Awards planned for British Public Radio

The team behind British Public Radio are launching the inaugural British Public Radio
Awards today, staged in association with AudioBoo.

BPR is aiming to be Britain’s first national commercial general interest speech station, and the British Public Radio Awards are designed to encourage and reward the production of great speech radio from both established producers and those who are yet to break into the mainstream.

Entries can be made online at britishpublicradio.com/awards and are open from May 1st until July 15th 2013. Entry is open to all but entries must not have previously aired on BBC or commercial stations.

“Our ambition is to showcase great speech radio and create new opportunities for audio producers, some of whose work is currently not being widely heard” says British Public Radio’s Director of Content Matt Hopper, “this is a rare chance for them to gain recognition for their work, and wider exposure.”

There are 10 awards offered across five categories, plus the Gold Award for the most outstanding entry overall. All qualifying entries will be showcased on the BPR Awards Audioboo channel, with shortlisted entries broadcast in full on British Public Radio online.

“Our current online schedule includes some fantastic material previously only heard by a handful of people,” says Matt “I’m sure we’ve only scratched the surface, and that the British Public Radio Awards will uncover much more.”

“Audioboo is delighted to support this award. With our simple record, upload and share interface, we hope previously unaired but talented audio producers can enter this competition with ease,” says Amanda Brown, Head of Content at Audioboo.

The award categories are Documentary, Entertainment, Factual/News, Drama and Experimental, within which entrants may submit either a Long Form piece (between 15 minutes and one hour in duration) or a Short Form feature (under 15 minutes).

Winners will be announced on Thursday 5th September 2013.

Judges include writer/director Dirk Maggs, Radioplayer MD Michael Hill, radio futurologist James Cridland, former Deputy Controller BBC 5 Live Steve Kyte, MD of Pixiu Alex Feldman and Audioboo’s Head of Content Amanda Brown, as well as British Public Radio founders Tim Nice, Matt Hopper and Ken Rayner.