The Young Audio Awards will return in 2021.

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Your audio entry is the most important thing you will submit, to convince the judges that you deserve to win your category – so take your time, and make it as good as it can possibly be!

• What does compilation mean? It means a selection of your absolute best bits. Only include the things that you are really proud of, and put the best of the best near the beginning – the best way to grab a judge’s attention is to impress them right at the start.
• Your compilation doesn’t have to be super slick – you could have a selection of best bits separated by short silences, or which fade in and out, or just cut from one to the other. Remember, we’re judging the original material, not your ability to create the world’s best compilation.
• If you play music in your show – we don’t need to hear full songs as part of your audio entry – that would be a waste of precious minutes. So feel free to edit most of the song out (this is called ‘telescoping’) because we really just want to hear the material that you made.
• Don’t go over the specified duration – if it says 10 minutes, that’s the maximum length it can be. If it’s too long, your entry may be disqualified. If it’s shorter, that’s fine.

You can also check out this BBC resource all about creating great audio at school.

Your written statements will help us understand more about your audio entry, and more about you – so take your time to make them as good and as helpful as they can be.

• Most categories ask for a written statement about your programme, station or content. This is mainly so the judges understand the context of your work and so you can fill in gaps that might not be clear in the audio. What was the programme aiming to do? Who was involved? When did it happen? Tell us anything you think isn’t obvious from listening to the audio on its own.
• Most categories also ask for a written statement from you, about why you love making radio/audio. We want to hear about your enthusiasm, passion, and love for audio. Why did you start making audio? What has it helped you achieve? What do you hope to do in the future?
• Ask someone to check it – such as a teacher or a parent. It’s absolutely fine to get help with the written statement if you need it – for example to check the spelling, or help you select the best words to say what you want.
• Don’t go over the word count – in many cases this is 150 words, and that isn’t very much! For example, if you were to write in Arial 12pt font it would be about one quarter of a side of A4 paper. Most writing apps (such as Microsoft Word, or Apple Pages) will give you a word count, so you can make sure you’ve not typed too much.