Talk Radio Day at U.N. headquarters breaks new programming ground
18 hosts and more than 30 expert guests discuss global issues ignored by mainstream U.S. press
NEW YORK — For the second consecutive year, TALKERSmagazine joined forces with the United Nations Foundation in presenting Talk Radio Day at the United Nations. The event, which took place on Thursday, June 7 — the day before the New Media Seminar — marked yet another milestone in the ongoing expansion of American talk radio’s growth, reach and impact.
The full day’s activities revolved around a “radio row” organized by TALKERS magazine’s sister firm, Talk Radio News Service (TRNS) in a conference room located within the heart of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Twenty leading talk radio organizations (stations, syndication companies, news agencies and networks), representing a variety and meaningful cross section of geographical regions, political ideologies and corporate cultures, attended for the purpose of broadcasting live or via delayed recording back to their audiences. Covered by CNN, these programs, which took place between 5:00 am and 8:00 pm ET, included unfiltered observations about the United Nations as well as interviews with more than 30 U.N. officials and experts. Material from these broadcasts and recording sessions continued to be aired for days and weeks following the event, reaching a national audience estimated to be in the millions. These conversations are now receiving even further international exposure via the TALKERS Air Force One movie download magazine official media station, PodJockey, at www.podjockey.com.
The participants
The participating broadcasters and companies included (in alphabetical order): Jerry Agar, WLS, Chicago; Tom Becka, KFAB, Omaha; Marc Bernier, WNDB, Daytona Beach and WFGH-FM, Bristol, Tennessee; Alan Colmes, Fox News Radio; Gordon Deal, Wall Street Journal Radio Network; Sam Greenfield and Armstrong Williams, WWRL, New York; Rusty Humphries, Talk Radio Network; Lionel, Air America Radio; Joe Madison, WOL, Washington, DC and XM Satellite Radio; Carole Marks, WABC, New York and KRLA, Los Angeles; Michael Medved, Salem Radio Network; Jack Rice, WCCO, Minneapolis and CBS News; Al Sharpton, Syndication One; Alan Stock and Kerri Kasem, KXNT, Las Vegas; Wendy Wang and Victoria Jones, Talk Radio News Service.
Lots of guests and topics
The United Nations provided more than 30 guests during the course of the day with topics ranging from international famine, drought and starvation to underreported episodes of genocide in extremely dangerous, violence-ridden parts of the world. Guests discussed tensions in the Middle East as well as terrorism, global warming, earthquake relief, and the threat of plague-like diseases that recognize no borders. Others explained how the United Nations operates and many hosts established ties with the U.N. Radio News Service and ongoing press contacts available to them from the world body.
Guests included U.N. Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro; Dennis Kind and Pam Shifman, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); Stephanie Dujarric, U.N. Executive Office; David del Conte and Stephanie Bunker, U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA); Ann Leoncavallo and Steve Kraus, U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA); Susan Myers, Gillian Sorenson and Robert Skinner, United Nations Foundation; Ambassador Henri-Paul Normandin, Canada; Ambassador Emyr Jones Perry, United Kingdom; former Ambassador William Luers, President, United Nations Association; Ambassador Robert Hill of Australia; Francis Mead, U.N. Television; Kevin Kennedy, U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations; Ahmad Fawzi and Jessica Jiji, U.N. Department of Public Information (DPI); Gustavo Zluavinen, International Atomic Energy Agency; Ambassador Thomas Matussek, Germany; Michael Myer, United Nations Director of Communications; Helen-Marie Gosselin, U.N. Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); Amir Dossal, U.N. Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP); Nick Birnback, U.N. Department of Peacekeeping; Minh-Thu Pham, U.N. Executive Office; Soung-ah Choi and Farhan Haq, U.N. Office of the Spokesperson; and others.
A tremendous success
Although very difficult to organize — heightened post-9/11 security makes the distribution of access passes to broadcasters and their parties and complex task — there was universal agreement among the participants, supporters and critics of the U.N. alike, that the event was extremely worthwhile. Being at the iconic U.N. headquarters (something many had not done since grade-school field trips), was tremendously satisfying. They especially valued exposing American audiences to serious international issues — many involving life-and-death dramas — that go largely ignored by the mainstream U.S. press.
According to TALKERSmagazine technical editor Lovisa Frost, who headed up the effort to install phone lines and broadcasting equipment for the actual “radio row” aspect of the event, “We keep getting better at this. Much of the heavy lifting was accomplished last year when we virtually had to rewire the U.N. building for this type of technical project. These things are never easy, and with so much riding on the line, you can’t afford to cruise. But I must say, we really pulled off a seamless parade of wonderful broadcasts.”
WCCO, Minneapolis talk star Jack Rice, whose interviews and commentary were heard across the nation via CBS Radio news as well as on his local show, tells TALKERS magazine, “An event such as this gives broadcasters a rare opportunity to deliver a remarkably heightened insight on reality to their listeners. It is crazy to restrain the boundaries of this limitless medium (talk radio) to the same old stories and routine formatics that keep it from falling short of its potential. I loved exposing my audience to important stories from around the world that connect to our common humanity — not to mention, explaining some of the fascinating details about how the United Nations actually operates. Most Americans simply see the U.N. as a monolithic building. If we as a people are going to effectively sit in judgment of something as important as an organization of the world’s nations, we should at least understand how it operates and what it does so we can criticize it intelligently and constructively.” Jack Rice, who has participated in both of the Talk Radio Days at the United Nations events, has produced a documentary detailing his experience for PodJockey.
TALKERS magazine publisher Michael Harrison and Talk Radio News Service bureau chief Ellen Ratner co-directed this event and are currently in discussions with the United Nations Foundation to organize next year’s third annual Talk Radio Day at the United Nations. Stay tuned for details!
The following interviews were conducted by Victoria Jones:
Interview with Dennis King:
Interview with Jessica Gigi:
Interview with Kevin Kennedy:
Interview with Stephanie Bunker:
Interview with Susan Meyers:
Interview with Susan DiMaggio:
Interview about UNICEF:
Interview with Kristin Knutson:
