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The awards cover all elements of audio, so whether you broadcast on your school station or record your own podcasts or music mixes at home, there’s an award for you.
(8-11, 12-15, 16-18)
This award celebrates an individual who represents the most exciting audio talent of their age. You may be a presenter, an interviewer or a performer – anything where we can hear your voice doing what it does best.
Show us that you love making radio, that you have a curious mind, can think on your feet, can get the best out of the people you’re speaking with, can make us laugh, or make us think.
Awards in this category will be given in three age brackets – aged 8-11, aged 12-15, and aged 16-18. The age refers to your age on 31st December 2021.
Your entry should include:
The world changed in March 2020 and life has not been the same since, this award is a chance to express your thoughts on the last two years and life in the pandemic. It may be about the things that helped you cope in challenging times, advice you might have for other young people or what you learnt during this challenging period.
It could be that your channelling your thoughts in a podcast or radio show, it may be that you record an interview with a family member, friend or teacher or perhaps if you love poetry you could record your own prose. Audio can be used in any form, we’re just looking for creativity, honesty and expression.
We’re not looking for highly polished, professional sounding audio – we just want brilliant creativity. You can record your audio with a phone, tablet, over Zoom or of course with a microphone. You may wish to edit your audio with free software such as Audacity, but this is not essential as long as your entry is under 10 minutes long.
Your entry should include:
You may be a technician, an engineer, a coder, an editor, or some other sort of off-air hero. You may have made it easier for everyone to make their shows, or helped rebuild or fix the studios, kept the station on the air, delivered an amazing outside broadcast, or connected your station with the other side of the world.
Show us that you’re an innovator, a technical wizard, a coding genius, or an engineering guru. Also show us that you’ve got great skills, huge dedication, resilience under pressure, and a flair for problem solving.
Your entry should include:
This award celebrates the best programme, show or podcast that is devoted to music. It could be about new music or old music, local music or music from around the world, live performance, recorded music or a mixture of both. It can be music of any genre – we just need to feel how much you love it, and that you want to share that passion with your listeners.
Show us that you have an in-depth knowledge of the music you’re playing, that you know how to make it sound exciting and fresh, and that the stuff you say between the tracks is entertaining and informative.
The entry can be from a single programme, or a series of programmes.
Your entry should include:
This award celebrates the best programme, show or podcast that doesn’t rely on or focus on music. This can be on news, sports, current affairs, comedy, interviews, documentary making, storytelling the ideas are limitless. We are looking for a captivating combination of informative, entertaining and original audio.
Show us that you have an in-depth knowledge of your subject, and that you’re really good at getting the best out of your guests, or really good at storytelling. Make us laugh, make us cry, surprise us, educate us – but most of all, make us want to keep listening, and desperate to hear more.
The entry can be from a single programme, or a series of programmes.
Your entry should include:
This award is for the best project or initiative where radio or audio made a difference to your community. How did it bring people together? How did it change people’s lives? How did it raise money or raise awareness of an issue? Audio can be so powerful, and we want to hear how your project demonstrates this.
The entry can be from a single programme, or a series of programmes.
Your entry should include:
(Primary School with Fun Kids, Secondary School)
These two awards are for the best school radio stations in the UK. A school radio station could be online, it could be broadcast on traditional airwaves, or it could be distributed around the school buildings on a loudspeaker network. It could be a continuous schedule of programmes (i.e., always on), an intermittent schedule (e.g. only at break times and lunchtimes), or it could be a series of digital on-demand programmes or podcasts – we just need you to demonstrate that it has a sense of identity as a radio station.
Show us that the programmes on your station are all really high quality, that they are creative, fun, entertaining, informative, and useful to the audience. Show us that the listeners love the station, that you’re providing a service to the school, and that you’re getting as many people as possible involved.
Awards in this category will be given in two categories – Primary (Reception to Year 6) and Secondary (Year 7 to Year 13). If your school covers primary and secondary, please decide which one category you’re going to enter, and tailor your entry to ensure all the material is from the appropriate age group. Sixth Form and Technical Colleges should enter the Secondary category, but please ensure all material is from students under 18.
More information and some inspiration here
Your entry should include:
This award will be given to the team who have made the most innovative digital and technical achievements in audio this year.
You may be a radio station, a community group, a podcast partnership, or a programme team. Your content will sound amazing, but will also be based on a some sort of technical breakthrough in digital, social, visual, engineering, software, mobile or website.
Show us that you understand the value of team work, that you and your colleagues can make better and more compelling content because of your innovative thinking, and that you’ve got the skills that make a modern radio station tick.
Your entry should include:
This award is all about podcasts. This can be a podcast on absolutely anything, it can be all about music, a drama, a comedy, a podcast about your favourite film/tv show even your favourite person we just want to hear you speak passionately about something.
Show us that you’ve got great script writing skills, brilliant performers, and great direction. Also show us any of your skills with editing, sound design and special effects. We want to see that you’re really good at getting the best out of your guests, or really good at storytelling. Make us laugh, make us cry, surprise us, educate us, show us that you know how to make it sound exciting and fresh– but most of all, make us want to keep listening, and desperate to hear more.
The entry can be from a single programme, or a series of programmes.
Your entry should include: