Our Earth Week – Testimonials

Suzie Wilde – Shine Radio (Petersfield)

When Shine Radio was asked to take part in OEW I jumped at the chance to put the environment at the heart of my Wilde Walks podcast. Like a pebble in a pond, the success of one year carries to the next. 2024 was only the start for us: we now understand what an amazing resource there is. My reports from the Blue Earth Summit were used in Rise and Shine, a daily news update, and Generation Green spoke fully in its output (all young). The station was then contacted by authors of Wild Seas, Wilder Cities, a collection of fiction, poems and articles from Portsmouth and used in my Talking Books podcast. It’s growing! Now we understand what’s on offer, Shine Radio will be more involved in 2025.

Karen Jones – BCfm Radio (Bristol)

I’ve been very inspired by Our Earth week 2024 and loved being part of it on BCfm. There was a fantastic range of material, suggested topics to explore and discuss, as well as pre-records to play, making it really easy to be part of, and enabling creative show production during the week. I feel it brings us together on the big and challenging issues of our nature and climate crises, both within community radio and our wider communities. Our Earth week is important in keeping the focus and the conversations going. I think it’s brilliantly organised, inspiring and so great for community radio stations wotldwide to be part of Our Earth week.

Peter Rush – Aycliffe Radio & Bishop FM (Nr Durham)

Our Earth Week is an exceptional initiative for me. Community-based radio stations perform remarkable work locally for every community they serve, by a dedicated team of passionate volunteers. The idea for them to convey their climate actions to a national audience is brilliant, allowing others across the country to benefit from shared experiences, benefiting not only the individual communities but our planet too. It is always my pleasure to be involved in this project to inform our listeners of the climate issues that not only the UK but the world faces.  Penny Southgate is an inspirational driving force for everyone involved.

Mark Jones – Dean Radio (Forest of Dean)

The Forest of Dean heard all about Our Earth Week 2024 from Dean Radio, thanks to a tremendous amount of hard work from all the contributors. We recorded our own sounds of nature from the Forest of Dean, and ran quizzes using the sounds of various local mammals and birds. And all of our breakfast shows talked about Our Earth Week, often incorporating elements from the brilliant Media bank provided. Hats off to the team, many thanks to all.  We at Dean Radio can’t wait to get stuck in again next time!”

Sam Beattie – Radio Leyland

I have loved being part of OEW over the past 2 years. It offers a topic that not only affects us all but that we can all, even in a small way be a part of. There was loads of  interesting and relevant information for all, no matter of age. The information I heard or found out during the weeks was amazing, great tips and thought points. It is great to be part of something that is working through the medium of radio, to make the planet and our communities better places to be.

David de la Haye – Underwater Sound Recordist

Alternative approaches to caring for our environment are needed in order to engage people with nature on our doorstep. This is where the arts shine, bringing together communities and creating discussion. And giving everyone a voice is the Community Radio Environment Network. What a fantastic initiative!

Scott Cridland-Smith – BCfm Radio (Bristol)

Truly a fascinating week; just talking about our earth & nature makes me feel happier 💙 Thank you for all the time & effort you put into making this all happen – it really showed & many members of the team & listeners have really embraced that It was an honour to be a part of it all.

Louise Romain – Podcast producer of Circle of Voices

As a new sound artist and producer, participating in Our Earth Week was a beautiful opportunity to have my work distributed to a wider audience. I am delighted to contribute to Penny’s vision to share the voices of nature across the airwaves.

Julie Elkins – 10Radio (South West)

Each year, Our Earth Week ignites debates about the climate, the natural world and subsequent ecological challenges among our presenters and radio audience – it’s a 7 day event that has a year long impact.

One presenter let me know they had a show all lined up to celebrate OEW but ironically they were prevented from attending the studio due to local flooding. This also happened to me but the week after resulting in a £200 repair to my car because I stupidly persisted through the flood to get to the studio!

Other presenters were pleased to highlight this in our morning breakfast shows and described OEW as a ‘timely personal reminder’. There were many great ideas to remind us and listeners to increase our personal efforts (through the daily pledge). One presenter would like to see a regular news bulletin featuring climate change/natural world updates with greater regularity. As scheduler, I’ll be asking Robin, who looks after our news, to try to do this once per month.

Xan Phillips – Voice FM (Southampton)

At Voice FM we were 100% behind Our Earth Week,  it is what community radio is all about. We turned our Breakfast Show green, and our Lunch Box Quiz and new shows featured a wide variety of information about the environment. We’ve been so taken with the idea that the green breakfast show has continued through COP28.”

Nigel Lane – Thornbury Radio (South West)

Our Earth Week is a great way to raise awareness on our local station of environmental issues for presenters and listeners. Using social media and on air content provided to us from the OEW team has enabled us to connect with listeners. We now run a regular weekly update on air from ‘Plastic Free Thornbury’ all due to OEW.

Jo Kenyon – BCB Radio (Bradford)

Just a quick update from us at BCB Radio! We’ve played two of the COP pieces during our news section of our Bradford and Beyond Drive program.  On Monday we also featured Fiona Dyer’s piece on Climate Emergency Centres. Today we featured the  Xeena Cooper’s Cricket piece and will be featuring further pieces throughout the week. Please see attached a clip from today’s live Bradford and Beyond Program, to give you an idea of how we’re using content on BCB :). I’m working with some school children tomorrow so will be doing a piece with them re OEW. Thanks for all your hard work on this – it’s greatly appreciated!

Veronica Miller – Radio Leyland

Thank you so much for all the material you provided – it gave me lots of help with organising topics for discussion on the day (such as the Climate App Challenge). Our News Team went out and managed to interview several local people who all had a connection with the topics under the spotlight as well as adding their own knowledge into the mix each day.I hope this gives you a bit of a feel for what we achieved – everybody worked very hard and I believe it was well received by listeners.

Pamela Nova – BCfm Radio

Our Earth Week is such a brilliant concept; an accessible and relatable way of bringing Nature and other animals onto the airwaves and into people’s homes.
It can be whatever you want it to be, from exotic lemurs to chats about veganism and the role of other animals in our lives (which is what I did with my co host) on the drivetime show. I dream of a time when Nature and other life forms are paid equal attention as sport, news and celebs. These fellow beings are integral to sustaining all life on this beautiful and increasingly traumatised Earth