World Radio Switzerland – An opportunity for International Geneva

For the past few months, World Radio Switzerland (WRS)’s two main presenters and co- directors, Mark Butcher and Katt Cullen have been seeking a new owner with fresh energy and vision, but also funding, to take over the station and put it on a new and dynamic footing.

“It’s not that WRS is failing,” said Butcher, who plans to retire next year. “But it’s time for change with imaginative new approaches responding to current needs, perhaps as part of a completely visionary information platform aimed at Geneva – and Switzerland’s – international community.” Similar to many other media, WRS was hit badly by Covid. Current operating costs stand at 320,000 CHF annually, roughly one third of its pre-pandemic revenue.

The Handicap International Chair symbolizing the UN and International Geneva.

Photo: Geneva Tourism

An exceptional opportunity for International Geneva

If WRS goes, both he and Cullen point out, there will nothing left in the Lake Geneva region to keep internationals informed and entertained with local news, events and, above all, social pointers. It is the only effective full-time English-language news source for the international community, many of whom do not speak or read French.

As part of its information outreach, WRS provides regular BBC news and current affairs shows to its listeners, plus various feature programmes such as Butcher’s and Cullen’s duo Breakfast Show, Michael McKay’s McKay Interview and podcast and Laura Leoncini’s Job Tales to help people find jobs.

“It is not for any lack of ideas,” said Cullen. “We genuinely feel that there is considerable scope for WRS by taking the station to the next stage and with proper investment.”

WRS also provides tailored advertising ranging from where to go for inexpensive dentistry and language training to music festivals, investment firms and summer camps for children. Listeners often comment on how useful some of the advertising is. “We’re quite careful about which advertisers we take,” said Cullen. “We want the ads to serve a purpose with the sort of information they provide.”

Reaching a diverse and well-heeled international community

While it is clear that no new proprietors are going to make a fortune from radio commercials alone, what WRS does offer is access to diverse members of the international community from English and Americans to Saudis, Indians and Chinese, but also Swiss. Many are highly educated professionals who travel widely, have their children in international schools and holiday on weekends in Switzerland. For the moment, few other Swiss media are doing this.

Realistically, too, while making WRS available online and on DAB+ over the past few years, they have sought to reach audiences in cities with significant English-speaking populations such as Zurich and Basel. But DAB+ transmitters are costly with the Swiss in the process of switching off all FM access. The reality is that with limited resources WRS has opted to focus on the Lake Geneva region, including the French side, where they know their audiences and have appeal.

International schools, such as the British School of Geneva, remain an integral part of the International Geneva community.

Photo: Studying in Switzeland

A source for key advertisers and sponsors

Hence WRS’ listeners represent a key community for advertisers and sponsors. At the same time, they are precisely the sort of people the Swiss need to get on board to ensure that the whole concept of “International Geneva”, whether in the form of UN organizations, NGOs or companies, succeeds.

For the moment, Geneva’s traditional role as a key international “Knowledge Hub” is under threat. (See Global Geneva article on: Reclaiming Relevance – International Geneva can only surive with new ideas and leadership)

Since the severe cutbacks imposed by US President Donald Trump on the international aid community, such as leaving the World Health Organization, coupled with reductions in funding by other traditional donors, various aid agencies as well as some companies are exploring ways of reducing expenditure by moving operations elsewhere in the world.

The reality is that many internationals do not bother informing themselves about Switzerland. While state-run SwissInfo, the independent platform, Le News, and select other services provide Swiss news in the English language, many English-speaking expats do not read or consult the local press.

Even with social media, many internationals often have little or no idea what is happening politically or socially in Switzerland unless it appears as part of foreign coverage on the BBC, New York Times or The Guardian, such as the recent destruction of the Alpine village of Blatten following a mountain and glacier collapse.

A need to reach younger audiences

There is also an entire new generation that could, but do not necessarily go for the moment to WRS for their information or entertainment. As both Butcher and Cullen point out, this could change dramatically by making WRS part of an overall communications platform offering diverse forms of outreach.

“There is a lot we have been wanting to do with WRS, and we have many ideas, but we simply never had the funding,” noted Katt, who joined WRS in 2014. “For example, one idea is to include video, podcasts and various forms of social media, such as TikTok.”

As it is, the WRS team have implemented various changes over the past several years, such as a vibrant, well-laid out and highly informative website attracting 36,000 unique users and over 73,000 page views per month.

“The potential is there to do something really exciting is actually quite considerable,” said Butcher. Previous highly popular programming such as NPR’s “This American Life” and an Australian science programme had to be dropped as they proved too costly, but could be re-instated with appropriate investment to reach out to more diverse audiences.

Switzerland could lose out: an urgent need to be less parochial

Now all that is needed is a buyer, or a group of buyers, with vision to realise that WRS has the potential, if properly developed, to become part of an exciting new form of outreach capable of influencing more than just one of the world’s leading “Knowledge Hubs”. With appropriate investment and ideas, it could provide Switzerland with pointed access to a crucial and highly influential international community that is being dangerously left out of the picture.

Edward Girardet is an author, foreign correspondent as well as editor of Global Geneva.