World Radio Day 2026; Feruary 13th.

FORUM: “Radio and Artificial intelligence” World Radio Day 2026. AI is transforming our relationship with the radio voice, from real-time transcription and noise reduction to highly realistic synthesized voices. At its best, AI makes radio more accessible, enabling captions for deaf and hard of hearing audiences, voice-controlled radios for people who are blind or visually impaired, and AI translation that brings broadcasts into more languages, helping radio reach everyone, everywhere. This transformation is not about replacing the human voice which remains at the heart of radio. Used responsibly, AI can amplify reach human creativity and inclusion. In line with UNESCO’s ethical framework for artificial intelligence, voice technologies must respect human dignity, people’s consent to be recorded, transparency, and human oversight, and must never be used to deceive or exploit. A voice is more than sound: it is identity, and identity is a human right. Artifical Intelligence (AI) isn’t just a challenge to navigate; it’s a chance to reimagine radio with care, creativity, and connection. It invites us to dream bigger, reach further, and honor listeners’ time, intelligence and expectations. AI can help radio blossom in thoughtful ways:
Ease and Flow, letting technology take care of the routine tasks, such as scheduling, voice-tracking, daily weather or sports updates, administrative chores, so your team can focus on what truly matters: inform, educate, entertain.
Meaningful Growth, understanding your audience more deeply, connecting ads to listener needs, improving revenue.
Listener Empowerment, helping every listener feel included, offering personalized experiences, real-time interaction, and space for under-represented voices that deserve to be heard.
Quality Content, using AI to support fact-checking, source verification, rediscovery of archival richness and increased factuality, while keeping human judgment at the center.

All of this builds something precious: trust.

A Thoughtful Approach to AI.
To make the most of AI, radio broadcasters need more than tools - they need a strategy. That means:

1. Clear, caring policies and internal guardrails for ethical AI use
2. Respect for privacy, intellectual property, data ownership and transparency
3. Careful use of generative audio (like AI music, voice cloning, deepfake audio, etc.)
4. Investment in people; their skills, growth, collaborations
5. Legal and security checks to manage emerging risks, data storage and transfer, liabilities, etc.

Broadcasters must prioritize the quality and diversity of information sources, as they play a critical role in addressing climate-related issues. To all radio professionals and volunteers, everywhere in the world, UNESCO salutes your daily work and your commitment to the future of our planet, our future. Here are the ways to Celebrate this year celebration: 1. Put more emphasis on facts 2. Review your programming strategy 3. Present realities from elsewhere 4. Inform from an intersectional point of view 5. Start an "On the way to COP30" chronicle 6. Give the audience a say 7. Prepare for the storm 8. Raise the safety awareness of environmental journalists 9. Redouble your efforts to combat disinformation 10. Encourage your audience to listen to the radio critically 11. Strengthen staff competencies in relation to climate change issues 12. Set the tone 13. Green your radio; Let’s treat this moment as a transformative opportunity to elevate these and every aspect of radio broadcasting. On the 2026 World Radio Day, UNESCO gives radio stations the resources to build confidence in how AI is used, all while preserving the warmth and reliability that audiences cherish. Follow the conversations with the hashtags: #13February, #WorldRadioDay.

EVENTS: On Friday, February 13th, the celebration of World Radio Day 2026 will be dedicated to "Radio and Artificial Intelligence" to support radio stations in their journalistic coverage on this issue. Together, let's prepare the celebration the 15th edition of World Radio Day. The UNESCO and its partners invites the worldwide Radio industry in all its many forms - commercial, public, non-profit – to join in this global celebration of the medium at this special journey. Register to participate!

OPPORTUNITIES: To benefit from the 2026 Opportunities and appear on the UNESCO map please click here. Your radio station will also have the chance to connect with a radio station in another locality or country. Thanks to these collaborations, you will be able to exchange programs, guests, sound archives, and even… consider a longer-term relationship beyond February 13th,. Take advantage of this opportunity! Regularly consult the map to discover new radio stations or partners that could match your search…

PUBLICATION: Research on radio's contemporary and historical subject matter, and the audio media that have challenged radio's traditional use. Explore the Journal of Radio & Audio Media.

STATEMENTS: Read the statement of the Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of World Radio Day 2026; February 13th.

 GET INVOLVED!

To make it easier for every radio station; We've come up with 13 simple, accessible ideas. Each radio station can choose one or more ideas to mark the day in their own way. These ideas can be implemented in two ways:

• Targeting your listeners: special programmes, reports, debates, street interviews, audio capsules or social media visuals. 
• Targeting your teams (employees, volunteers, interns): internal reflection, training, improving your practices.

1. Augmented Voice

Using AI to elevate the human voice.

AI is transforming our relationship with the radio voice, from real-time transcription and noise reduction to highly realistic synthesized voices At its best, AI makes radio more accessible, enabling captions for deaf and hard of hearing audiences, voice-controlled radios for people who are blind or visually impaired, and AI translation that brings broadcasts into more languages, helping radio reach everyone, everywhere. This transformation is not about replacing the human voice which remains at the heart ofradio. Used responsibly, AI can amplify reach human creativity and inclusion. In line with UNESCO’s ethical framework for artificial intelligence, voice technologies must respect human dignity, people’s consent to be recorded, transparency, and human oversight, and must never be used to deceive or exploit. A voice is more than sound: it is identity, and identity is a human right.

Useful links: Artificial Intelligence & Emerging Technologies
Digital Policy, Capacities and Inclusion
Reporting on artificial intelligence: a handbook for journalism educators

Sub-themes around this idea for programme content: ways to leverage, develop or angle the topic:

• For listeners:Can you recognize an AI-generated voice?
• How can AI make radio more accessible for everyone?
• Where should we draw the line between innovation and misuse of voice technology?
• How do we protect voices as part of personal identity in the age of AI?
• Can AI strengthen radio without replacing the human voice?

Potential guests: intellectual property lawyer, text-to-speech specialist

• For the radio teams:Behind the scenes: how AIs clean up interviews
• Testimonial from a journalist using a voice prompter
• Can you automate news flashes? Live test
• Comparison: synthetic voice vs. human voice on the radio

Potential guests: AI technician, journalist testing voice prompter

2. Transparency in the use of on-air voices

Transparency as an ethical imperative.

In the age of AI-generated voices, transparency is no longer optional — it is an ethical requirement. When a voice heard on air is synthesized or generated by artificial intelligence, audiences have the right to know. Clear disclosure helps maintain trust, prevents deception, and respects listeners’ ability to make informed judgments about what they hear. This principle calls for thoughtful disclosure policies, including on-air announcements, credits, or descriptions that clearly indicate when AI is being used. Transparency does not undermine creativity or innovation; on the contrary, it strengthens public confidence and ensures that the use of AI in radio remains responsible, ethical, and aligned with human-centered values.

Useful links:Ethics of Artificial Intelligence - The Recommendation
Letting the sun shine in: transparency and accountability in the digital age
Guidelines for the governance of digital platforms: Safeguarding freedom of expression and access to information through a multi-stakeholder approach

Sub-themes around this idea for programme content: ways to leverage, develop or angle the topic:

For listeners:

• How should radio stations disclose the use of AI-generated voices to listeners?
• Does transparency about AI voices strengthen trust or change how audiences perceive content?
• What policies can ensure AI in radio is used ethically without misleading the public?
• Does the audience notice the difference? On-air survey

Potential guests: media sociologist, AI ethicist

For the radio teams:

• Voice AI: copyright, image rights?
• Sticker on visuals using AI

Potential guests: lawyer specialising in digital rights

3. Data protection

When AI and privacy go hand in hand.

Integrating AI tools often involves exporting or analysing content, sometimes via external platforms. But radio manages sensitive data such as voices, testimonials and creations. This idea focuses on the criteria for choosing an AI service: where does the data go? Is it stored? Who has access? Ethical use requires perfect control of data flows.

Useful links:United Nations Digital Library
Data Governance in the Digital Age
Principes mondiaux des Nations Unies pour l’intégrité de l’information
- Recommandations pour une action multipartite

Sub-themes around this idea for programme content: ways to leverage, develop or angle the topic:

For listeners:

• Where does your radio station’s audio data go?
• Do guests refuse to be analyzed by an AI?
• AI in management: who has access to confidential content?
• Local radio vs. large AI platforms
• Have you heard of GDPR?
• Street interview: do you know what centralized AI is?

Potential guests: GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) specialist, representative of an AI platform, etc.

For the radio teams:

• How do you choose a ‘clean’ AI tool?
• Potential guests: open source or data security specialists, legal experts

4. Increased accessibility

Radio for everyone, thanks to artificial intelligence.

From live transcription for the hearing impaired and voice synthesis for the visually impaired, to automatic translation for minority languages, AI is making radio more accessible than ever. This idea celebrates AI's ability to open up the airwaves to all audiences, without excluding anyone. It is a technical and ethical challenge, but also democratic progress.

Useful links:Disability equality in the media: Representation, accessibility, management
Indigenous Peoples and the media
Journey through the MILtiverse: Media and Information Literacy toolkit for youth organizations
Multilingualism and Linguistic diversity

Sub-themes around this idea for programme content: ways to leverage, develop or angle the topic:

For listeners:

• Demo: the AI that transcribes your show live
• Sign language podcasts: dream or reality?
• Does AI help us to better understand complex subjects?
• Radio for the blind: what tangible benefits can AI bring?
• Feedback from listeners helped by the technology
• Feedback from people with restricted access to radio

Potential guests: representatives of disability advocacy groups, indigenous peoples or minorities, accessibility specialists, etc.

For the radio teams:

No specific sub-theme, but potential workshop to experiment with tools

5. Algorithmic bias

When the machine imposes its stereotypes.

AIs learn from the data they are given. If the data is biased, the results will be too. If AI were used in an uncritical way by radio professionals, it could reproduce and amplify stereotypes, including gender stereotypes. This idea raises concerns about side effects: does AI favour certain voices? Does it suppress certain tones or nuances? Human editorial input remains essential to guarantee diversity.

Useful links: Challenging systematic prejudices: an investigation into bias against women and girls in large language models
Tables rondes ministérielles sur les bonnes pratiques s’agissant de lever les obstacles existants pour réduire la fracture numérique entre les genres et promouvoir l’éducation à l’ère du numérique aux fins de la réalisation de l’égalité des genres

Sub-themes around this idea for programme content: ways to leverage, develop or angle the topic:

For listeners:

• Translation AI: what is lost in the meaning of the original text?
• Why do your AI-generated music choices lack surprise?
• Does the algorithm favour certain cultures?
• AI and accents or dialects?

Potential guests: AI researcher, activist defending linguistic minorities, gender equality specialist, etc.

For the radio teams:

• Radio exercise: AI and sound diversity quiz
• What strategies could be put in place to ensure that AI nourishes a wider range of perspectives on air?
• How can AI be used to analyse feedback from listeners and social media in real time, in order to identify and counter violent or discriminatory speech against women and girls?

6. Open source AI

Freedom, transparency, participation.

The world of AI is not just a commercial war between web giants. Numerous free, ethical and community-based AI tools are emerging, often developed by researchers or committed groups. The idea is to promote these open source alternatives, which are more transparent, modular and often more respectful of privacy.

Useful links:AI Tools RADAR

Sub-themes around this idea for programme content: ways to leverage, develop or angle the topic:

For listeners:

• What free tools can ethical radio use?
• Live demonstration of open source AI
• Can you create your own radio voice assistant?
• Meeting with developers of free radio solutions

Potential guests: open source developers, members of tech collectives, etc.

For the radio teams:

• Why we should reject ‘black box’ tools
• Risk of damaging journalistic credibility
• Editorial independence and technological dependence?

7. AI Training

Understanding for a better choice.

Adopting AI isn’t about imposing it on others. It's about understanding what it can do, what it can't do, and how to integrate it intelligently and ethically. This idea encourages each radio station to offer awareness-raising sessions, practical training courses or even in-house debates. Because the more the team understands the tool, the better they will use it.

Useful links: Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
User empowerment through media and information literacy responses to the evolution of generative artificial intelligence (GAI)
Artificial intelligence for good

Sub-themes around this idea for programme content: ways to leverage, develop or angle the topic:

• Interview with an AI trainer for journalists
• How to organize an AI test session in your newsroom
• AI: a source of fear or creativity?
• What role for AI in journalism schools?
• Debate between ‘analogue’ and ‘digital’ radio generations
• Brainstorm: “AI scares me when...” Suggested team workshop? facilitator + technician
• Cross-training: veterans/new recruits
• AI for prevention: e.g. to monitor online threats against media professionals

8. Assisted journalism

Can AI really investigate?

AI can make it quicker to verify data, cross-check sources, warn of dubious information, and more. But it can also generate deepfakes and made-up stories. This idea questions the boundary between assistance and manipulation. It's not about rejecting the tool, but establishing safeguards. Augmented journalism is still ethical journalism.

Useful links:AI and the future of journalism: an issue brief for stakeholders

Example of an information integrity challenge:Freedom of expression, artificial intelligence and elections

Sub-themes around this idea for programme content: ways to leverage, develop or angle the topic:

For listeners:

• AI that sums up the news: gain or loss?
• Are AIs better at detecting misinformation?
• AI and investigation: useful or dangerous?
• Can we trust a fact-checker AI?
• Test: live interaction with AI?

Potential guests: investigative journalist, fact-checking expert, media AI researcher


For the radio teams:

• List to create: automated verification tools and tools to detect false information
• Thoughts from the editorial team: what should we do with the AI results?
• Sources: reliability and verifiability
• Practical workshop: role-playing with AI and fact-checking
• Digital security tools and AI to sort anonymous contributions received via secure channels
• Setting up protocols: human control + automated tool

9. Editorial suggestions

A tool to assist, not replace the reporter.

Some AI tools can summarize a long article, generate angle ideas or prioritize topics based on current events. AI can also become a strategic tool for reducing informational blind spots in places or contexts where reporting is impossible due to censorship, conflict or lack of access. But the angle, tone, narrative and reporting remain human choices. This idea encourages an active stance: AI suggests, but never decides. The journalist remains the author. AI is a pencil, not a pen. AI is a tool, not a voice.

Useful links:AI and the future of journalism: an issue brief for stakeholders

Sub-themes around this idea for programme content: ways to leverage, develop or angle the topic:

For listeners:

• What does AI suggest today? Let’s test it live
• AI and local content: relevant or guesswork?
• Do AIs influence the editorial line?
• Test: AI suggests 3 subjects. How many do I keep?

Potential guests: editorial journalist, editorial innovation manager, specialist in open source intelligence (OSINT)

For the radio teams:

• Create an AI suggestion box for the team?
• Experimentation workshops: writing based on AI suggestions
• Internal discussion: AI and creativity: complement or constraint?
• AI: using data to produce radio surveys; e.g. children's rights under threat
• Use of AI for indirect reporting: satellite imagery, OSINT and others to document ‘silent zones’.

10. Connected listeners

A new form of interaction.

Radio stations can use AI to get to know its audiences better, analysing feedback, answering questions, creating more personalized content, producing and broadcasting dedicated programmes and/or broadcasting programmes about AI-related challenges. From voice chatbots and automated surveys, to intelligent archives, the tools are already available. This idea paves the way for greater interactivity – as long as machines do not replace genuine discussion.

Sub-themes around this idea for programme content: ways to leverage, develop or angle the topic:

For listeners:

• AI for managing calls and messages?
• On-air chatbot: friendly or cold?
• Programme personalization: gadget or revolution?
• Should we create programmes dedicated to AI and its challenges?

Potential guests: audience relations specialist, chatbot designer, radio presenter who has experimented with AI on air, journalist networks, media associations, etc.

For the radio teams:

• Automatic listener feedback analysis
• Testing tools for categorising reactions
• Reflection on how personalization affects the editorial line
• Setting up live interactive surveys
• Audience segmentation based on listening habits
• Adapting programme schedules in real time based on detected trends

11. AI sound creation

AI for sound design and creation.

Artificial intelligence is opening up a whole new field of sound creation. Anything from generating a jingle to composing a mood and mixing a voice with background music can now be assisted, or even carried out, by an AI. But the question remains: can an algorithm translate artistic intent? This idea encourages us to experiment with hybrid sound formats and to try out AI-generated sound design, while emphasizing that creative decisions, narrative choices, and artistic direction remain human responsibilities. A new sonic grammar is emerging — one defined by collaboration, suggestion, and thoughtful human engagement.

Useful links:WIPO Conversation on Intellectual Property and Frontier Technologies
Mondiacult - Artificial intelligence and culture
Artificial intelligence and art: a decisive moment?

Sub-themes around this idea for programme content: ways to leverage, develop or angle the topic:

For listeners:

• How does the role of sound directors or composers change when AI assists in production?
• How can we balance AI contributions with human creativity and judgment?
• What practices ensure AI use in sound respects human rights and does not replace artistic judgment?
• Differences between human and AI-generated sound identity
• Potential guests: composer, AI sound designer, radio producer, sound artist, art and AI labs

Potential guests: composer, AI sound designer, radio producer, sound artist, art and AI labs

For the radio teams:

• AI as a sound design assistant: comparative test
• Who owns the sound signature? What about copyright?
• Hybrid creation workshop: human voice, AI sound design
• Automatic generation of personalized jingles and sound effects using AI

12. Memory and AI

Radio stations have thousands of hours of archives, often underutilized because they are difficult to index, browse or restore. AI can transform this dormant memory into an active resource, harnessing transcription, keyword searching, automatic summary and thematic upgrading. When direct reporting is impossible, coverage can be enhanced by historical archives. This idea raises the question of what we preserve, what we transmit, and the editorial mission linked to how we use augmented memory.

Useful links:Memory of the World
Managing low-cost digitization projects in Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States

Sub-themes around this idea for programme content: ways to leverage, develop or angle the topic:

For listeners:

• Testimonial: rebroadcasting or reinterpreting old feature segments
• Memory engine or erasure machine?
• Personalized access to sound archives, on air in real time
• Personalized access to sound archives, via interface
• Participatory features: “Tell us which radio memories you want to listen back to”
• Live voting

Potential guests: radio archivist, documentalist, AI audio engineer, university chairs, specialists in collections of humanity's shared heritage, etc.

For the radio teams:

• How can we use AI to add value to archives?
• AI for summarising and restoring old content
• Voice search engines in older podcasts
• 10 years of podcasts in 10 minutes
• Using archives to hold executives to account
• Instant real-time contextualization during a debate or interview

13. Low-tech and local AI

AI accessible to all radio stations.

Not all radio stations have access to the powerful servers, high-speed connections or premium subscriptions of the big AI platforms. And yet solutions do exist for experimenting with forms of artificial intelligence locally, on modest machines or using open source tools. This idea highlights the technical accessibility of AI and encourages regional, community and independent radio stations to take advantage of these resources, including local transcription, titling AI and thematic clustering. It's a localized, lightweight, controlled AI adapted to the realities of each region.

Sub-themes around this idea for programme content: ways to leverage, develop or angle the topic:

For listeners:

• Listeners meet radio stations testing lightweight open source AIs
• Low-tech AI: a tool for technological independence?
• Participatory workshops to discover local AI
• Comparison between well-equipped and more modest radio stations
• Audience testimonials on the use of AI in regional areas

Potential guests: local radio presenter, developer of open source solutions, representative of a technology NGO, etc.

For the radio teams:

• What AI solutions are available for regional and community radio stations?
• Demonstration of tools that run without an Internet connection
• Can Whisper be deployed locally? Whisper is an open source speech recognition system developed by Open AI, capable of transcribing and translating audio files in a wide range of languages.
• Workshop: installing and testing a local AI on a radio set
• Use of local voices to provide testimonials and verified updates in restricted areas

COMMUNICATIONS MATERIALS: Get the campaign visual assets in English and in French!

Poster 2026 World Radio Day 

Poster de la Journée Mondiale de la Radio.

World Radio Day 2025; February13th.

FORUM: “Radio and Climate Change” World Radio Day 2025. This year, we celebrate the many opportunities that radio broadcasting brings for giving prominence to climate change issues. 2025 marks a pivotal year for climate change. In accordance with the Paris Agreement, if humanity is to limit global warming to 1.5°C, the greenhouse gas emissions must peak by that year at the latest, before they begin to fall. While the Paris Agreement takes on capital importance, radio contributes to the achievement of its international objectives by supporting populations in the face of climate change through the dissemination of fact-based information, listeners’ voices, dedicated radio shows … Broadcasters must prioritize the quality and diversity of information sources, as they play a critical role in addressing climate-related issues. To all radio professionals and volunteers, everywhere in the world, UNESCO salutes your daily work and your commitment to the future of our planet, our future. Here are the ways to Celebrate this year celebration: 1. Put more emphasis on facts 2. Review your programming strategy 3. Present realities from elsewhere 4. Inform from an intersectional point of view 5. Start an "On the way to COP30" chronicle 6. Give the audience a say 7. Prepare for the storm 8. Raise the safety awareness of environmental journalists 9. Redouble your efforts to combat disinformation 10. Encourage your audience to listen to the radio critically 11. Strengthen staff competencies in relation to climate change issues 12. Set the tone 13. Green your radio; Follow the conversations with the hashtags: #13February, #WorldRadioDay.

EVENTS: On February 13th, World Radio Day 2025 will be dedicated to “Radio and Climate Change” to support radio stations in their journalistic coverage on this issue. Together, let's prepare the celebration the 14th edition of World Radio Day. panelists will address climate-related issues. This includes dismantling climate skeptics' arguments, investigating greenwashing, understanding ecological economics, and reporting on climate activism and barriers to solutions.The UNESCO and its partners invites the worldwide Radio industry in all its many forms - commercial, public, non-profit – to join in this global celebration of the medium at this special journey. Ahead of World Radio Day, we're celebrating projects where radio is empowering communities on the frontline of climate change.

OPPORTUNITIES: To benefit from the 2025 Opportunities and appear on the UNESCO map please click here. Your radio station will also have the chance to connect with a radio station in another locality or country. Thanks to these collaborations, you will be able to exchange programs, guests, sound archives, and even… consider a longer-term relationship beyond February 13, 2025. Take advantage of this opportunity! Regularly consult the map to discover new radio stations or partners that could match your search…

STATEMENTS: Read the statement of Ms Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of World Radio Day 2025; February 13th.

Get Involved!

1. Put more emphasis on facts

2. Review your programming strategy

3. Present realities from elsewhere

4. Inform from an intersectional point of view

5. Start an On the way to COP30 chronicle

6. Give the audience a say

7. Prepare for the storm

8. Raise the safety awareness of environmental journalists

9. Redouble your efforts to combat disinformation

10.  Encourage your audience to listen to the radio critically

11. Strengthen staff competencies in relation to climate change issues

12. Set the tone

13- Green your radio

World Radio Day 2024; February 13th.

FORUM: "Radio: A century informing, entertaining and educating." World Radio Day 2024. 

The theme of the World Radio Day 2024 shines a broad floodlight on Radio’s remarkable past, relevant present and promise of a dynamic future. Looking Forward to Radio’s Next Century; The opportunity provided by the 100-year-plus milestone of Radio begs to be trumpeted at full volume. The century is an occasion to proudly celebrate the medium’s extensive virtues and ongoing potency. It comes at an opportune time, as Radio – though statistically popular and enormously trusted by the public – faces increased challenges to audience and revenue numbers from digital platforms, pervasive social media, digital and generational divides, the headwinds of censorship and, for some media, stifling consolidation-induced debt as well as economic hardships exacerbated by a soft advertising market.

 

EVENTS: On February 13th, the UNESCO invites the worldwide Radio industry in all its many forms - commercial, public, non-profit – to join in this global celebration of the medium at this special and pivotal juncture in its century-spanning journey.

Message from Ms Audrey Azoulay,Director-General of UNESCO,on the occasion of World Radio Day 2024; February 13th.

On this World Radio Day, we celebrate not only the history of radio, but also its central role in our societies, now and in the years to come. The year 2024 marks a milestone in the history of this medium: it is the year we celebrate the centenary of the first live radio broadcast of the Olympic Games, on the eve of the next Games in Paris. This milestone reminds us that, since its creation at the end of the nineteenth century, radio has always been with us, bringing us together around powerful moments and shared emotions. And so, for over a century, it has been informing us, entertaining us, and also educating us, as this year's theme underlines. It is all the more true today: despite the growing influence of the Internet and social networks, radio continues to be a prime source of information and entertainment – it is estimated that over 4 billion people listen to it. Radio is also the medium that reaches places others do not: while almost a third of the population did not have a decent Internet connection in 2023, a proportion that rises to half of the population in rural areas, radio is more inclusive and accessible, particularly in crisis situations. For example, in Afghanistan, following the decision – which UNESCO immediately and firmly condemned - to deprive Afghan girls and women of their fundamental right to learn and teach, the Organization has put in place what is in effect education over the airwaves, supporting Radio Begum in particular. This radio station, run by Afghan women for Afghan women, provides literacy courses and gives them a voice. Radio can also be the voice of the voiceless, enabling all individuals and communities to express themselves, and to bring the diversity of their cultures to life. That is why UNESCO supports and encourages community radio all over the world. As we see it, radio is more than a technical means of broadcasting: it embodies a certain idea of information, cultural diversity and education for all; we could go so far as to say that radio can and must be a humanist medium. Today, 13 February, may we once again acknowledge the road travelled by radio, and the power of its airwaves to build – to “broadcast” – the possibility of a better world.

UNESCO Director-General.

The World Radio Day 2024 observance highlights:

1. The indelible history of Radio and its powerful impact upon news, drama, music, sports …
2. The ongoing utilitarian value of Radio as a relatively free and portable public safety net during emergencies and power outages brought on by natural and human-made disasters such as storms, earthquakes, floods, heat, wildfires, accidents and warfare.
3. The continuing democratic value of Radio to serve as a grassroots catalyst for connectedness within underserved groups including immigrant, religious, minority and poverty-stricken populations; and as an instantaneous bellwether of public opinion expressed through the auspices of free speech in the public space.

UNESCO recognizes and understands the tremendous variety of business models and technological architecture in Radio around the world as well as the independent nature of its companies and organizations, large and small, plus the idiosyncrasies of its on-air personalities. Thus, broadcasters are encouraged to bring their own culture, style and sensibilities to their individual celebrations leading up to and during the February 13 event.

IDEAS TO CELEBRATE THE DAY

1. World Radio Day Minutes. Air the UNESCO package of 20 pre-produced “World Radio Day Minutes”. They are 60 second audios discussing interesting aspects of the radio medium during its first 100 years of service to humanity. The texts figure in their descriptions so that you have the option of producing your own episodes in other languages. These short-form audios can be programmed on a schedule of your choosing leading up to and on February 13, World Radio Day (WRD). You can run them as non-commercial announcements or offer them for local sponsorships.
2. Talk Shows Celebrating Radio. Program (pre-produced or live) talk shows with local and national experts talking about the importance of radio for quality information, highlighting its 100-year history and continuing relevance. Recruit legendary and retired radio personalities known to your audience to participate in these programs supplemented by real clips from the past to be aired leading up to or on February 13.
3. World Radio Day 2024 Live Event. Schedule a live indoor or outdoor event (depending upon climate) on February 13 celebrating World Radio Day 2024. Invite listeners free (or charge admission in conjunction with a charity). Feature a panel discussion about the relevance of the entire audio sector in a changing media world as well as local legends telling stories about their service to the public through radio. Supplement it with display tables presenting local businesses and sponsors. Consider holding it on a local college or university campus in conjunction with the school’s communication department. Organize a group of diverse stations (either under one corporate umbrella/cluster or actual competing ones) to join forces in support of information, entertainment and education through radio in general. The results will be beneficial for everyone involved.
4. World Radio Day 2024 Sponsorship with Local Consumer Electronics Store/Chain. Arrange a sales promotion with a local store or chain of stores within your market to offer listeners a significant one-day discount (February 13) on all AM/FM radios and radio-related equipment.
5. International Dialogue. Schedule interviews/conversations (either live or prerecorded) with your broadcast colleagues from other countries to compare and contrast the history and strength of radio in their respective countries on or leading up to February 13. These shows can be simulcast on both stations or simply be one host interviewing another. For Partnership Opportunities, please check here which stations or partners around the world are interested in collaborative programming and you could contact now.
6. The Greatest “Radio Songs” of All Time. There are songs in almost every pop music format that contain the word “radio” in them or make reference to the medium of radio. Highlight the “Greatest Radio Songs of All Time” into your playlist intermittently or as a “countdown show” on February 13 in commemoration of World Radio Day 2024. This is an easy and simple way to highlight World Radio Day and create a fun and entertaining programming element.
7. Visit to a Radio Station. Offer guided tours of your facilities to listeners or local school classes leading up to and on February 13 in celebration of World Radio Day 2024. This will be an effective outreach to a younger generation of new listeners and create community goodwill.
8. Radio and Emergencies. Emphasize radio’s impact as an informational public safety net entering its second century of service. Use World Radio Day 2024 as a reason to talk about and remind listeners of the value of the medium to provide a lifeline to the public when the electricity goes out and the internet goes down. There are numerous examples in just the past year alone to draw from in terms of earthquakes, wildfires, and storms in which radio news helped people in distress in real time. This is also a talking point in the current issue about some automobile manufacturers choosing to not equip new car models with AM radios.
9. Theater of the Mind. Use World Radio Day 2024 as a focal point for radio being the “Theater of the Mind” by producing your own locally produced radio dramas and airing them on February 13. You’ll provide intelligent entertainment, support cultural expression, and stimulate listener interest.
10. Radio, the Original Interactive Mass Medium. Recognize radio’s claim to the title “The Original Interactive Mass Medium” and “The Original Social Media” by using these phrases as often as appropriately possible on February 13. Radio pioneered the concept of taking live calls from listeners on the air to give opinions and receive advice in addition to playing musical requests and announcing dedications in real-time on the air. Highlight the interaction with listeners.
11. Take Me Out to the Stadium. Radio was the first mass medium to provide live, real-time play-by-play coverage of sporting events. The history of radio’s connection to sports is deep and rich. There is a lot of colorful sports broadcasting history to discuss in celebration of World Radio Day 2024 and nourish vibrant conversations.
12. Podcasts. Post several new and timely podcasts featuring quality conversations and panel discussions with experts and leaders in the radio profession from around the world as supplemental World Radio Day 2024 content on your station or network website. You can also generate your own podcasts and programs about radio for placement on your website or general distribution.
13. Positive and Pro-Active – Accomplishment, Pride and Hope. World Radio Day 2024 provides you with a supportive platform and focal point to pursue business, civic and social relationships within your community, and protect free, independent, pluralistic radio. WRD 2024 symbolizes radio’s century of accomplishment, pride in the present and hope for the future. Celebrate World Radio Day 2024 spreading this optimistic perspective leading up to, during and following February 13.

The First Half Century (1894-1945): Milestones in radio

PODCASTS: WRD2024 ''Radio: A century informing, entertaining and educating."      

POCASTS: A special World Radio Day 2024 podcast on radio for early warning and emergency services. In recent decades, broadcast radio stations have become a crucial component of the public safety net, too. During emergencies, the portability of radio receivers and wide reach of radio broadcasts can disseminate early warnings before, and support emergency response and recovery during and after a disaster. Access to timely information can mean the difference between life and death...

Featuring soundbites from: (in order of appearance) H.E Toelupe Poumulinkuku Onesemo, Minister for Communications and Information Technology for Samoa Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary-General, ITU Mario Maniewicz, Director of the Radiocommunication Bureau ITU Timothy Ellam, President, International Amateur Radio Union Produced and Presented by Maximillian Jacobson – Gonzalez Written and Edited by Jennifer Macleod Studio recording by Daniel Woldu

World Radio Day 2022; February 13th

FORUM: "Radio and Trust". World Radio Day 2022.

The theme of the 2022 edition of World Radio Day is devoted to "Radio and Trust". Radio continues one of the most trusted and accessible media in the world, according to different international reports.

On the occasion of World Radio Day 2022, UNESCO calls on radio stations to celebrate the Day through three sub-themes:

1. Trust in radio journalism: Produce independent and high-quality content;
2. Trust and accessibility: Take care of your audience;
3. Trust and viability of radio stations: Ensure competitiveness. 

 

Follow the conversation using the hashtag #WorldRadioDay and #13February

STATEMENTS

Statement from Ms. Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of World Radio Day 2022; February 13th.

On this edition of World Radio Day, the theme of which is radio and trust, we are celebrating the independence and reliability of radio. We turn to radio, more than to any other medium, when we need to be informed. For example, in Europe, where fewer than one in five people consider social networks a credible source of information, more than half of all people trust radio.This trust is all the more important under serious circumstances, as radio is the only medium which can reach so many households, especially in the remotest of areas. During a pandemic, radio thus remains one of the surest ways to know what to do, without controversy confusing matters. Radio is often the medium through which learning continues when schools are closed. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, while three quarters of university students own a radio, only 30% have Internet access at home.However, our trust in radio may be due to something even more profound: where images can be distorted or reproduced to the point of excess, radio establishes a more direct, more intimate relationship between speaker and listener. Of course, this close relationship must be coupled with a guarantee of independence and rigour. Our organization sees to this by promoting reliable and quality information everywhere through support for press freedom and journalists.The best guarantee of radio's independence, however, is the diversity of those who make it and the diversity of their voices. Radio would not inspire such trust if we could not make it our own, regardless of our culture. While television requires more significant resources, radio offers communities, villages and schools an accessible means of sharing their knowledge. UNESCO is encouraging radio projects, for example in Cameroon, where an agreement to support community radio stations was signed in November. For trust is the product not only of a constant effort to be independent, but also of better representation of diversity in terms of language, gender and ideas. Many radio stations have already taken up these issues; whatever their audience ratings, they will have UNESCO's solid support. This February 13, let us all join together to express how much radio means to us. A medium over 100 years old, radio is today more relevant than ever. May it live on for many more years to come!

UNESCO Director-General.

EVENTS

UNESCO invites all radio stations worldwide to celebrate the 11th World Radio Day and to share information about their relevant activities.

Proclaimed in 2011 by the UNESCO Member States, and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 as an International Day, February 13th became World Radio Day (WRD).

PODCASTS

Listen "No Denying It", There’s no denying it - we have to tackle the climate emergency. The UN climate action podcast brings you the voices of young climate changemakers from across our warming planet.

 

Listen "Awake at Night": What does it take to be a United Nations worker in some of the world’s most difficult and dangerous locations? Melissa Fleming finds out.

World Radio Day 2015, February 13

Theme 2015 : " Youth and Radio "

 

 World Radio Day marks the anniversary of the first broadcast by UN Radio in 1946, when it transmitted its first call sign: "This is the United Nations calling the peoples of the world."

 

World Radio Day is about celebrating radio, why we love it and why we need it today more than ever. A day to remember the unique power of radio to touch lives and bring people together across every corner of the globe. Join the celebration!

 

 

U N I T E D   N A T I O N S                                          N A T I O N S   U N I E S

THE SECRETARY- GENERAL

--

MESSAGE ON WORLD RADIO DAY

13 February 2015

On World Radio Day, we celebrate a medium that captures the imagination and brings people together. 

This year United Nations Radio, along with the United Nations, celebrates its 70^th anniversary. Every year, United Nations Radio broadcasts over 1,200 documentaries, news items and editorials over the airwaves.

This year’s observance of World Radio Day highlights the importance of radio to the world’s 1.8 billion young women and men. 

Radio matters for youth across the world.

As the international community shapes new sustainable development goals and a new global agreement on climate change, we need to hear the voices young women and men, loudly, strongly and urgently.

• Message from UN Secretary-General
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Live global broadcast, exhibitions, demos, hackathon, debates, features highlight theme: Youth and Innovation in Radio.
World Radio Day will be marked at ITU in Geneva on 13 February. The event will be broadcast live around the world from 17:00 to 20:00 in the Popov Room in ITU’s Tower Building.

• Date: 13 February 2015
• Venue: ITU Headquarters, Geneva – Popov Hall
• Theme: Youth and Innovation in Radio, in line with ITU's 150th anniversary celebrations in 2015
• Programme

Tentative Programme of World Radio Day in Geneva: 13 February 2015

• EBU RadioHack (hosted by ITU)
  In ICT Discovery. Kicks off 12 February 14:00 – 22:00; re-starts 13 February 08:00 – 14:00
  
• 14:00  –  Invited guests tour exhibition in Popov Space​
• 14:30  –  Technical session on radio and innovation + demos of devices + Hackathon Report
• 16:55  –  Guests are seated in Popov Hall
• 17:00  –  MC (BBC correspondent Imogen Foulkes) opens programme​
• 17:05  –  Pre-recorded Feature: UN Radio at Work
• 17:10  – Panel debate: ITU Secretary-General, UNESCO Deputy Director General, UNOG Director General, EBU Director General
• 17:30  –  News desks around the world
• 17:35  –  Broadcast of UNESCO radio feature on "Youth and Radio"
• 17:40 –   Key findings of Hackathon and Demos of new trends in radio
• 18:00  –  WRD Radio broadcast goes LIVE with time signal and BBC news
• 18:05  –  ITU Feature on Radio and Innovation    
• 18:25  –  Broadcast of radio feature produced by UN Radio
• 18:30  –  News desks around the world
• 18:45  –  Discussion on 'Video didn't kill the Radio – Internet will breathe new life into it'
• 19:00  –  Live link to BBC programme: World Have Your Say
• 19:10  –  UN Jazz Ensemble international World Radio Day Concert