Every 13th of February is World Radio Day with its theme Radio and Diversity.
On World Radio Day 2020, UNESCO calls on radio stations to uphold diversity both in their newsroom and on the airwaves.
Our guests on the show on Wednesday morning Cruise were Gabriel Onafurume , former deputy director Radio Nigeria Ibadan and Bode Oyewole a journalist, publisher and chief executive of Sketch Newspaper.
How does radio inspire, unite, create bond and promote diversity? Bode Oyewole explained that radio is the most potent channel to reach people. One should not lose sight of the fact that radio is the most widely consumed medium.
In a society where we have diverse storms, radio remains the easiest form of uniting people. It is free and available to everyone.
The uniqueness of radio reaches the widest audience and contents that unite, educate and mobilise are the varieties of uniqueness of radio. It gives the people opportunity for their voice to be heard.
With d current trend of social media, is the radio still as relevant as it had been?
Gabriel Onafurume in his words enlightened us that radio has always been the most effective means of mass communication. Even when it became threatened by the invention of television, people thought it would go into extinction but it never did till today.
The social media has also come to challenge the existence of radio but it has remained as relevant as ever. The social media may be giving it a tough competition but the advantages of radio surpasses that of social media. Social media operates one on one but radio is mass. A million people can listen to a programme at the same time but social media is not like that.
Radio is free and has highly trained professionals. The language of radio is the language of the people and it brings people together. You can have access to radio anywhere you are. You can listen to radio on your phones for free unlike the social media where you may need to be connected to Wi-Fi to have access to some things. It is very cheap and can reach millions of people.
So I say in Don Williams voice, "Listen to the radio".
Happy World Radio Radio Day.