When it comes to the biggest radio debuts of 2024, the numbers speak for themselves. Florida Sea Grant’s Marine Science Minute was listened to 3 million times across select Florida radio stations, delivering one-minute public service announcements each week to boost marine and coastal education and spark curiosity about Florida Sea Grant’s resources.
Marine Science Minute (MSM) is a collaboration among the Florida Sea Grant team. The series was created by Dr. Savanna Barry and developed by a team of FSG Extension Agents members of the Shoreline, Estuarine and Aquatic Systems (SEAS) work action group. With the support of the FSG Communications department, the team outlined, scripted, recorded, and produced 52 one-minute spots in early 2024, including creation of original music, promotional logo, and accompanying website with episode pages for each spot.
In April 2025, Marine Science Minute received the 2025 Association of Natural Resources Extension Professionals (ANREP) award in Podcast and Radio – earning a Gold Level, which is the highest in its category.
ANREP is a national association for Cooperative Extension Service professionals in environmental fields. The award recognizes significant achievement within Extension professionals around the United States, and expands the use of high quality, innovative materials and programs by honoring the outstanding members and partners who developed them.
“It’s more than a radio segment,” says Carolyn Kovacs, Florida Sea Grant Extension Agent for Flager & Volusia Counties. “We are educating listeners with information that is interesting and relevant, such as right whales during migration season, or hurricane preparedness, and we are also bringing awareness of FSG resources that Florida residents can learn and benefit from.”
Marine Science Minute’s success is painted largely by its outstanding viewership. MSM primarily aired on WUFT FM in 2024, an NPR-affiliate radio station in the Gainesville-Ocala area. MSM aired during Morning Edition and in total, the spots aired between April-December 2024 were heard live 178,500 times.
In addition to WUFT FM, Marine Science Minute was aired once an hour on Surf 97.3 FM radio, a local non-profit radio in Flagler County and a service of Save the Surf, Inc. The radio’s mission aligns with Florida Sea Grant in educating and bringing community awareness in saving the coastline, ocean, waterways and its resources. Considering the frequency of theI radio spots, Marine Science Minute would have been heard 3,300,000 times on the Surf 97.3 FM listening area.
In 2024, the Florida Sea Grant homepage received almost double the number of users and more than triple the number of web sessions in comparison to the same period in 2023. While it is impossible to determine the share of this increased web traffic that is attributable to MSM, this indicates that MSM was likely successful in its goal of increasing awareness and engagement with Florida
For 2025, Marine Science Minute will be expanding its broadcast to more coastal areas of the state including NPR’s WFIT 89.5 FM in the Space Coast and WZIG 104.1 FM, a local non-profit radio station in Pasco County.
“It is great to have something you’ve worked on have a statewide reach, especially when your typical work is at the county level. Marine Science Minute is a testament to the broad reach and impacts generated from working together ” says Kovacs.
Tune into Marine Science Minute on NPR’s WFIT on Mondays at 5:18pm.
Florida Sea Grant Marine Science Minute team.
