The EBU has officially launched the new .radio top level domain name at an event in Shanghai on World Radio Day 2017. Alain Artero, .radio TLD project manager and EBU Head of Radio Graham Dixon invited officials present at the event to symbolically "push the button" in front of journalists and photographers.

The event at the Shanghai Convention Centre is being jointly hosted by the EBU and its Associate Shanghai Media Group and co-organized with UNESCO and the ITU.

The EBU's Media Director Jean Philip De Tender took part in a panel entitled "The Innovation of Audience Engagement and Participation". Addressing delegates he said: "It's great to celebrate World Radio Day outside of Europe for the first time here in Shanghai, showing that radio more than ever unites people.".

The day opened with an official ceremony with the participation of many international and Chinese hosts. Among them Sun Xiangtong, president of SMG Radio; Tong Gang, vice-minister and head of SAPPRFT (the media administration of the Chinese government), Javad Mottaghi, DG of the ABU; Frank La Rue, deputy DG of UNESCO and Mario Maniewicz, deputy director of Radio Regulation.

Side meetings with SAPPRFT, SMG and CNR took place at the same time and some agreements for programme distribution have been signed between EBU and SMG.

The ceremony will close with a concert from the Shanghai Auditorium concert hall that will be distributed live and defered all over the world including by some EBU Members.

A delegation of EBU Members, led by Graham Ellis from BBC chair of the EBU's radio group as well as representatives from broadcasting unions the ABU, ASBU, AUB-UAR and RAPAF also attended the event