| "We want to develop an appreciation of the wonders that we have on Georgia's coast, so that when people upstream are called upon to make sacrifices that will help improve the coastal environment, they'll be willing to do it." | |
| David Bryant, Georgia Sea Grant |
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How do you get people who live hundreds of miles inland to tune in to coastal issues? Radio is helping coastal resource programs in Georgia take their message statewide.
"The coastal area is a different world than the rest of Georgia," says Beth Turner, who helped develop the radio awareness campaign, "Coastal Connections," while working as an outreach coordinator for the Georgia Coastal Management Program. "As a statewide program, we wanted to communicate better with people around the state and help them understand the significance of the coastal resources we have."
David Bryant, director of communications at Georgia Sea Grant, partnered with Turner to develop and produce the campaign. He notes, "Our goal wasn't to beat the listener over the head with a didactic message of you have to do this or that. We want to develop an appreciation of the wonders that we have on Georgia's coast, so that when people upstream are called upon to make sacrifices that will help improve the coastal environment, they'll be willing to do it."
Turner says in January 1999, coastal program staff organized a meeting with other agencies supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish an outreach network. She met Bryant at the meeting and learned he had a background in radio production. "David was interested in maintaining his connection to radio, and we felt it was a good partnership for both of us."
Bryant developed the format for the two-minute, weekly radio spots, and Turner created a "rough sort of schedule" with topics for the year, which were approved by both Sea Grant and the coastal program. The segments, which Turner researches and writes, focus on everything from endangered species, such as the piping plover, to cultural subjects, like indigo dye production. Public radio station WUGA-FM provides free recording time and production facilities, and Bryant "handles the technical side of the series," she says.
After a demo CD-ROM was produced, the Peach State Public Radio Network agreed to make the segments a part of the "Georgia Gazette" program, which airs statewide on Friday afternoons. Coastal area Peach State affiliates in Savannah and Brunswick replay each segment on Sunday afternoons. Bryant estimates the low-cost campaign reaches an audience of 58,600 each week. Text and audio versions of the segments are being incorporated into Sea Grant's Web site.
Turner recently left the coastal program to become a fish and wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but has maintained the commitment to continue the series with her new employer as a program partner.
"This is something that Beth and I are proud of," Bryant says. "Beth could have dropped it when she changed jobs. The fact that she didn't is a testament to how much we believe in it."
For more information about "Coastal Connections," contact Beth Turner at (912) 265-9336, ext. 26, or beth_turner@fws.gov, or David Bryant at (706) 542-6621 or bryantd@arches.uga.edu.
