Creative audio entries from storytellers around the globe captivated listeners and were recognized by the 2023 Radio Award Grand Jury as the New York Festivals 2023 Radio Awards competition on Tuesday announced its award winners.
Winning entries include podcasts and audiobooks, masterful dramas, and documentaries, up to the minute news coverage, entertainment, and music specials all created by world renowned storytellers.
The BBC was honored with the 2023 Broadcaster of the Year Award. Compelling award-winning entries were honored with both the prestigious Grand Award and 7 Gold trophies including “Burn Wild,” “Gangster: The Story of Curtis Warren (S2)” and “You, Me and the Big C: Putting the Can in Cancer.”
HarperCollins Publishers UK was honored with the 2023 Radio Production Company of the Year Award. This is the second year in a row that HarperCollins Publishers were recognized for their outstanding audiobooks. Award-winning entries include Grand and Gold-winning “The Trials of Life,” Silver winner “Marple: Twelve New Stories,” and Bronze “Bombs on Aunt Dainty.”
2023 Grand Awards
Grand Award winning “Burn Wild” from BBC Radio 5 Live & BBC Sounds – Documentary/Best Nonfiction Series. Driven by a strong narrative and a cast of incredible, complex characters, Burn Wild is an eco-thriller that gets to the heart of today’s environmental movement and authority’s response to activism. “Burn Wild was honored with an additional 4 Gold trophies and a Bronze.
“The Trials of Life” from HarperCollins Publishers – Audio Books: Best Audio Book – Nonfiction was honored with the Grand Award. The Trials of Life, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, is the third and last of Sir David Attenborough’s great natural history books based on his TV series and completes his survey of the animal world that began with Life on Earth and continued with Living Planet. “The Trials of Life” was recognized with an additional Gold trophy.
“The Outlaw Ocean Podcast” created and produced by The Outlaw Ocean Project, From CBC Podcasts and the L.A. Times – Podcasts/Narrative Documentary earned the Grand Award for this seven-part podcast series. The Outlaw Ocean, chronicles the laws, lore and lifestyles of a hidden realm populated by traffickers, mercenaries, wreck thieves and repo men, vigilante conservationists and elusive poachers, oil-dumpers, shackled slaves, and cast-adrift stowaways. Through their stories of astonishing courage and brutality, the series uncovers a globe-spanning network of crime and exploitation on the high seas. “The Outlaw Ocean Podcast” also earned 2 additional Gold trophies.
Start Here” by ABC News in the News Podcast category earned the inaugural National Press Club Award. The new award launched in 2023, in partnership with the National Press Club, goes to the highest scoring entry in the following news program categories: Best Coverage of Breaking News Story, Best Coverage of Ongoing News Story, Best Nonfiction Series, and News Podcast.
Podcasts in all genres achieved Gold trophy status. Gold-winning entries include “Run, Hide, Repeat” CBC, “Died and Survived Ep 2: The Summer of 2016 (The End of Old Me)” Lionsgate Sound, “The Cruelty – A Child Unclaimed” BBC Scotland Productions, “Pink Card” and “A Streetball Mixtape” for ESPN, “Mother Country Radicals” Crooked Media,” Immersion Rwanda” Radio-Canada, “Abortion: The Body Politic, with Katie Couric” iHeart Media, “The Children in the Pictures” LiSTNR, “Please Protect Abraham” Whistledown, “Obscene: The Dublin Scandal” BBC Studios, “Bhaskar Bose” MnM Talkies, “You, Me and the Big C: Putting the Can in Cancer” BBC Radio 5 Live & BBC Sounds, and “Live from Mount Olympus: Demeter and Persephone” Onassis Public Benefit Foundation.
Top-scoring entries in Audio Books engaged listeners and earned Gold trophies including “What if Ganda had run away?” Radio Grenouille, and “Inside Voice: My Obsession with How We Sound” Pushkin Industries.
Documentaries dominated all trophy ranks and captured listeners attention with engaging stories and unique viewpoints. Gold winners include “Al Jazeera Investigates – The Truth Illusion” Aljazeera Media Network, “Bible John: Creation of a Serial Killer” BBC Scotland Productions, “Revolver: Painting In Sound” Howlett Media Productions Ltd. for The Beatles Channel Sirius XM, “Falsely Accused” Clare FM, “Powerplay: The House of Sepp Blatter” Whistledown, and “Genias in Music: La Lupe” Futuro Media Group.
Breaking News, Feature and Investigative Reports delivered provocative topics and covered up-to-the-minute events unfolding around the globe. Gold winning entries include “Ukraine Coverage” Al Jazeera English Online and “The First Interview with Lionel Messi as World Champion” Urbana Play 104.3.
Entertainment entries appealed to wide audiences of all ages. Among the Gold winners were “MINOTAN!” Radio-Canada / CBC, “Le 5 à 7 carré” Radio-Canada, “Noise” and “The Skewer” Unusual Productions, “Cereal” RTÉ Radio 1, “Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates” Open to Debate
