Many people compare the coronavirus pandemic we are still experiencing to a world war; millions affected, global involvement, and new kinds of crises and emergencies. Across the world we are having to reconsider our priorities and needs, write PAOLO LAZZARINI, DAVID HEMINGWAY and BEN POOR.

What was once considered essential in many places has become unavailable. Lockdowns are still in place in many countries, intensifying our human need for proximity and social contact. Long-distance travel is practically forbidden, and a large part of industrial activity has stalled.

In the COVID-19 context, all forms of media and communication are playing a major role in helping people feel less alone and closer to each other.

Amid a global pandemic, radio is showing its flexible ease of use for everyone.

Meeting new challenges

To meet these new challenges, radio broadcasters have had to reinvent the way they produce their content. The limits imposed by the virus, such as physical distance and the need for personal protective equipment (PPE), have added a layer of complexity to the production chain and to the management of broadcast studios, productions, and facilities. In many cases, radio programmes produced in different places have needed reassembling before broadcast. This has also been the case during live events where field journalists have often had todo their job from home.

Fortunately, the shift to remote production and contribution has long been anticipated by many broadcasters.

Recent years have seen many projects devoted to creating tools to liberate journalists and other content producers from their offices and studios. The ability to be where the story is more rapidly, or to reach out to isolated communities more easily, has been of vital importance to public service broadcasters and others. For example, low-cost and lightweight backpacks that allow journalists to immediately connect to the studio wherever there is viable mobile connectivity have ensured radio’s resilience for trusted news gathering despite the emergence of social-media platforms.

Broadcasters banding together

Radio studios themselves have become increasingly decentralized, with the possibility of coordinating and producing programmes equally well wherever the contributors are — potentially not even in the same location. The major challenge for radio during the current global crisis that began in 2020 was that a three-to-five-year strategy needed to be implemented within a matter of weeks. Creating a consistent environment for large numbers of producers, working from their own homes, brought both technological and logistical challenges.

Working through the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), in exchanging best practice, collaborating on projects, and lending expertise and resources, public service broadcasters in Europe were able to easily identify what worked, and what wasn’t working quite so well — rapidly iterating through the challenges to find solutions that could be more widely applied. In this sense, the real value of broadcasters working together for the benefit of their audiences and wider society is clear.

The flexibility of broadcast radio has played a significant role in filling the lack of face to-face contact and keeping people company in the most difficult moments such as during lockdown.

One example is what Vatican News did to improve domestic and international services. All events involving the Pope have been live broadcast in six languages using all possible distribution channels: from the most advanced digital technology to the more traditional analogue. The culmination of this is represented by the live broadcast of “Statio Orbis” in March 2020during which the Pope prayed for the entire world.

Dispelling disinformation on digital radio

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has worked to become a trusted source of accurate information about the coronavirus by serving audiences with basic information, as well as challenging some of the dangerous COVID-19 misinformation that continues to circulate. BBC World Services launched two different programme segments: Coronavirus Global Update has two editions of five minutes a day for direct transmission, for partner stations and as a podcast. The segment is now carried by14 radio partners across ten counties and 12 digital players including Apple, Spotify, and TuneIn.

BBC World Service has a short news bulletin format, BBC Minute, run by many partners with young and music-oriented audiences. The BBC Minute team started a bulletin specifically on the COVID-19 outbreak in mid-February 2020. It was offered to partners and then extended to two bulletins a day.

As the outbreak escalated into a pandemic, more radio stations started to air the bulletin, today aired by 39 radio partners across 25 countries.

There are also versions in Spanish with services in other languages being planned.

Radio as a lifeline

Traditional radio represents another effective medium of communication — communication in an emergency. As reported by one of the missionaries released in Africa in May 2020 following a two-year kidnapping, thanks to a small short-wave radio he was able to listen to BBC and Vatican Radio programmes. This allowed him to hear news from the world and “remain in touch” with home despite his difficult situation.

At the outset of the pandemic, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) produced visuals, graphics and social media messages to counter disinformation, fight discrimination, and promote best practices. UNESCO contacted the High Frequency Co-ordination Conference (HFCC) and asked it to advise HFCC, Arab State Broadcasting Union (ASBU), and Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) members that a series of short audio spots in different languages about the coronavirus pandemic was available to be broadcast on shortwave.

Amid COVID-19, local radio has provided a lifeline service to people experiencing pandemic-related difficulties.

The economics of radio mean that it can be more closely targeted to local populations than other media. Moreover, audiences turn to local voices when they need reliable information about their immediate surroundings — especially with lockdown measures differing in various areas of a given country or region. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the BBC made temporary changes to its local radio network in England, introducing several more localized services that give the opportunity to offer extra news and information to local audiences when and where needed.

This was accomplished by re-purposing existing AM (MF), and DAB transmitting networks to address the new services to their target audiences. In March 2020, more than 100,000 people had contacted BBC local radio’s coronavirus helpline in the two weeks after it was set up for the Make a Difference campaign that was launched to link up those in need of help with those who can provide it. It was the biggest response the BBC has ever had to a local radio campaign (read more here). 100 years on — still providing a vital service.

2 November 2020 marked the100th anniversary of the world’s first commercial radio broadcast, from KDKA in Pittsburgh in the United States of America, relaying the results of the presidential election.

100 years later, radio still provides a vital and irreplaceable service to many around the world.

And particularly in emergency situations such as pandemics, radio continues to reach people in ways that no other media can.

• Lazzarini is Vice Chair, ITU Radiocommunicaton Sector (ITU–R) Study Group 6
• Hemingway is Vice Chair, ITU–R Working Party 6A
• Poor is Project Manager at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)