The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) officially launched the new .radio top level domain name at an event in Shanghai on World Radio Day 2017. 

Alain Artero, .radio TLD project manager and EBU Head of Radio Graham Dixon invited officials present at the event to symbolically “push the button” in front of journalists and photographers.

The event was hosted by the EBU and its Associate Shanghai Media Group and co-organized with UNESCO and the ITU.

Taking part in a panel entitled “The Innovation of Audience Engagement and Participation”, the EBU’s Media Director Jean Philip De Tender said: “It’s great to celebrate World Radio Day outside of Europe for the first time here in Shanghai, showing that radio more than ever unites people.”

Participants in the ceremony included Sun Xiangtong, president of SMG Radio; Tong Gang, vice-minister and head of SAPPRFT (the media administration of the Chinese government), Javad Mottaghi, DG of the ABU; Frank La Rue, deputy DG of UNESCO and Mario Maniewicz, deputy director of Radio Regulation.

A delegation of EBU Members, led by Graham Ellis from BBC chair of the EBU’s radio group as well as representatives from broadcasting unions the ABU, ASBU, AUB-UAR and RAPAF also attended the event.