Internet radio provides government communication problem

In times of crisis government advice is usually to sit tight and listen out for annoucements on local radio. Often even national radio will be used to make emergency announcements. However, the advent of internet radio means that those in power can no longer be sure that the audience they want to reach is listening to a local station.

In fact, listening to radio broadcasts from the other side of the world is now as easy as listening to one from next door.

Canadian city Nanaimo had just such a problem last November when it needed to advise residents to boil their drinking water.

“Plain and simple we had a problem after the boil water warning – even days later some people didn’t know,” said Councillor Merv Unge.

“I said at the time just straight listening to the radio isn’t enough. It used to be everyone listened to the local radio station, but the more stations we get, the more fragmented the audience is. Now, we have Internet radio – so how do you focus it back on one thing?”

Nanaimo has solved the problem by investing in an automatic telephone dialling system that can call 30,000 residents in one hour.

More and more governments, local and national, will have to make similar investments as the uptake of internet radio grows. 

Source: Nanaimo News Bulletin