Earth and sky radio series: science for the millions

Between 1998 and 2002, the internationally syndicated Earth and Sky radio series will send a total of nine young science writers to NASA facilities as part of a NASA/Earth & Sky Radio Broadcast Fellowship. The project is being carried out in cooperation with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as well as other NASA facilities. It is currently funded by a grant from NASA Earth Science Enterprise. In each year of the project, two Fellows will spend the summer interviewing NASA Earth Science Enterprise scientists and writing drafts of radio scripts about the scientists' research. There are 20 radio scripts written by each Fellow, for a total of 180 scripts over the course of the project. The scripts are produced by the Earth B Sky radio series and broadcast on Earth and Sky's approximately 700 affiliate stations. Audience estimates based on Arbitron data indicate that these radio programs featuring NASA Earth Science Enterprise scientists and their research will be heard 26 million times per year in the US, over each of the years of the project. In the meantime, the nine Fellows are expected to gain hands-on experience in broadcast science journalism that will continue to serve them-and the science community-for many years to come.