Student Radio awards: meet a winner

Last Tuesday night I was invited to attend the Student Radio Awards as a judge of the competition.

Student Radio delivered a well-produced and entertaining ceremony with evident backing from both the BBC and commercial radio. The organisers also made time for a considered and respectful tribute to the late Kevin Greening, led by Zoe Ball.

In the awards themselves, LSR fm was crowned overall winner while in marketing and branding (the focus of this blog) Smoke Radio picked up the top prize.

Just before the winners were announced I spoke to Dan of Smoke and Paul Plant of Wise Buddah who judged that category. Here’s what they said:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

INT: Dan Roberts from Smoke Radio, and just tell me a little bit about Smoke?

DAN ROBERTS: Smoke is Westminster’s student radio station, it has been around now not very long, about five, six years. This year we completely re-branded it, gave it a whole new on-air and off-air look, and I sort of saw it from the old brand right the way through now to an established brand, a new brand at the University, and seen our figures double, if not treble, on some of the online pages. So.. Yeah.

INT: So what are the big challenges about doing a re-brand for a station like Smoke?

DAN ROBERTS: Well I mean firstly you’ve got to sort of get rid of all the stereotypes people had of your old radio station, and some of them were not positive, so we thought ‘Give ourself a whole new look and sound really would benefit us in all aspects’ whether it be a whole.. You know, making sure that we’d reach our Central London campuses as well as just being in Harrow, because we’re spread across Central London. So we’re not on FM at all, we’re not on any other platform apart from online, and to try and get that across the Universities network is really difficult. So we thought with a whole new look, we’d start fresh, we’d start this radio station as we would any other radio station from the very beginning. New line up of presenters, whole new website, whole new station sound package. We started to trail shows in other shows, with trails.. and we really went full on in production and really sort of made ourselves, you know, a decent radio station, something which was professionally run and that people would want to listen to, ultimately.

INT: So there is an awful lot of work there across many different touch-points. What was the central core theme or idea that pulled it all together?

DAN ROBERTS: Oh goodness. Well the main changes that we wanted to make and the sort of the pulling force of all of our committee members.. I was managing marketing and branding, but all of us were working towards a station which really targeted our students. We didn’t feel that the old Smoke Radio targeted our students very well, it was sort of a radio station doing what it wanted and that’s sort of ‘it’. We really did some research and found out what our students wanted music wise, did various surveys and found out what exactly people wanted from their student radio station. How much news they wanted, what songs they wanted, and so gathering all this information about the ideal student radio station. All of us pulled together and set ourselves a more urban, more street sort of feel to a radio station, and have the production elements and really make a professional sounding station, but at the same time be on the same level as the students, and provide a service for them.

INT: And how did you measure the results and the effectiveness of that campaign?

DAN ROBERTS: Well we have lots of live events and we would run events and see thous.. not thousands, we haven’t got thousands, but hundreds more people turn up to the events. We saw listening figures improve, our interaction as well, all our competitions we saw many more people get involved. During our fresher’s fairs where we’d go out and we’d try and really promote the station and sort of give us that front, as it were, to the students. So many people signed up, we saw shows.. the amount of shows that people wanted to do went through the roof, and specialist music shows as well as daytime. I mean and this year we’ve.. the committee that ran it last year, myself, the year I was involved in, we had six of us with myself included. This year we have had to push the station to, I believe, twelve committee members. It is just the level of people that want to get involved, and it is great for the station, it means it will develop, more people will get involved and more stations and it grows and grows and grows and hopefully we sort of set the base work and the ground work for a station which really has potential and legs to grow.

INT: So you have entered the marketing and branding category in the student radio awards this year, you’ve been successful as a nominee. What are the highlights of your entry?

DAN ROBERTS: Our main selling point is the fact that we did it all in house, we used our student voices, we used two people who are with us tonight that did all our station branding. I edited them together, all of our station sounds, production elements, all done in-house. We improved them and added to them, brought in trails, sweepers, various promotional tools that we had run on air. We needed to try and really get that across, as well as all our other marketing tools, light boxes, the flier designs, the events that we ran, all of the little details that were sort of fundamental to Smoke Radio doing so well this year and hopefully it will be recognised this evening. Well yeah.. yeah.

INT: And you have been successful as a nominee. If other people are listening to this who perhaps are thinking about entering next year, what would be your advice to them?

DAN ROBERTS: Oh advice for entering a student radio award? Um, I would say really think about what your station has done and what you want to get across to the judges. Think really detailed and closely as to what you think really sums up your station and what represents it ultimately, and just be honest. Don’t try and cover your back and say “Oh we didn’t do this during the year but I really wanted it to be like this”. Be honest, and I mean really put effort into it, and time, and think about.. yeah just think about what makes a good radio station and how you’ve gone sort of part way to achieving that.

INT: You are clearly very proud, Dan, of what you’ve achieved. What radio stations do you listen to that you aspire to?

DAN ROBERTS: Well actually I’m a big fan of Radio 1, XFM. From a station sound point of view and marketing, I think Radio 1 do a fantastic job, their “1tro’s”, “On the Record’s”, and it flows seamlessly and beautifully and it just all fits so well together. XFM again, really good in terms of, again, of on-air production and marketing and staging all the events they do, all the live nights with XFM and how the DJ’s get involved, and it’s a really nice feel on those stations. But yeah I’d say they’re my two, Radio 1, XFM are my two biggest.. sort of favourite stations that I looked to when I was.. for creating Smoke.

INT: Well Andy and Ashley are both here tonight so you’ve covered your bases.

DAN ROBERTS: Thank you.

INT: Dan, thank you for your time.

DAN ROBERTS: Thank you very much.

INT: And good luck.

DAN ROBERTS: Thank you.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

PAUL PLANT: This is Paul Plant from Wise Buddah Jingles and Music Imaging London.

INT: Paul you were judging the Marketing and Branding Category at this year’s Student Radio Awards. Give me an overall impression of what you heard and saw.

PAUL PLANT: Very.. very strong entries. I mean they just get better and better every year, you know the quality, the thought that goes into it, the planning, there’s just the kind of across the range initiatives that they’re working on. It’s fantastic. What staggers me is how there’s increasingly so many talented people coming into this industry, and for anybody that’s employing people at the moment, I’d say a fantastic crop of people this year. I was really invigorated by what I heard and the freshness, the vitality and the energy that went into those submissions was fantastic.

INT: What stood out for you in particular?

PAUL PLANT: There’s a couple of things that stood out, but I think, you know, when you’re judging these things and when other people are judging in similar categories, you are probably coming at it from different angles, so from my background I am more of a kind of sonic person and I am listening to the way the voice is recorded, even if it’s a voiceover that’s presenting the demo, the way it’s cut together, the kind of technical side of it if you like, and the use of music and everything else. And then some people are looking at it and looking at their online proposition and their marketing proposition. Slightly different. So I think some stations can be very strong in one of those areas and stronger in others, you know. So I think if you’ve got two judges from different backgrounds then you might get a situation where one is stronger than the other but, you know, both of them are worthy of winning. So then you have to fight it out, which is what they do. *laughs*
INT: Well promotions and on-air identity and.. that world is your life in your part of Wise Buddah. What are the big trends in radio at this moment?

PAUL PLANT: Well I think in terms of what we do, I mean we.. we basically make sung jingles for radio stations, and we’ve just.. it’s been very interesting in the latter part of this year how many radio stations want sung jingles in the UK. I suppose our kind of broadest client base has been traditionally the BBC and.. and the rest of the world. I mean we have clients in Poland, in Germany, in Austria, in Switzerland..

INT: I heard some of your work in Joburg the other day on Highveld..

PAUL PLANT: On Highveld Stereo, yeah. So you know, it’s multinational. But yeah, in the last six months we have done more work in the UK than we have ever done, which is extraordinary. So I think.. yeah I mean there was a time.. I don’t know, 10 years ago, where everybody wanted sweepers, voice sweepers, nobody wanted jingles, and then that’s changed. And it will probably change again and we’ll have to change with that, and you know, we have to be chameleon-like and fleet of foot and.. just do good stuff and be inventive and creative.

INT: And having heard the entries from the student radio stations, to what extent are those stations falling in line with the overall trends towards sung musical jingles?

PAUL PLANT: Not so much that because I don’t think they have those kinds of resources, but I mean there are a couple of stations that are.. in the stuff that I heard, using professional voiceovers, and I kind of think that takes away from the spirit of the whole thing. It should be organic, it should be.. from the ground up.

INT: So you think the student radio stations should have amateur voices on air..

PAUL PLANT: Yes absolutely. And I think.. and obviously some stations are resourced better than others, and you can hear that on mic, you know, you can hear the room sound and everything else, you know where there has been more investment and.. but I think every year when I hear the submissions, the quality is just getting better and better and the ideas are getting fresher. The UK industry needs to harness that and just take on these people and nurture them and feed it back, and we’ll be in great shape.

INT: So finally three tips, from the top. Anyone who is thinking of entering the student radio awards, or indeed any competition in the next year which is about marketing, branding, promotions, imaging. What are the three big things to get right?

PAUL PLANT: I think read the script and just really understand what is being asked of you and deliver on that. Keep it brief and just make it really clear. I think the first 30 seconds are vital, just deliver that message in the first 30 seconds, it must be a no-brainer for anybody that’s listening, whether it is somebody in the radio industry or somebody not, you know, they should understand in that 30 seconds what your proposition is, what your brand values are, what you stand for, who your target audience is and your market is, and if you can do that then I think you will be in good shape.

INT: Paul, thank you.

PAUL PLANT: You’re welcome.

Transcription by Good to Go Transcription of Richmond, Surrey.

Tags: awards, branding, Dan Roberts, marketing, Paul Plant, student radio, Wise Buddah

P&M Awards preview

If the UK radio industry was sufficiently well organised to have such a thing as a “Radio Promotions and Marketing Calendar” then the Radio Academy’s Promotions and Marketing Awards would be the biggest thing in it. What’s more, it’s only hours away.

Ahead of the ceremony, the Radio Academy’s Director, Trevor Dann, shares his perspective on this year’s entries in this Earshot audio exclusive.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Trevor: I think the first thing to say is, quite simply, that we had more entries than we did last year, which at a time of recession, at a time when it is difficult to get people to come to events at all, where the whole conference and awards business is showing 25%, 30% fall across most sectors, isn’t it fantastic that people are interested in this?

My other feeling is that increasingly, across not just commercial radio but even the BBC, people who make programmes are more interested in this stuff. I think if you went back 10 years, certainly 20 years, people who make programmes like me were a bit kind of luvvie about people who made trails, or people who did promotions or marketing or did sponsorship deals, they were kind of salesmen and business people and we were a bit sniffy about them, to be honest. Nowadays the two sides, if they are two sides, which they are not really, are very much working together. A lot of the best ideas that were submitted are good programming ideas as well as good marketing, sponsorship, promotional ideas.

Steve: Ok. Give me an example of one that attracted your attention that falls into that area.

Trevor: Well I will just pick one, and it is always unfair because you will think “oh if I have picked this one, they must have won” and this may or may not be true, but Absolute Radio did a promotion for the Benjamin Button movie, which you remember is about a guy who is born aged 80 something and then dies ages nought, and to kind of celebrate, commemorate the fact that this guy’s life goes backwards, they turned their schedules on their head, so they put their breakfast presenter, Christian O’Connell on Drivetime, and they put Geoff Lloyd from Drivetime on breakfast, and so on. They ran that as a promotion for the day. What I liked about that idea was as well as drawing attention to the sponsor and their product, which it clearly did, it also was a very good idea in terms of aiding trial for the listener, because maybe, like many radio stations, only the breakfast show gets listened to, well now they had an idea of what was on Drive and in the rest of the day’s schedule. So I think that was an idea where the commercial side and the programming side worked hand in hand and both got something out of it.

Steve: And if you are a presenter on that station, running that format for the day, then you have got to – virtually every link – explain what is going on, so the promotion is going to be unmissable.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Trevor: I was really impressed actually with that particular one. It does not go for all the entries I have to say, but the presenters were clearly really well briefed and they had bought into it. You can tell anybody listening to the radio who has ever dealt with turns, knows that that reluctance shines through. If they are not committed, if they have to read something, you know you get that.. *rustling of paper* “Well it says here..” kind of sound… and there was no sense of that in Absolute’s entry, and I think because they as a radio station are so good at recognising the multi-platform nature of their business, I think the jocks, the presenters, everybody has bought into that.

Steve: So how would you tell Christian O’Connell that he is off breakfast for a day?

*laughter*

Trevor: Well I would probably say, “Hey, I’ve got a great idea Christian, you get a lie in”.

Steve: *drinks coffee* Excellent, sell the benefit. So that is about promotion and programming overlapping really. I like to test, I did this when I was judging this year, the quality of some of the entries on what I think of as “The Golden Triangle” of radio promotions, that “Does it touch all of those three corners”. Is it great for the listeners? Is it great for the sponsor? And is it congruent with the radio station brand? And I agree with that one, certainly. The other one that I think worked in a public service way was Chris Moyles up Kilimanjaro, which generated a huge amount of publicity and television spin-off.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Trevor: Sometimes you have to be really careful that that stuff does not work the other way, and there is no doubt that some people thought, not in the judging process I am sure, but thought there is something not quite right about the way in which the radio station is using the television, and the television is using the radio star, and to what extent were they actually doing this for charity, and to what extent were they doing it for their own profile. Now I would not want to
comment about that, but you do have to be really careful that you get that kind of thing right, and that the listener does feel that they have got a benefit, and that it is not just a benefit for the people who are advertising or promoting their goods at you.

Steve: One that caught my ear which fits into that category very strongly is GMG’s “Kids out for Summer” promotion. Again I understand it was nominated.

Trevor: “Kids out for Summer” is a really good idea because it is not expensive and nobody is going to disagree with it. It is just saying “It’s the Summer holidays, far too many kids just play with their computer games, or whatever, and they are not fit enough, there is a serious obesity problem, let’s get kids out for Summer”, and they went to schools and they, you know, so it was a kind of health message but done in such a way that it was just fun.

Steve: And they made some great radio out of it.

Trevor: They made some very good radio. Quite a lot of.. There is another entry from, I think, Radio City, that is called “Make my day” where of course in a sense it is just a very simple ‘here is a way in which you can make somebody happy’ but the way that they use the audio from the people who won it, on air, was just really heart-warming and a really great listen, and I would venture to say that some years ago the.. as we were saying earlier, the two sides of that deal might not have been on the same wavelength, but they absolutely were in that example.

Steve: The promotion and marketing awards, it is a very broad Church isn’t it, because you are judging and trying to celebrate everything from promotional strategy to interlock with programming, to results, and to production and craft skills. So thinking about the promotional production and craft skills and maybe the imaging category, or some of the production work that has gone into the on-air work, what has caught your ear this year?

Trevor: Some of the imaging entries were sensational, and to be frank they usually are these days. People who make what folks of my age call “Jingles”.

Steve: Mmhm.

Trevor: .. are very clever at it. I wish I had had them when I was commissioning jingle packages in the 80s and even the early 90s. I think all that’s good. I think generally, as a kind of theme now, virtually all pre-recorded manufactured audio is pretty good quality actually, but what is most impressive is that so much of it is now multi-platform, so the audio fits the pictures and the pictures and the stills and the text and the tweets and.. you know, everything is now a ‘big picture’, and I am getting the impression that just as for the consumer, radio is now a component of a bigger multi-platform, multimedia message, so it is for those that work in radio. I think the idea that we can work in radio and think we don’t need to have those broader skills is.. that is the thinking of the past isn’t it?

Steve: I have judged the imaging award in previous years and various other promotions categories, and I agree with you entirely that high production standards are pretty universal these days, but what really does make the difference often is the quality of the writing, I think Jack FM their imaging is very simple in terms of production, but the quality of their writing is just stunning, very sharp, they clearly think a lot about every word.

Trevor: It is very easy to concentrate on hours with the Mac or with the SADiE and just think “Oh and I’ll just write a few lines for somebody to say” half heartedly.

Steve: There is one promotion I heard this year in the National Promotion category which was the television licence fee, another BBC production, and I think Neil Cowling at Fresh Air had a significant hand in this one, and it was Horne and Corden, if not entirely adlibbed, largely adlibbed, and it was a beautiful piece of work, and I remember when I used to run what is now Gordon Fudge’s department at the BBC…

Trevor: BBC Cross Trails

Steve: Cross Trails, exactly, back then it was part of what is now Red Bee Media, but we would always know that if one of the BBC radio presenters picked up on one of the promos we made then it would virtually double in awareness when we conducted research. So if we made a promo for the Today Programme and John Humphries would say “Oh well that’s a rather good programme isn’t it? I think I might watch that” we would just go “Yes! Result!”.

Trevor: Yeah, I am sure that’s right.

Steve: And the TV licensing promo, there is a lovely bit in the entry for that promo where they have played the promo and Chris Moyle’s reaction to it, and it makes, you know, as only Chris can do, five or six or seven minutes of great radio, but clearly that is adding to the promotional value of the piece throughout.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Trevor: I think it is interesting how in many of these entries you feel as though the audio for the promotion, which perhaps in another age might have been a separate piece of audio, is now incorporated into the programme, and there is something from Radio Trent about.. basically they call it “Credit Crunch Parking” and it is about a deal they did in Christmas week to get lots of car parks in the town they broadcast in, which is Nottingham, to be free for a night. And it is just the way that it is incorporated into the programming, you do not think of it really as a piece of marketing or promotions, you just think of it as being a good piece of programming and a good turn being done to the listener by the station, and that is clever I think. That is cleverer than “and now I am going to pause while someone else reads something out, or advertises at you”.

Steve: So are you able to identify some big trends, having been through all the entries this year?

Trevor: Well I think the only trend that I really would want to talk about is what we touched on earlier, which is the fact that almost all of them are multimedia. We have an online category, but virtually all of them.. and there is a fantastic entry from the BBC World Service which you may have something to do with, and I do not even want to know whether you do, but the BBC’s ‘Save our Sounds’, it is a very simple idea which is “Hey, send us a sound recorded by you through Audioboo, or whatever, and not only might we keep it and play it, but we might also put it on our map of the world” and you can see where these sounds come from, and you could click on the map and you can hear a train in India or a crocodile snapping in South America, whatever it is. That, as an idea, could not, would not, have existed in anyone’s head a few years ago, because if you went to radio with that idea they would have said “No, no, we’re just radio”. Nowadays nobody thinks like that, thank goodness, and so that idea that radio is a component in a bigger offer is the trend of the moment, and I think it is a very good one.

Steve: In the interests of disclosure and transparency, I did have a hand on the tiller…

Trevor: *imitates siren sounds* I don’t want to know, I am not listening, and I am not going to tell you if you won either.

Steve: No, no, no, no, certainly not, no. Other people had a much bigger hand in it, Kate Arkless Gray, certainly… she had a hand in that like Matthew Corbett had a hand in Sooty. She was fairly fundamental to the operation.

Trevor: *laughter* Horrible thought.

Steve: So I picked up three trends. One is ‘big statement’, so huge events, and I think Absolute Radio’s turning the radio station on it’s head, turning the whole thing upside down, is a good example of that. The second one, and you touched on this, is tight integration between programming and promotion, so that you can’t see the join really. And the third one, I am so delighted, there was not one entry I heard where a presenter came on and said “Here is a promotion. We’ve got together with our friends from ‘dot dot dot’” and the death of that I think is a joyous moment in the history of radio.

Trevor: Yes, well.. quite right, let’s consign that along with “Join me as I tell the story…” *laughter*

Steve: Trevor it is great to talk to you, thank you very much for your time today.

Trevor: Thank you Steve, see you at the awards.

Good luck to you if you’re nominated, and see you at the ceremony if you’re just going along for the drinks nobly representing your station.

Transcription by Good to Go Transcription of Richmond, Surrey.

Audio and graphic kindly provided by The Radio Academy. Audio copyright BBC, Fresh Air Productions, Absolute Radio. All rights of the original artists, publishers and performers acknowledged.

Tags: Absolute Radio, awards, Chris Moyles, Christian O'Connell, Geoff Lloyd, GMG, imaging, promos, Radio 1, Radio Academy, Radio City, Radio Trent, Trevor Dann

A little treat for every reader

As you may have noticed from the previous post we’re deep into the autumn awards season in UK radio.

In addition to all the award schemes previously mentioned you’ve alerted me to a couple more. The AIB awards and the Internet Radio Awards are both imminent.

But The Radio Academy P&Ms are first in line this Thursday, and thanks to them I can promise you a little treat.

On Thursday morning*, just hours ahead of the P&Ms ceremony, the Radio Academy’s Trevor Dann and I will be listening to some of our favourite entries together and chatting about them. You’ll be able to read our thoughts and hear the audio right here on the Earshot blog.

Follow me on Twitter or subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed for first word when our conversation hits the web.

*in truth, we’re recording on Tuesday, then I’ll try to remember how to edit, will transcribe our collective witterings into text, upload and tag some mp3s and conduct a bit of WordPress wrangling. Which should all be done by Thursday morning.

And with that explanation a little trust is duly safeguarded. See you Thursday.

Jelly babies image by jonathanb1989, on Flickr. Used under licence.

Tags: awards, marketing, promos, promotions, Radio Academy, Trevor Dann

Awards roundup

First, and coming first, congratulations to Stuart Barrett, Toby Whitehouse and editor John Ryan for their work at BBC Radio Manchester. They just picked up the Gillard award for producing the best radio promo campaign in BBC Local Radio. It’s a great awareness-builder for the new Allan Beswick breakfast show as you can hear in this montage:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

…and hands up if you didn’t expect that playlist on BBC Local Radio.

Secondly, here are the Marketing and Branding nominees in the 2009 Student Radio Awards:

• 1449AM URB
• Blast
• Pure FM
• Smoke Radio
• URN
• Xpression FM

Good luck to all them. I’m on the Student Radio Awards judging panel, but for a different category.

Finally, stand by for the Radio Academy Promotion and Marketing awards on Thursday 22 October.

I’ve been lucky enough to be part of the P&Ms judging again this year. For me, it’s a total indulgence. You get to hear some really effective creative work that’s great for listeners, stations and advertisers alike.

As a judge you’re also reminded that nobody in radio produces better award entries than promotions folk. Tip for Station Managers entering the Sonys next year –  get your promos guys across your entries.

Having left the promos trade earlier this year, I’m judging as an outsider for the first time. That shouldn’t change my judgements but it does feel different. More free, and more able to apply dispassionate analysis with confidence.

My former boss Phil Harding always enjoyed mounting what he’d call “an objective assessment of the facts” and now I know why. There are few places more comfortable than the moral high ground. Except, of course, the stage on winner’s night. Good luck if you’re in the running.

There’ll be more about the Radio Academy Promotions and Marketing awards on this blog in the days ahead. Stay tuned.

Photo: “Millie showing off” by Gary Hutson, Flickr. Used under licence
Audio: Copyright BBC. Used with permission. All rights of the original artists, publishers and performers acknowledged.

Tags: Allan Beswick, awards, BBC, Local Radio, Phil Harding, Radio Academy, Radio Manchester, SRA, Stuart Barrett

Student Radio Awards – lasting memories

With apologies for the lack of recent bloggery (working hard, new channel launch, consultancy in Kenya, getting ahead for Christmas etc.) here are those reflections on the Student Radio Awards, as promised…

This was a brilliantly organised event and the IndigO2 venue had just the right amount of modern showbiz appeal to give the evening an established, professional air without being stuffy. Well done to the Student Radio Association. They even managed to unite Andy Parfitt (suit) and Ashley Tabor (knitwear) in what looks like live karaoke, but wasn’t.

 

From the conversations I enjoyed with students, passion for radio remains as strong as ever with speech radio appearing to be particularly popular right now. Hardly surprising given current on-air trends towards greater dominance of personality and fewer formats promising little more than your iPod can offer. You could easily argue that Moyles is a speech-led show, especially if you only ever hear the podcasts.

To the main event, and the team from Nottingham’s URN collected a huge number of prizes including the overall station of the year award. Expect to see some of these faces (pictured) around a professional radio boardroom table before too long.

 

As one of the journalism judges I can tell you that URN was extremely strong in news, managing to cover a large number of well-targeted stories with consistently solid story telling, interesting writing, great use of audio and confident presentation. That’s the right mix for a win. Have a listen.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

As this is supposed to be a promotions and navigation blog I ought to mention URN’s neighbours Fly FM who picked up the Marketing/Branding award. I haven’t heard their audio so if you happen to have a copy please get in touch.

One mystery… what was Jason Donovan doing at the awards? He didn’t perform nor did he present anything and I didn’t see him on the judges list. But he was jolly nice to everybody in the upstairs bar. Top man. Let’s start playing his songs again.

And Panko Crusted Chicken? It looks like this (pictured). Yum.

James Cridland has written a more thoughtful, longer and generally better piece about the awards on his blog.

Tags: awards, London, SRA, student radio