ABU to hold radio and TV song festivals

Friday 04 Nov 2011
The ABU will hold both a radio and a television song festival in 2012, the Programme Committee heard today.

Radio Australia will be overall host Secretariat for the radio festival, with KBS-Korea hosting the 2012 event. KBS will also host the 2012 TV festival. It is hoped that both festivals will become annual events.

Radio Australia’s CEO, Michael McCluskey, told the Programme Committee’s annual meeting in New Delhi that the radio festival would promote cultural diversity through the sharing of music.

Each country taking part would hold a national competition to choose its representative. Contestants would be unsigned singers and their songs would reflect the culture of their country. All the music would also be available online.

The format was yet to be finalised but it was likely the festival would be limited to singers aged 18 to 40.

James Jeon of KBS said the TV festival, to be held in Seoul, would be for professional singers. It would be invitational and non-competitive, featuring popular singers and groups.

The show would be recorded rather than shown live so that captions could be added in the languages of the countries taking part.