Learning Waves Skillnet members have been shortlisted for 125 awards at the upcoming IMRO radio awards. The shortlist was announced yesterday and Newstalk top the list with 29 nominations. This is followed by Today FM with 10, 98FM with 8 and Spin 103.8 with 9.
Nominations for Newstalk include Ciara Kelly, Kieran Cuddihy, Susan Keogh, Gavin McLoughlin and Eamonn Torsney, while Mario Rosenstock, The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show are nominated for Today, Spin are nominated in the Imaging Category and 98FM in the Interactive Speech Programme category. In the newcomer award, suitably named, the Gay Byrne Award, Michelle Heffernan from Beat 102-103 who completed the Learning Waves Broadcasting Bootcamp course has been nominated for a first time award. In the new Podcast category, Spin 1038 and 98FM are nominated in this category.
Last week the 105 judges, led by chair Peter McPartlin, spent over 42 hours on Zoom narrowing down the entries to form the shortlist.
Chair of the IMRO Radio Awards committee, Chris Doyle, said: "Radio has had some of its finest moments over the last twelve months. We are delighted to celebrate the work of all those involved in the industry this year as much as any other year. We’ve shared the good news and the bad news stories, but we've always been there for the listeners."
Chairperson of awards title sponsors IMRO, Eleanor McEvoy, added: "In the bizarre times of the COVID-19 pandemic, radio has kept us entertained, kept us informed and kept us sane. We now have an obligation to keep everyone safe, so we are very much looking forward to taking the radio awards online on October 2nd to celebrate the excellence and creativity of broadcasters from right throughout Ireland. We would like to congratulate those of you who have been shortlisted and we wish you the very best of luck for the awards ceremony."
And Michael O’Keefe, chief executive of sponsor Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, said: "The BAI is once again delighted to support the annual IMRO Radio Awards. 2020 has seen the most challenging times for the radio sector for many years. It is to the tremendous credit of the sector that it has continued to deliver top quality programming to its listeners throughout the COVID-19 pandemic".