the link on their Facebook or Twitter page.
The Committee said World Radio Day 2013 could be the perfect opportunity to strengthen radio relationships with listeners.
It said any Radio organization will be able to freely download any content available on the platform and celebrate World Radio Day by broadcasting all day, on Wednesday 13 February 2013, audio messages on the importance of Radio from all over the world.
