Bad news airwaves ban for Feel Good Friday

AND now for some good news — for a change.

Bad news is banned from the airwaves of a local radio station this Friday in an attempt to lift the nation’s spirits.

Cork’s RedFM has decided to concentrate on positive feel-good stories during its hourly news bulletins this Friday the 13th — a day associated with bad luck and bad news.

Fed up with the torrent of bad news about the doom and gloom of recession, the station is hoping to attract a raft of new listeners who are on the same wavelength.

RedFM’s news editor, Lana O’Connor, said her team of reporters will move away from depressing topics, filling their bulletins instead with positive stories.

She said they hope to “inject some happiness in the current doom and gloom” and burst the “blues bubble”.

The station’s news format will not change, she said, with relevant local and national news delivered as usual in its regular ‘10 to the hour’ bulletins.

But only stories with a “feel good factor” will feature. Other stories will be presented in a positive way.

It’s not that the bad news will be ignored, Ms O’Connor promised. It will be reported, but with less prominence in their 30-second headline reports on the half hour, she said.

“It’s tough to report on negative news all the time, so we’ve decided to turn the tables and focus on the positive,” she said.

“We know listeners are sick and tired of hearing about the doom and gloom, day in and day out, so we’re seeking out the positives across the city and county and highlighting them on Feel Good Friday.”

She said the ‘Feel Good Friday’ idea started in the station’s newsroom after a strong reaction from listeners to good news stories which had been making the headlines in recent weeks.

Managers at the station, which targets 15 to 34-year-olds, then decided to adopt the concept across the entire programming schedule this Friday.

Meanwhile, new research from Hibernian Aviva, Ireland’s largest motor insurer, shows that Friday the 13th is actually safer than an average Friday.

The company, which insures one in four cars on Irish roads, has found that between 2007 and 2008, there were 14% less accidents on Friday the 13th than any other Friday.

There was an average of 170 accidents on the first Friday of every month over the past two years compared to an average of 147 accidents on Friday the 13th, the research showed.

The fear of bad luck may cause drivers to be more careful, Hibernian Aviva said.

The company has also published a new ‘handy hints’ guide for safer motoring on www.hibernianaviva.ie.