52 awards acknowledging on-air personalities, programming, news and sports reporting, promotions, creativity and production, sales and community involvement were handed out via webcast last week at the 2012 New Zealand Radio Awards, and MediaWorks Radio is claiming victory after nabbing 21 of them, with More FM taking all three station of the year accolades.
“With a significant increase in the number of entries from the previous year, the judges did a great job in ensuring the emergence of outstanding winners,” says Radio Awards chairman, Bill Francis. “It was also pleasing to see coverage of the Christchurch earthquakes rewarded in various categories including More FM Canterbury, metropolitan station of the Year; Mike Yardley, Newstalk ZB Christchurch for best talkback host; and Radio New Zealand News for their coverage of the quake.
MediaWorks radio swept the station of the year categories, with More FM taking out all three awards. Metropolitan station of the year went to More FM Canterbury (with stablemates The Rock and The Edge the other finalists), and, for both the second time in row, More FM Manawatu was awarded regional station of the Year and More FM Taupo won provincial station of the year.
More FM also won awards for Outstanding Community Campaigns for More FM Canterbury and Dunedin, and Best Individual Radio Promotion for More FM Dunedin.
The Edge breakfast show team of Jay-Jay Feeny, Mike Puru and Dom Harvey were awarded Best Music Breakfast Metropolitan, while The Rock’s Robert Taylor and Jono Pryor took out Best Music Non-Breakfast Metropolitan for the fifth year running and Hilary Barry won Best Newsreader for her work on RadioLIVE.
The Rock also picked up the award for Best Website and Best Network Radio Promotion for the controversial ‘Win a Wife’ competition.
“I am absolutely delighted at the success achieved by our talent and our teams at these prestigious awards,” says chief executive Belinda Mulgrew. “MediaWorks prides itself on creating world class radio, and the wins, as well as the outstanding number of [67] finalists – more than double that of any other radio operator – is great recognition of the hard work, creativity and talent of our people.”
Newstalk ZB were the winners of the talk back and current affairs awards, with Mike Yardley from Newstalk ZB Christchurch awarded best talk back host or hosts—all markets, Mike Hosking taking out best talk or current affairs host or hosts—all markets for the third time in a row and Dallas Gurney winning best programmer.
Radio New Zealand had very strong representation taking out a number of awards, including best NZ produced musical programmes, best spoken programmes, best journalist to Jessica Maddock and best new broadcaster—journalist to Bridget Mills.
The overall best new broadcaster award was presented to Libby Greatbatch from The Radio Network.
This year the award for Outstanding Contribution to radio was presented to the Radio Network’s recently retired chief exec John McElhinney for his leadership and dedication to radio as a whole. And 85-year-old Ewing Stevens, RadioLIVE’s long serving overnight host (“I’m planning on remaining in broadcasting until I’m the oldest broadcaster in the world,” he says), Lyn MacNamara and Barry Holland were all awarded for services to broadcasting.
Check out the massive list of winners, including all the winning ads, campaigns and jingles, here.
