The IRIB Radio Festival was held in the Iranian seaside city of Zibakenar last week, where hundreds of staff from Iran’s national broadcaster joined with international delegates to celebrate the role of radio in society and to discuss its future. The festival was organised jointly by IRIB and the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union. Themes discussed at the Festival’s conference sessions included new technology, radio’s role in developing society, and a discussion of Radio Drama.
Indian broadcaster Biju Matthew, spoke about the important role of new technologies. “An electronic superhighway is bringing a new range of multi-media and communications technologies.”
He said 56% of Indian smart phone users go online at least twice a day. “People live their lives online and on digital platforms.”
In Iran, however, the internet is heavily filtered and this trend has been delayed in that country.
Steve Ahern, urged broadcasters to engage with online social media, explaining the differences between streaming, downloading and podcasting. “Podcast software is like a shopping centre, you go to the bazaar to buy one thing but you see more shops and things you like and you buy more. Software like iTunes works like this. Put your programs up on iTunes so that more people can know about them.”
In a later session he spoke about multi-screen consumption patterns and gave his top three points for success in the multi-media age: “First, start with great programs, get great personalities, and put the program on as many platforms as possible.”
Ata’ollah Abtahi talked about the “media galaxy,” saying that global programs should be made for local audiences. “Use the whole galaxy to meet the needs of the audience… Radio is becoming a data centre,” he said. “The audience will now be owners as well as participants in the programs.”
The ABU’s Natalia Ilieva said: “Radio has its own language, with its own grammar, no matter what language it is in.” Talking about the type of people needed to make good radio, she said, “creative people are the most precious talent in our industry… the curious journalist is a prime source of information. Radio needs creative and curious people.”
Ramaswamy Surarsan illustrated his talk about Radio Drama with a dramatic mime, then made the point, “no format will succeed unless there is drama in it.” He gave examples of many successful programs, particularly public service announcements from All India Radio, where drama was used to create powerful messages in a short time.
Leila Rezale discussed the role of the narrator in radio drama. She outlined the various roles of first, second and third person narrators in radio drama in an interesting academic paper.
Rajendra Sharma described the role of radio in Nepal during and after the election in improving literacy, social attitudes and reconciliation between the previously warring parties.
“We made a drama about a girl who was considering running away from home, and we showed how bad it would be for her parents and how difficult it would be for her in the drama. After that girls wrote to us and said they were considering running away, but after hearing the program they changed their minds.”
“Life changing decisions have been made because of the effect of characters and situations we put in our dramas.”
Iran’s Maliroud Jom’epour talked about the effect of radio on household consumption patterns. “Consumption patterns needs to be reviewed and radio can help this to happen,” he said, reporting on his study of consumption patterns. “The media can have an effect on the way people consume things.”
The Festival and conference spread over two days and also included awards for outstanding Iranian and international radio programs. Above, a dance troop opens the conference and below, award winners and speakers.
