HAPPY WORLD RADIO DAY

Today has been designated by UNESCO as World Radio Day. Our annual celebration of this wonderful medium takes a different theme each year, with 2019’s being “Dialogue, Tolerance and Peace”. So Happy World Radio Day 2019!

I last wrote about radio and what it means to me on World Radio Day 2017 (having been abroad for the 2018’s). And I think its fair to say, I love it even more than I did then (almost ridiculously so) a 27 year long love affair that began by tuning around to hear far-off FM-stations in my room as a kid. Nowadays whether I'm in the office, in the car, out for a walk, or at home radio accompanies my daily routines.

A cornerstone of radio is its stunning ubiquity; radio is genuinely something you can hear almost anywhere whether you’re up a mountain, on the ISS, or travelling the underground. For me this ubiquity defines the mediums power to connect distant places and people, to bring a sense of community, to break important news, to be a companion for many many listeners at once and of course be a vehicle for dialogue, ( and certainly on occasion) tolerance and peace. This ubiquity is defined by technology which allows a simply stunning number of listening possibilities from live FM/AM, listening on your laptop on your phone or on the Radio Garden via your TV or DAB. I love downloading and listening again on BBC iPlayer radio, curating my own playlist of BBC content as much as I do streaming music on Spotify ( which I also consider a form of radio). To think a decade ago radio’s demise was predicted with the rise of the smartphone age.. It has thus proved exactly the opposite, the smartphone has only made radio more relevant, more accessible, more interactive and more ubiquitous than ever while expanding hours listened and bringing radio to new audiences.

I love how radio links so seamlessly to so many aspect of modern life be it music, politics, science and cities but particularly technology and geography… Obviously being a true radio geek I’ve made so many memorable journeys out of a city listening to its radio until the signal finally faded… out of New York, London, Auckland, Wellington, Poznan, Paris and Chicago… Back in the days when broadcast was the sole delivery system distance determined availability and how long you could listen.. In the smartphone age it's not distance from a transmitter, but time since transmission with BBC retaining everything they’ve broadcast for at least a month. And I love being on the edge of both.

Of radio I love the history, I love the technology, I love the infrastructure, I love the technical parameters I love the air-checks and sweepers, I love the sheer variety of formats and I love so many of the characters who’ve graced our airwaves over the years. Most of all I love the serendipity you find after tuning in or logging on and still finding myself - on an absolutely daily basis - surprised, enlightened or entertained by this truly wonderful medium.