PURPOSE: On 13 February, the UNESCO and thousands of stations come together to celebrate World Radio Day. The objective of the Day is to raise public awareness of the importance of radio and to encourage decision makers to use it to provide access to information, and to improve international co-operation among broadcasters. In reporting and informing the general public, radio stations shape public opinion and frame a narrative that can influence domestic and international situations and decision-making processes. Increasing radio's journalistic standards and capacity should be considered as an investment in peace. UNESCO recognizes and understands the tremendous variety of business models and technological architecture in Radio around the world as well as the independent nature of its companies and organizations, large and small, plus the idiosyncrasies of its on-air personalities. Thus, broadcasters are encouraged to bring their own culture, style and sensibilities to their individual celebrations leading up to and during the February 13 event. World Radio Day is also an opportunity for radio stations to connect on-air with fellow broadcasters around the world. UNESCO invites stations to take the initiative for such broadcasts.

FORUM: “Radio and Artificial intelligence” World Radio Day 2026. AI is transforming our relationship with the radio voice, from real-time transcription and noise reduction to highly realistic synthesized voices. At its best, AI makes radio more accessible, enabling captions for deaf and hard of hearing audiences, voice-controlled radios for people who are blind or visually impaired, and AI translation that brings broadcasts into more languages, helping radio stations reach everyone, everywhere. This transformation is not about replacing the human voice   which remains at the heart of radio. Used responsibly, AI can amplify, reach human creativity and inclusion. In line with UNESCO’s ethical framework for artificial intelligence, voice technologies must respect human dignity, people’s consent to be recorded, transparency, and human oversight, and must never be used to deceive or exploit. A voice is more than sound: it is identity, and identity is a human right. Artifical Intelligence (AI) isn’t just a challenge to navigate; it’s a chance to reimagine radio with care, creativity, and connection. It invites us to dream bigger, reach further, and honour listeners’ time, intelligence and expectations. AI can help radio blossom in thoughtful ways:

• Ease and Flow, letting technology take care of the routine tasks, such as scheduling, voice-tracking, daily weather or sports updates, administrative chores, so your team can focus on what truly matters: inform, educate, entertain.

• Meaningful Growth, understanding your audience more deeply, connecting ads to listener needs, improving revenue.

• Listener Empowerment, helping every listener feel included, offering personalized experiences, real-time interaction, and space for under-represented voices that deserve to be heard.

• Quality Content, using AI to support fact-checking, source verification, rediscovery of archival richness and increased factuality, while keeping human judgment at the center.

All of this builds something precious: trust.

A Thoughtful Approach to AI
To make the most of AI, radio broadcasters need more than tools - they need a strategy. That means:

• Clear, caring policies and internal guardrails for ethical AI use

• Respect for privacy, intellectual property, data ownership and transparency

• Careful use of generative audio (like AI music, voice cloning, deepfake audio, etc.)

• Investment in people; their skills, growth, collaborations

• Legal and security checks to manage emerging risks, data storage and transfer, liabilities, etc.

Broadcasters must prioritize the quality and diversity of information sources, as they play a critical role in addressing climate-related issues. To all radio professionals and volunteers, everywhere in the world, UNESCO salutes your daily work and your commitment to the future of our planet, our future.  Here are the ways to Celebrate this year celebration: 1. Put more emphasis on facts 2. Review your programming strategy 3. Present realities from elsewhere 4. Inform from an intersectional point of view 5. Start an "On the way to COP30" chronicle 6. Give the audience a say 7. Prepare for the storm 8. Raise the safety awareness of environmental journalists 9. Redouble your efforts to combat disinformation 10.  Encourage your audience to listen to the radio critically 11. Strengthen staff competencies in relation to climate change issues 12. Set the tone 13. Green your radio; Let’s treat this moment as a transformative opportunity to elevate these and every aspect of radio broadcasting. On the 2026 World Radio Day, UNESCO gives radio stations the resources to build confidence in how AI is used, all while preserving the warmth and reliability that audiences cherish. Follow the conversations with the hashtags: #13February, #WorldRadioDay, #radio, #audiences, #ai, #listeners, #radioandai, #artificialintelligence, #onair, #radiobroadcasting, #radiostations, #airwaves.

EVENTS: On Friday, February 13th, the celebration of World Radio Day 2026 will be dedicated to  "Radio and Artificial Intelligence" to support radio stations in their journalistic coverage on this issue. Together, let's prepare the celebration the 15th edition of World Radio Day. The UNESCO and its partners invites the worldwide Radio industry in all its many forms - commercial, public, non-profit – to join in this global celebration of the medium at this special journey. Register to participate!

OPPORTUNITIES: To benefit from the 2026 Opportunities and appear on the UNESCO map please click here. Your radio station will also have the chance to connect with a radio station in another locality or country. Thanks to these collaborations, you will be able to exchange programs, guests, sound archives, and even… consider a longer-term relationship beyond February 13th,. Take advantage of this opportunity! Regularly consult the map to discover new radio stations or partners that could match your search…

PUBLICATIONS: Research on radio's contemporary and historical subject matter, and the audio media that have challenged radio's traditional use. Explore the Journal of Radio & Audio Media.

• Radio Studies: The Sound and Vision of an Established Medium in the Digital Age - Radio has been variously described as the ‘forgotten’, ‘invisible’, ‘secondary’, ‘blind’ and even ‘Cinderella’ medium, and it has been relatively under-theorized in media studies since the subject first appeared in the classroom in the 1930s. Media educators may have been slow to realize its potential, and radio’s survival may have been threatened by the emergence of new media, but this established, rather than old medium has reinvented itself before now and is doing so again in the age of media convergence. Digital migration may be slow because the benefits of new technology over the existing analogue transmission platforms may not be apparent to consumers, but now radio provides given pictures online and on mobile platforms through parallel broadcaster and user-generated web content. Teaching radio studies can be both enjoyable and cost-effective, with both academic and vocational outcomes, and radio’s place in media education seems assured by its longevity and durability. This article explores essential synergies between the development of radio as an industry that is now situated in a convergent, digital landscape, the state of the art of academic radio studies, and the practice of radio within media education. Read the full report!

STATEMENTS: Read the statement of the Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of World Radio Day 2026; February 13th.

UNITED NATIONS RADIO

To mark World Radio Day, celebrated on 13 February, UN News has reached back into our audio archives to a classic collaboration between UN Radio and the UN Audio Library. The United Nations Radio was created on 13 February 1946. In 2017, United Nations Radio and the UN News Centre merged to form UN News, producing daily news and multimedia content in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Swahili, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Hindi. We want you to help us improve and tailor our products to your needs. Complete the 2021 UN News User survey

INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION ORGANIZATION

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