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Productions: Atlas, Radio Stories from Around the World

Listen to a 20 minute program sampler of Atlas, Radio Stories from Around the World.

Atlas, Radio Stories from Around the World is a pilot project of SchardtMEDIA and London-based World Radio Network (WRN) with its global network of public service broadcasters. The seeds for the project were planted on September 7, 2001 – the Friday before 9/11 – at a meeting in Washington with the programming executives from NPR and WRN when a decision was taken to end the overnight program WRN had been producing for NPR and that SchardtMEDIA had worked to develop for 5 years.

In the process of developing WRN from NPR, several things became clear:

a) there was a growing demand and an expanding audience for international news. This has only increased in the wake of September 11th.

b) there was an opportunity to fill an unserved public radio programming niche. There are nearly 4 million public radio listeners who tune in from 10pm on, yet there are virtually no live domestic information programs offered at that time. The attitude that this is a throw-away audience is a disservice to listeners and a missed opportunity for programmers.

c) the technology developed by WRN to gather and filter daily programming from sources all over the world make it possible to efficiently serve listeners with fresh views on events of global importance formed and informed each day by the agendas of overseas broadcasters and by citizens themselves, providing a critical ear on “what the rest of the world is saying.”

Rather than simply close up shop, SchardtMEDIA and WRN made a commitment to explore what the next generation of the WRN from NPR concept might sound like. We also set out with a clear mandate to develop a program that would be financially self-sustaining; something the overnight service was not, and a key factor that led to its demise.

If you have questions or would like more information about the project, send an e-mail to info@SchardtMEDIA.org.

World Radio Network (WRN) is a London-based company formed in 1992 by three former staff members of the BBC who recognized an opportunity for utilizing emerging technologies such as Internet, direct satellite, and cable to deliver new streams of international radio programming to an increasingly globally-minded listenership. World Radio Network has emerged as a leading force in international broadcasting – the gateway to international radio programming – providing transmission services for broadcasters and networks across the globe, and supplying unique content directly to listeners in 58 countries. WRN offers programs from dozens of international broadcasters, and operates multiple 24x7 channels of news and features programming in English, German, French and Russian programs. WRN also provides international overnight services for the CBC - Canada and for the SAfm – the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s national English language radio service. The content is mostly speech based, and includes news programming, documentaries, health and business features from Africa, Europe, Asia, the United States and Russia. World Radio Network is an exclusive US source of English-language news of the day from broadcasters such as Radio Australia, RTE Ireland, Radio Canada International, Voice of Russia, and Israel Radio to name a few, and also serves as a distributor for NPR and PRI programs such as All Things Considered®, Morning Edition and Market Place throughout Europe, Asia, and the farthest corners of Africa.