PURE Digital is offering savings of 10% off its award winning radios as part of a ?radio amnesty? to be launched by the BBC on 6th July 2005.
The radio amnesty in aid of African nations – fronted by BBC presenter Nick Knowles – lets listeners receive discounts on DAB radios from market leader PURE as well as other DAB radio manufacturers.
The BBC’s digital radio team and BBC Radio Five Live have teamed up with manufacturers and high street retailers across the country to offer listeners a discount of 10% on a new digital radio, when they trade in their portable FM sets.
Says PURE Digital?s general manager Kevin Dale: ?This is a great opportunity for everyone involved in the digital radio industry to come together, put aside all the egos and competition, and work together for a common cause.?
The amnesty starts on 6th July and lasts until 26th July, during which time Five Live will support the project on air and around a thousand stores up and down the country will take part.
The old sets will then be reconditioned and sent to Somalia and south Sudan, where the BBC World Service Trust will distribute them.
Continues Dale: ?PURE?s radios have caught the national consciousness with four of the UK?s top five selling DAB digital radios being made by PURE. But, while we are happy that so many people are upgrading to PURE?s digital radios, we are even more delighted that, through the cooperation of so many people in the industry, those customers? old radios will be going to fulfil a vital educational role in Somalia and Sudan.?
Manufacturers taking part include Panasonic, Roberts, Sony and PURE Digital.
Retailers supporting the project include John Lewis Partnership, Currys, Dixons, Comet and leading independent retailers through RETRA (Radio, Electrical and Television Retailers Association).
Simply Radios will carry out the reconditioning of the radios. Duracell will be providing batteries for all the reconditioned sets.
Nick Knowles – already recognized for his work with Comic and Sport Relief – is promoting the campaign on behalf of the BBC and will be raising the project’s profile.
“A disused radio set, gathering dust in a spare room in Tunbridge Wells, could end up making a real difference to a family in Somalia,” says Nick Knowles.
Simon Nelson, controller of BBC Radio and Music Interactive, says: “Everyone involved benefits from this initiative: consumers get a discount, DAB radios sales will increase, and it all helps to support some of the fantastic work the World Service Trust is doing in Africa.”
Retailers will accept battery-powered FM/AM radios (not hi-fi separates or mains only sets), which will be reconditioned, fitted with new batteries and shipped for distribution by the BBC World Service Trust and its partner, the African Educational Trust (AET).
The trust and the AET will use the radios to further their work on the Somalia Distance Education for Literacy project – or “Radio Teacher” – which offers education to men and women who have grown up during civil war with no chance of schooling. There is a shortage of Somali teachers and there are few western volunteers, so the only choice is to use the mass media.
The BBC World Service Trust and AET are also planning to replicate the literacy project for the south Sudanese audience and are also exploring the possibility of training farmers and teachers using similar techniques.
The more radios made available to audiences in Somalia and Sudan, the more students will be able to benefit from these projects.
Listeners should call 08700 100 500 or visit bbc.co.uk/digitalradio for further details.