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GIA 2008 Excellence Winner
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L to R (front row): April Frawley Birdwell, Melanie Fridl Ross, Tom Fortner, and Sarah Kiewel.
L to R (back row): Anney Doucette, John Pastor, Ann Griswold, and Kim Smith.
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Electronic Communications - Non-Web-based
University of Florida Health Science Center
Health in a Heartbeat
Designed with the public radio audience in mind, Health in a Heartbeat is a news program providing health information that aims to inspire and inform listeners. A collaboration of the University of Florida Health Science Center and WUFT-Classic 89 and WJUF-Nature Coast 90
(serving a 19-county region in Florida), the free series launched in January 2000 and features two-minute segments providing consumer health information and the latest news on medical research, patient-care breakthroughs, and health care industry trends. Health in a Heartbeat has covered more than 2,000 topics–as basic as why people sneeze to more complex issues such as how cholesterol-lowering drugs may raise the risk of nerve damage.
Goals
- Focus on quality news and break down cutting-edge issues of the
medical world in a way easily understood by the average consumer
listening on the drive to work.
- Provide useful health and medical information to listeners in an
easy-to-digest format.
- Include a mix of serious, hard-hitting, substantive writing and text crafted with a humorous or lighthearted touch.
- Serve as a catalyst to inspire consumers to think about important health matters that affect their daily lives.
- Increase listenership and expand audience.
Results
- A marketing campaign started in September 2006 consisted of
telephone calls to station program directors to pitch the Health in a Heartbeat program, a mail campaign to affiliates interested in more information, and running two display ads in industry newspapers. During the last year, the program has expanded to include 24 new affiliates, including 17 new stations during the past two months,
reaching 3 million listeners.
- Consumer comments on the www.heartbeatradio.org Web site
indicate a very favorable response.
Read the full narrative (Word document)
Contact: Melanie Fridl Ross, UFCardiac@aol.com
Back to GIA 2008 Awards for
Excellence Winners
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