UK and Ireland lead New York Festivals

By James Cridland for media.info
Posted 14 May 2015, 11.23am edt

The UK leads the world in nominations for the radio competition in the New York Festivals, according to the recently announced nominations. Ireland has come third with an impressive 44 nominations.

The full list of nominations per country are:

UK: 77
USA: 57
Ireland: 44
Canada: 26
India: 14
New Zealand: 10
Australia: 9
Hong Kong: 9
Argentina: 8
Sweden: 7
South Korea: 5
Germany: 4
Austria: 3
Czech Republic: 2
Denmark: 2
France: 2
Italy: 2
Mexico: 2
Columbia: 1
Croatia: 1
Egypt: 1
Finland: 1
Philippines: 1
Serbia: 1
Taiwan: 1
UAE: 1

UK nominations this year include BBC Radio Leeds with three nominations for coverage and documentaries about the Tour de France last year.

Rozina Breen, managing editor of BBC Radio Leeds, said: “I’m incredibly proud of our team. The Tour de France in Yorkshire captured the imagination of the county, the country and the world. We felt tremendously lucky to be able to report on such a fantastic story and I’m thrilled we did it justice. These nominations show our brilliant local journalism is world class.”

Anniversaries of war loomed large on the nominations, with TBI Media's BBC Radio 2 special D-Day: 70 Years On, which was nominated for five separate awards. TBI also got two other war-related pieces nominated, and BBC Radio Lincolnshire was shortlisted for a series of drama performances about World War One.

BBC Radio Leeds also gained a nomination for a documentary the station broadcast about a Jewish and a Muslim teenager visiting Auschwitz, and BBC Radio York's Good Night Sleep appeal was nominated for a community service award.

Helen Thomas, the head of BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, said: “It’s a testament to the talent of our teams in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire that we have received seven nominations in these global awards. We work hard to reflect our communities and provide our audiences with engaging, informative and entertaining programming. These nominations are recognition of that hard work and I’d like to congratulate and thank everyone involved.”

Independent radio producers secured 41 nominations in total, for comedy, station idents, innovation and drama. 21 production companies were rewarded with nominations, including Wise Buddah and Pozzitive.

A RIG spokesman said: "This is yet another great performance from UK indie producers, with nominations from a wide spread of companies based both inside and outside the M25. It only adds to the fact that our sector is continuing to produce a diverse range of successful creative content".

With the absence of a UK-wide radio award ceremony in 2015, the New York Festivals are possibly the only industry-wide radio awards ceremony for UK producers this year.

The New York Festivals are also the only awards ceremony that ever gave me an award for my own broadcasting (The Pulse Snow Special, in - I think - 1994). This clearly means they are the best awards ceremony, right?