Radiodays Europe officially got underway this morning with 1200 delegates attending this year, and almost all of them in attendance for the opening where they were entertained with a performance by best-selling artist Darin.
Radiodays GM, Peter Niegel, welcomed the delegates highlighting the importance of audio saying “Audio today is stronger than ever in reach and in importance, and in the past year it has again risen to the challenge through the pandemic, and especially in the past few months with this terrible conflict in the Ukraine.”
Cilla Benkö, Director General of Swedish Radio, delivered the keynote address beginning with SR’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that saw a huge rise in radio audience numbers as audiences sought out a trusted news service.
Appearing via video link from a bomb shelter, Ukraine Public Radio’s Dmytro Khorkin and Andriy Taranov say that they have not stopped broadcasting since the start of the war despite Russian forces destroying other telecomunications networks.
AM radio in Ukraine continues to be able to reach vast number of the population, even though the internet, cell phone towers and other communications services are now destroyed.
“Radio is an absolutely vital medium in Ukraine at the moment,” said Andriy Tatanov from his broadcasting bunker.
“In Mariopol, in Kherson, the Russians destroyed our equipment. Nevertheless, we are able to bring the essential information that our listeners are waiting for… We’re broadcasting and that’s the main thing.”
Other speakers at the opening today included Christer Modig, VP Radio at Nent Group Sweden, Stefan Möller, President of the Association of European Radio and Siobhan Kenny.
After lunch, a feature in the main room (there are 4 tracks in 4 different rooms, the day is packed with content) was the writing of a live song for the conference.
This story first appeared on RadioInfo.asia