‘Ours to Protect,’ a radio and audio climate change project spearheaded by Independent Broadcasters of Ireland (IBI), was showcased at Radiodays Europe.
The project sees 23 local and regional radio stations broadcasting over 1200 new and unique program segments over the course of a year – all devoted to climate change and climate action.
Through the project, radio stations collaborated to create community awareness of climate change by using positive journalism to tell local stories. The regular segments on trusted local radio stations showcased climate issues through the eyes and voices of community members, such as a local bee keeper.
The unique radio partnership recognises the importance of programs that explore the reality of climate change for Irish audiences. Local Independent commercial radio stations are a trusted source of news in Ireland and know that audiences rely on them to provide clear, factual and honest reporting. The programs aim to improve the climate literacy of the audience, to create awareness around climate change issues and encourage active engagement in climate action at a local level.
Live 95 journalist, Aislinn Kelly in her presentation said, “their mission is to empower rather than scare listeners by following the principals of solutions journalism.”
As 81% of Irish adults listen to the radio every day (Reuters, 2023) and 52% listen to their local stations daily, the strategy was to produce weekly content in a regular time slot. The weekly segment reflects their audiences’ climate action experience and the need to knows about climate change.
Stations highlighted local community, voluntary, NGO and state organisation representatives discussing topics such as the climate impact of energy, travel, food, waste, the circular economy and factual plus informative pieces for local radio audience.
One example is on Radio Nova’s segments on clothing recycling:
TITLE: RADIO NOVA – WEEKLY TIPS 34 – REPURPOSING FABRIC
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO RECYCLE YOUR OLD CLOTHES? We could all do with recycling more, and while many of us are dependent on our local waste collection service to recycle paper, plastic and metal, we often forget that there are so many eco-friendly rubbish disposal options for clothes.
Surveying listeners is part of the project, with a survey finding that over 50% of the audience came to radio and social media to increase their climate change knowledge. The results of the survey contributed to the strategy to combine both radio and socials to increase audience reach.
‘Ours to protect’ is about half way through it’s goal of creating 1200 new programs on climate change and climate action. These program segments can be heard at this link https://ourstoprotect.ie/stations/
Listeners are encouraged to become more aware of their ecological foot print by completing this survey https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en
The project was funded through the Coimisiún na Meán Sound & Vision fund.
Pot calling the kettle black! It is all very well to get others to reduce their environmental footprint but what about the broadcasters cleaning up their own act?
The least polluting method of sending programs to large numbers of listeners is broadcasting. ie one program shared by all. The most efficient method is Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) which in the old unused TV channels 0 - 2 can transmit on a modified FM transmitter 6 channels of DRM, each containing up to 3 audio channels and can also transmit slideshow which can be used for advertising, Journaline® multipage text including images along with improved traffic data for vehicle navigation systems. A geographically addressed Emergency Warning system is also available using Journaline®
The next least polluting system is DAB+ which has been broadcast in our capital cities since 2009.
Polluting systems include streaming because a separate copy of a program has to be sent to each listener and their device also has to communicate with the broadcasters' server for each block of data. In addition, streaming to phones requires base stations ready for the phone to move from one to another. Coverage is not without black holes. The most polluting system is AM radio because it uses a carrier which contains no sound at all.
I would like to remind broadcasters that Australia changed from analog to digital TV which was completed in 2013 with very little complaint from the viewers. Why can't we do the same for radio.