In Colombia, Station Spreads Yule Cheer
A radio station in the northwestern city of Medellin, famous as the center of the country’s cocaine trade, is dedicating itself to delivering non-stop Christmas glad tidings in a bid to show that there is more to Colombia than the bad news about war, violence and drugs.
“Our goal is to hold a 48-hour marathon of good news,” Carlos Santa, a journalist at Radio Deportes de Caracol, said Friday. “We started yesterday at 6 a.m., and we will finish tomorrow at 6 a.m.,” he said.
“This is our Christmas gift to show that Colombia can send a positive message.”
Fifteen journalists will read some 3,500 to 3,700 dispatches highlighting positive sports news, good corporate results and other upbeat stories during the marathon, which the organizers hope will win a place in the Guinness Book of Records.
Colombia’s Communications Ministry is recording the entire event to back up the record bid. Santa said there was no existing record for the longest good-news broadcast.
He said feedback from local listeners--who are more used to hearing about constant clashes between leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitaries in the area--had been positive and calls had come in from other parts of Colombia too. Next year, the radio plans to broadcast a daily “good news” hour.
Colombia has been riven by nearly four decades of intensifying internal violence involving leftist rebel organizations and paramilitary groups.
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