MUMBAI: The Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) Consortium is celebrating the World Radio Day (WRD) 2024 by shining a light not only on the illustrious legacy of radio but also on the power and new possibilities of this 100-year-old medium.

Radio remains worldwide the most widely consumed medium as it provides information, entertainment and education while being relatively free and portable. In recent years radio has increasingly become a public safety net during emergencies and power outages when natural and human-made disasters occur. Radio also promotes democracy and equality serving as a glue for underserved populations, be they poverty-stricken, caught in conflicts, on the move.

To mark WRD 2024, the DRM Consortium, an integral part of all the major promises of radio’s dynamic future, will launch a new distance learning e-book and updated information on DRM, the open, ITU recommended standard for all frequency bands (in an interview recorded for the occasion of the Radio World Day).

DRM provides excellent audio in all bands but also enables essential data carriage. As data means any files, those can be text disaster warnings (in different languages), maps and images. Data files can be also illustrated school texts, images of any kind like graphs, formulae etc. The principle is the same whether we transmit (using DRM) a text alert, a map, or a mathematical figure.

The new DRM e-book DRM Delivers Education for All, available for free to all, makes a strong case for using DRM for distance learning. Being a “one-to many” platform, digital DRM radio can deliver audio and text over vast areas and, therefore, to all the schools, homes, and students in villages far away or in busy cities. The same content and quality, without any discrimination, will reach all.

Contributing to a century of informing, entertaining and educating, on the World Radio Day 2024, the DRM Consortium free e-book is also an invitation to participate in an exciting adventure, our DRM Delivers Education for All Project (first started in Africa).