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A GUIDE TO RADIO ECOSHOCK FOR PROGRAM DIRECTORS

WHAT IS RADIO ECOSHOCK?
I’ve produced a one hour weekly program for over 10 years. In Spring of 2016 the show was broadcast by 94 college and community stations, in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.  Another large group of online radio stations, in many countries, also play Radio Ecoshock.  The show is also available by podcast, on Soundcloud and downloads from our website, http://www.ecoshock.org/.

Radio Ecoshock is provided free to all radio stations. It contains no advertising, does not push any political party, business, or group views. The program is funded by the host, Alex Smith and by listeners around the world.

WHO IS ALEX SMITH?
Alex is a long-time environmental activist, former reporter, one-time private investigator, father, world-traveler, host for the past ten plus years of the non-profit weekly program “Radio Ecoshock”.

WHAT ABOUT CONTENT?
This program combines:

• original interviews with scientists, experts, and activists from all over the world
• other audio from public sources or used with permission of the producer
• original music by Alex Smith
• royalty-free music, sound effects, and old radio clips from my large private collection

Very rarely we include either a sample or a complete copyright song, assuming our stations have a licensing agreement with the music industry. We may include film clips, where we interview the producer.

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO HEAR ABOUT?
The main thrust of the program is to help create a better environment, safe for all coming generations. Listeners hear a lot about climate change, the oceans, safe food production, toxics, living forests and the like. Climate change is our largest single issue.  Our guests include top scientists from around the world, well-published authors, activists, and creative people with something to say.

We also cover related issues like the fossil fuel supply system, including peak oil, dangerous nuclear accidents, drilling and mining safety, and the impact of dwindling or dirty fuel supplies on our daily lives. Very rarely, I have guests about serious financial problems and our personal economy.  And in case the situation fails, we provide help with self-reliance, localization, transition, healthy eating, and food storage.

WHERE DOES RADIO ECOSHOCK ORIGINATE?
While our guests arrive by phone from all over the world, the show is produced by Alex in a home studio near Vancouver, Canada. Our original home station was CFRO Co-op Radio in downtown Vancouver. We have irregular correspondents in Washington D.C., San Francisco, London, and other places.

HOW CAN ALEX COVER WORLD ISSUES FROM CANADA?
Alex Smith lived in the United States, in California and Florida. He has traveled to all the lower 48 states, knows the country, has followed American news closely for many years.  But Alex has also traveled to every continent except Antarctica.  He knows Europe, parts of Africa, India, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand, and a little bit about Brazil.

The largest share of the Radio Ecoshock audience is American (about 75%) followed by Canada (about 10%), the UK, Australia, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Russia, and more than 90 other countries. We get email from all over the world, and will phone a guest anywhere to get the story.  Many listeners are not aware the program originates in Canada.

HOW MANY SHOWS ARE PRODUCED EACH YEAR?
Radio Ecoshock provides 45 original shows a year, non-stop from September 1st through the end of June, holidays included. For the summer months, we post special shows and some re-runs, based on listener choice – often the most downloaded shows from the previous 45 week run. Stations can get those in advance, before the July 4th weekend from any of our distribution hubs, and ecoshock.net.

HOW STATIONS GET RADIO ECOSHOCK
The program is posted and distributed in several ways. There are two versions of the program: (a) a one hour non-stop version and

(b) a 58 minute show (for stations needing time for ID and/or announcements.) Wherever this “Affiliates” version is posted, I list a good break point, followed by a re-introduction. Decide which is best for you.

1. The 58 minute “Affiliates” version is posted on Pacifica Audioport each Saturday by 3 pm (Pacific Time). That allows stations 2 minutes for station ID and announcements. No music underbed is provided, but there is a break and re-intro.
2. There is a CD Quality mp3 podcast of the full 1 hour show (no breaks) for other stations. This is available Sunday evening Pacific time.  Find the podcast symbol on the Podcasts page. Click on that symbol, find the onscreen instructions, and you will get the radio-quality podcast weekly and automatically.
3. You can use a script or an automated download agent to get either the CD Quality version (1 hour) or the 58 minute “Affiliates” version, directly from our Radio Ecoshock server.  Please email Alex (radio //at// ecoshock dot org) for details.
4. The show is posted at the independent radio distribution site http://www.radio4all.net. Posting times are Sunday evening Pacific time. Find the latest, and past programs in chronological order on this page: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/series/Radio+Ecoshock+Show. The radio4all posting has both the 1 hour straight-through show, and the 58 minute radio-ready CD quality mp3 format.  That is a handy page if you are looking for past shows to run in empty time slots. Most of our shows have a long shelf-life, are safe to run any time, unless the content description specifically states a news item (like “the latest on the Fukushima nuclear disaster”).

Another easy address which shows our newest program is here:  https://soundcloud.com/radioecoshock/. Click on the item to see the details page, where you can download the high quality mp3, as you would any other download on the Net.  You can also download directly from each week’s show blog, posted every Wednesday at http://www.ecoshock.info/

If possible, we like to have an email address for each Program Director. In some unforeseen emergency, it might be possible to send the program to you directly using a file delivery system. That has never happened yet, but it’s a good backup.

HOW CAN I CONTACT ALEX SMITH?

E-mail is best.  The address is radio //at// ecoshock dot org.  Or use this website’s contact form.

In case of emergency, or something you want to discuss, send me an email and we’ll arrange a phone call. Please remember I am in U.S. / Canadian Pacific Time, please do not call in the morning from the East Coast (you will wake me up).

FOR OTHER QUESTIONS
Please email or phone me. I like to talk radio, and work hard to support my stations.