Now in its 4th year, BCfm and community radio stations across the UK and beyond are joining forces for “Our Earth Week 2025”. This ground-breaking event, spearheaded by CREN (Community Radio Environment Network) marks a milestone in community collaboration and was nominated for an ARIAS Award in 2024.
Stations from all over the UK are taking part and this year, for the first time, from abroad (the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Philippines and Australia). They are coming together to broadcast a week of climate and nature-themed content. This year’s focus is Water, our most precious, threatened resource.
Why Water?
– The UN warns that by 2025 half the world’s population could be living in water-stressed areas.
– In the UK alone, sewage spills into rivers and seas have soared, threatening wildlife and public health.
“Water is life. By uniting community radio stations, we’re not just sharing stories, we’re inspiring action to protect our planet’s most vital resource,” says Penny Southgate, environmental campaigner and founder of Our Earth Week.
National organisations including Surfers Against Sewage, Greenpeace, River Action the Rivers Trust, as well as campaigners like Chris Packham, UN Patron of Oceans Lewis Pugh, and Mike Berners Lee are partnering with CREN to amplify urgent environmental messages direct to listeners throughout the week.
Presenters at community radio stations will share a central audio library, produce tailored local content, and spark not only conversation but also actions through The Our Earth Week Challenge (created especially for OEW by The Climate App), such as writing to MPs to end sewage dumping or joining a beach clean.
Broadcast Highlights
– Live insights from UK and Brazilian delegates at the UN Climate Conference in Brazil, delivered straight to listeners. Sometimes this is as much about the price of the food as the state of the negotiations!
– Powerful stories from people directly affected by flooding, drought and erosion.
– Beautiful and immersive soundscapes from David de la Haye and Martyn Stewart and more.
Why Community Radio?
Community radio’s local knowledge and flexibility make it a powerful force for climate action informing, empowering, and connecting people to both local and global issues in relatable ways, that are interesting, informative and even fun! The community radio network is a natural partner for national organisations to get across their national and local messages. Intimate local knowledge is an advantage, and practitioners often have more freedom and flexibility in what they can discuss compared to mainstream radio stations, so, for example, there will be lots of discussions about the state of local rivers, lakes and coastlines.
But perhaps the central most important feature of Our Earth Week is that it enables us to harness our collective imaginations to go beyond what is, to dream of what could be.
Participating stations include: The Cat Crewe and Nantwich; Omnium Radio Plymouth; Suffolk Sound; Lomond Radio; Cross Rhythms Plymouth; Janner Radio; M29 Manchester; Rhonnda Radio; Soundart Radio Totnes; Radio Dacorum Berkhamsted; 10 Radio; Felixstowe Radio; BCB Radio Bradford; Flirt FM; Cotswold Radio; Radio Leyland; BCfm Bristol; RTE; North Manchester FM; Bishop FM; Wythenshawe FM; Thornbury Radio; Dean Radio; Beverley FM; Warminster CR; Radio Platfform; Lake District Radio; BrandBRadio; Cambridge 105; Shmu Aberdeen; Voice FM; WCR Fm Wolverhampton; Chaos Radio; Sam Radio Sittingbourne; Hospital Radio Swindon; Oldham CR; Sheffield Live; Radio Kalinga DC; DYUP Philippines; KTCR Bath; BHBN Bristol Hospital Radio; Birmingham Hospital Radio; Ocean City Radio Plymouth; All FM Manchester; WRfm Oxford; Pulse FM Geelong, Australia; WRFM Witney and Cotswolds; Abbey 104 – Dorset; KeeP 106 Dorset; The Source Falmouth; Bradley Stoke Radio; Colwyn CR.
