London: One of the highlights of 2011 was undoubtedly the International Radio Festival (IRF) in Zurich. In its 2nd year the IRF has the look and feel of a festival that has been around a lot longer. A stunning programme of radio shows performing live and streamed online the IRF made it clear that radio was still the star in the multimedia age.
The UK was Guest Country at the 2011 IRF which included the unstoppable Normski – the voice of the festival - and saw iconic BBC radio DJ and former pirate radio pioneer Tony Blackburn take to the decks.
The 2012 IRF is already coming together and festival co-founders Darryl & Miguel have recently been nominated for the First Annual British-Swiss Business Award 2011. The award show will take place in Geneva Wednesday 30th November.
The IRF team is consists mainly of Darryl and Miguel who pump so much energy and passion into the festival it takes your breath away at times as there doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day. The 10 day festval saw 30 global radio stations present 50 specially commissioned live shows.
The festival founders had his to say of their nomination:
“We are honoured to be recognized for our efforts in bringing together the world of music radio. Radio remains the world’s most consumed media and the festival’s programme reached over 25 million global listeners,” says von Däniken.
“The creation and success of the IRF has been realized with help from both the Swiss and British communities, as well as many dedicated radio stations from around the globe. We accept this nomination with a thanks to our supporters,” adds Alvarez
Best of 2011 – Pirate Day
The whole ethos behind ‘Pirate Radio’ might be lost on a new generation but in the 1970s it was such an essential part of the airwaves that star where made of the likes of Prince, Blackburn and Tremaine. Celebrating this lasting legacy of the gold age of pirate radio IRF line up also included Tony Prince and American ‘border blaster’ DJ Larry Tremaine. Their pre-show banter was always interesting to listen to as well as their stories of what it was like to host pirate shows in the back in the day.
A Discussion Point
The festival offered a place for radio organisations from all over the world to come together and discuss one of the oldest media platforms and where it was going, and how radio has been developed and adapted to fit our multimedia society. The discussions that took place throughout the 14th & 16th June through the B2B Forums where engaging and insightful and showed that radio has a lot more life in it.
The B2B forums included ‘Why Get Involved in Radio‘, ‘What To Play on Radio‘ and ‘The Future of Radio‘. I was lucky to be at the first of these forums where the groups entered into lively discussions on why they had decided to get into radio. Our group agreed that radio has changed much in its time and can reach more people. I highlighted how it was radio that has been able to reach far more people in all parts of the world due to the invention of the wined-up radio, far beating the internet and television and gives radio a unique position in the media world.
HOT NEWS: A special edition of IRF is set to rock London 2012 – more news on what the guys at IRF have planned to make the London Olympics even more memorable coming soon!
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