Every year on February 13, the world celebrates World Radio Day, a moment that is meant to highlight radio’s crucial role in raising awareness, promoting sustainable practices, and engaging communities.

The World Radio Day theme for 2025 is ‘Radio and Climate Change,’ and this has been adopted with recognition that the gadget has created awareness among the members of the public about various topics of interest.

Radio is a voice that connects, informs, and entertains global citizens from wherever they are through its programmes that include news updates, music, and talk shows among others.

History

Radio Day is not a very old concept in the world, given that it was ratified in 2012, slightly over a decade ago, but since then, it has been celebrated in different forms by different entities across the globe.

The process of ratification of World Radio Day began when a request from the Spanish Radio Academy on September 20, 2010, Spain proposed that the UNESCO executive board include an agenda item on the proclamation of World Radio Day.

The board added the agenda item to its provisional agenda for the proclamation of a World Radio Day on September 29, 2011.

This proposal was supported by the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU), the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), the African Union of Broadcasting (AUB), the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the International Association of Broadcasting (IAB), the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA), the Organization de Telecommunications Ibeoramericanas (OTI), BBC, URTI, Vatican Radio and finally the proposal was approved.

February 13 was then recommended as the official day because it is the day the UN established the whole concept of the United Nations Radio in 1946.

The UNESCO Director-General was requested to bring the resolution to the attention of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. This was to enable the endorsement of World Radio Day by the General Assembly.

The matter was subsequently treated by UNESCO’s general conference, which adopted the resolution. World Radio Day was unanimously proclaimed by all member states of UNESCO in November 2011.

In December 2012, the UN General Assembly endorsed the proclamation of World Radio Day and since then it has been celebrated by all UN agencies and their partners.

UNESCO’s 2025 message

As the world marks another day recognising the positive impacts of radio, UNESCO listed international objectives that have been achieved courtesy of the development in that field.

“In an era marked by the dizzying speed of technological innovation and the rapid obsolescence of one shiny new platform after another. Radio is beginning its second century of service as one of the most dependable and widely utilized forms of media in the world.  

“Proclaimed in 2011 by UNESCO Member States and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 as International Day of the United Nations, February 13 became World Radio Day (WRD). Radio contributes to the achievement of its international objectives by supporting populations through climate disasters such as tropical storms and floods. It helps with the dissemination of fact-based information, listeners’ voices, and dedicated radio shows. 

“To all radio professionals and volunteers, everywhere in the world, UNESCO salutes your daily work and your commitment to our future,” UNESCO said.