Publ ic Service Announcements By Julien Hoffman
Using information gained through surveys and assessments, the WTT team learned that radio was one of the most popular forms of media consumed in rural Nebraska communities. This led to the idea of creating public service announcements (PSAs) to run at local radio stations that raised awareness of, and thus reduced the stigma of, talking about mental well-being and reaching out for support when going through a tough time. To include community members in the process, many PSAs were recorded with the voices of locals who were well-known in the community. This gave each
community’s PSAs a personal touch and a greater sense of validity because the PSAs were coming from someone listeners knew. The two series of PSAs produced by the WTT team were distributed to radio stations all around Nebraska and played regularly throughout the day for a month at a time. Longer PSAs
Public Service Announcements
Pride
Building Relationships
ON THE AIR
Gratitude
Checking In
were created by Gary Crawford, USDA Radio in Washington D.C., using an educational sleep webinar provided by Susan Harris and hosted by AgriSafe. Regarding the PSAs he created, Gary Crawford said, “Yours was THE most useful of any webinar I’ve ever covered. And I’ve covered a lot of them in 40 years of doing radio here.” Lessons Learned Record PSAs with both men and women to ensure variety and a more gender-neutral campaign. Use the experts within your organization to write the PSAs rather than leaving it to radio personalities. Voice recording apps can easily be downloaded on smartphones, which makes it easier for local community members to record PSAs.
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