It is just the second annual World Radio Day to be proclaimed by UNESCO and endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly to celebrate Radio as a medium. It aims to improve international cooperation between broadcasters; and to encourage major networks and community radio alike to promote access to information and freedom of expression over the airwaves.

In his act of international freindship, Indian broadcaster Sivraj Chinnamari sent us this picture of himself at the famed Hindu temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia – with a radio.

Our own National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) will celebrate World Radio Day with the publication of online profiles of two of Australia’s female radio pioneers, Lynn Foster and Dorothy Crawford. It includes great audio from old radio broadcasts. See our other story. 

In England, A 24 hour pop-up  station is celebrating the work of the Children’s Radio Foundation with a host of musicians, radio presenters and artists coming together at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London to appear on the station.

Melbourne station JOY 94.9’s Wednesday Drive Show, The Royal Daltons, went to air with BBC London 94.9 to acknowledge and celebrate World Radio Day. JOY’s presenters are Michael & Glen Dalton and the BBC presenters are Penny Smith and Paul Ross. Both stations linked up live presenters live on both stations at the same time.

UNESCO encourages all countries to celebrate World Radio Day by planning activities in partnership with regional, national and international broadcasters, non-governmental organizations, the media and the public.

The International Committee for the World Radio Day invites all public, private, online and community Radio organizations as well as Radio professionals and listeners worldwide to participate in a global campaign and join voices to tell the world why Radio still is the greatest media!

If your station is doing something for WRD, then you can tell us and we’ll let our readers know at radioinfo.

The host for this year’s WRD celebrations is the Academia Española de la Radio in Madrid, Spain

More info at the official WRD site.