Awards season is about to officially kick off with the New York Festivals World’s Best Radio Programmes calling for entries.
There are new categories too, as we can now enter for Best Nonfiction Series, Travel & Tourism and Student Journalist.
Rose Anderson, executive director of the awards: “At New York Festivals we continue to be responsive to current industry trends; our categories continue our tradition of honoring the very best programs and promos being created in radio today and encourage the next generation of story-tellers and talent across all audio platforms” said Ms. Anderson. “There are no geographical boundaries for talent and innovation, so we have no boundaries in our entry process.”
In 2013, the GrandJury members honored The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation with the title of Broadcaster of the Year, and TBI Media UK earned Production Company of the Year and also won a Grand Trophy.
Out of the 32 awards won by Irish radio stations at the New York Festivals, 16 were for programmes on RTÉ and 16 went to the independent radio sector.
RTÉ Radio 1 took home 12 awards altogether, with three Golds, one Silver, three Bronze and five Finalist Certificates. Lyric FM won two Silver and a Bronze, whilst Zoe Comyns won a Gold for a documentary made on behalf of Radio 1.
The Documentary on One series was responsible for six of the RTÉ awards, one of which was made by independent production company Grey Heron Media.
In the independent sector, the only Golds were awarded to Daithi McMahon & Fred O’Connor for a programme they made for Radio Kerry in the Best Writing category and to Real Films for The Moon is an Orange Triangle documentary made for Highland Radio, funded by the BAI.
Daithi McMahon & Henchman Production also won a Silver for Radio Kerry in the best drama category.
Today FM won three Silvers, one Bronze and three Finalist Certificates, including one for the Ray D’Arcy show in the Best Talk Programme category and The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show. The Shave or Dye promotion took one of the Silvers.
Classic Hits 4FM won two Bronze, including one for Niall Boylan at Night, and a Finalist Certificate was each given to 98FM for Dermot & Dave, Athena Media for Newstalk, Waterford Institute of Technology for Beat 102-103 and Flirt FM for Best Radio Station.
NYF enlists jurists from all over the world to become The GrandJury members. Entries are judged on production values, organization, presentation of information, creativity, and use of the medium.
The 2014 competition will honor the World’s Best Radio Programmes on Monday, June 23rd at an awards ceremony at Manhattan Penthouse in New York City.
The deadline for entering is March 19, 2014 and you can find out more here.