Being the only foreign language radio station in Greece, AIR FM must maintain a balance between mainstream news and stories that focus on ideas and events that affect migrant communities not featured in other Greek media. To do this Korlira says “since foreigners are a large part of our everyday life […] we follow their news along with Greek daily news and try to present their views in our programs.” Listeners can get in touch with the station and are very active in responding to the programs. “They provide feedback for their communities, they give us details for cultural/social events taking place […] or give us their insight in matters that we discuss.”

AIR FM was originally created for visitors during the 2004 Athens Olympic Games but continues to broadcast today because of its importance as a forum for the city’s foreign listeners. The team consists of 26 journalists, including correspondents for other media organisations, who work closely with journalists covering Greece for foreign media outlets. The team is also in contact with a broad range of contacts “to whom we talk regularly via interviews or off-the-record discussion, in order to be always accurate in what we broadcast.”

Accuracy is critical, says Korlira, and AIR FM is a leader on this issue among the Greek media, “we are proud to be part of this rather new practice that has been launched in the country’s main media.”

Competing with the internet is a challenge but Korlira is adamant that they will not compromise on accuracy to compete with the speed in the internet, their main rival. Finally, she offers some advice for future radio editors:

"… read and cross-check sources before broadcasting anything and […] learn as many foreign languages as possible in order to read foreign sites and news papers. Half of a journalists knowledge is to understand how news of your country is conceived by foreign media and public opinion."

You can find out more about AIR FM as well as livestream it here.