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PPI Winners 2009

connorwalsh — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:45:00 +0000

An enjoyable morning (in London) looking up winning programmes from last night’s PPI Radio Awards.
Here’s a selection of the winners (full list here).

Also take a peek at the nominations.

A2: Music Programme – Specialist
Bronze – That’s Jazz (Radio Kerry)
Silver – FM 104’s Big Urban Mix (FM 104)
Winner – The Essential Rock Anthems with Ray & JP (Today FM)

A3: Breakfast Programme
Bronze – Dublin’s 98 Morning Crew (Dublin’s 98)
Silver – The Colm & Jim Jim Breakfast Show (RTÉ 2 FM)
Winner – The Red Rooster (Cork’s Red FM)

A4: Music Special
Bronze – The Kilfenora – 100 years – a Celebration (Clare FM)
Silver – Gerry’s Danny Boy (BBC Radio Ulster)
Winner – Tower Songs – a Song Cycle for Ballymun (Athena Media for RTÉ Lyric FM)

GROUP B – NEWS and SPORTS PROGRAMMING AWARDS
B1: News Story
Bronze – Stand UP and fight – a grieving father’s battle for justice (Limerick’s Live 95 fm)
Silver – The Day the Earth Moved (Radio Kerry)
Winner – Publication of the Ryan Report (RTÉ Radio 1)

B2: News Bulletin
Bronze – HIStory – Cork Remembers Michael Jackson (Cork’s Red FM)
Silver – News Bulletin (Clare FM)
Winner – Newstalk 106-108fm News Bulletin (Newstalk 106-108fm)

B3: News Programme
Bronze – Lunchtime with Eamon Keane (Newstalk 106-108fm)
Silver – Drivetime (RTÉ Radio 1)
Winner – News at One on RTÉ Radio 1 (RTÉ Radio 1)

B4: Current Affairs Programme
Bronze – Saturday Edition (Newstalk 106-108fm)
Silver – Kerry Today (Radio Kerry)
Winner – Today with Pat Kenny (RTÉ Radio 1)

GROUP C – SPEECH PROGRAMMING AWARDS

C1: Documentary / Feature
Bronze -The Cooneen Ghost ( Shannonside)
Silver – With These Hands – the Documentary on One (RTÉ Radio 1)
Winner – Through Cairo Airport (Colette Kinsella for RTÉ Choice)

C2: Short Feature
Bronze – People’s Parks of Dublin (Don Swift for Country Mix 106.8)
Silver – FM 104’s Real Life (FM 104)
Winner – Henry on a Mission – Moncrieff (Newstalk 106-108fm)

C3: Speech Driven Magazine Programme
Bronze – Tom Dunne (Newstalk 106-108fm)
Silver – The Morning Show (East Coast FM)
Winner – The Ray D’Arcy Show (Today FM)

C4: Drama
Bronze – War of the Worlds (KCLR96FM)
Silver -i102 -104’s Radio Killed the Video Star (i102-104)
Winner – Another Blooming Day (Zoe Comyns for Newstalk 106-108fm)

C5: Specialist Speech Programme

Bronze – The Business (RTÉ Radio)
Silver – iTalk on i102-104 (i102-104)
Winner Talking History (Newstalk 106-108fm)

GROUP D – GENERAL PROGRAMMING AWARDS

D1: Community/Social Action
Bronze – Dublin’s 98 Care for Kids Radiothon (Dublin’s 98)
Silver – Let’s Keep Dublin Working (Dublin’s Q102)
Winner – Tipperary Assaults – Liveline (RTÉ Radio 1)

D4: Entertainment Inserts
Bronze – Dr. Bill – Tom Dunne (Newstalk 106-108fm)
Silver – Dublin 98’s Morning Crew Comedy (Dublin’s 98)
Winner – Gift Grub – The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show (Today FM)

D5: Innovation
Bronze The Emergency (The Colour Purple for Newstalk 106-108fm)
Silver – i102-104’s Radio Killed the Video Star (i102-104)
Winner – FM 104’S Castle of Terror (FM 104)

GROUP E – PERSONALITIES

E1: Music Broadcaster of the Year
Ray Foley (Today FM)
E2: Specialist Music Broadcaster of the Year
Donald Helme (RTÉ Lyric FM)
E3: News Broadcaster of the Year
Seán O’Rourke (RTÉ Radio 1)

E4: News Reporter of the Year
Cian McCormack (RTÉ Radio 1)
E6: Speech Broadcaster of the Year
Ryan Tubridy (RTÉ Radio 1)

GROUP F – STATION OF THE YEAR AWARDS

F1: Local Station Of The Year
WLR FM
F2: Music Station of the Year
FM 104
F3: Full Service Station of the Year
Newstalk 106-108 fm

Catherine

connorwalsh — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:27:00 +0000

Good radio can happen with a few qualities: narrative, intellectual engagement, emotional breadth, sonic engagement…

Powerful radio can be just one person, telling a story that hardly varies in how gut-wrenching or sad it is. No better example, than the story of Catherine, yesterday afternoon. Newstalk, Moncrieff.

They cleared the boards for three segments of an interview by Catherine Sutton with a woman, using the pseudonym of Catherine, who was raped by her step father, and had five pregnancies by the age of 21. The nearest to respite was fleeing to New York and starting to use drugs, and the mention she now has a husband.

Listen here.

There are times when the story is difficult to follow. And after it all, you don’t know what you could ever to do help. But you do know what you won’t do, what you will look out for.

Simple, powerful radio, with a social purpose. The programmes on other stations at the same time, with whinging phone-ins or classic pop music – feeling sheepish?

Death Diminishes Me

connorwalsh — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:59:00 +0000

Radio New Zealand‘s contribution to the annual Global Perspectives series is Death Diminishes Me, by Gareth Watkins.

The theme this year is islands – including Alert Bay from CBC’s Outfront – and the islands in this superb documentary are the islands of isolation amidst other people. Gay men with HIV or AIDS in New Zealand.

This is how a documentary on HIV should be made – personal, painful, gut-wrenching, and with that engaging. Not fearfully presenting stories that drive people away. To be effective radio, a half-hour must keep people listening before it can move them. Death Diminishes Me does both of these, expertly.

The stories are “familiar” for a few reasons – they resonate with people in other parts of the world, and they speak to us like family or friends.

The production is gorgeous, with sounds emphasising settings, moods, and aspiration.

I lived in New Zealand for 10 months, but I hope and think that shouldn’t make this doc speak any the closer to my ear than it inherently does.

Only at the end did I hear that the producer was Gareth Watkins – he engineered one of the three short docs I made there (and it’s the best I’ve ever made, in no small part thanks to his skill), and he is a magician. I didn’t realise he had become a full producer, but my it’s a good thing.

Following on just a few weeks after the repeats of Thembi’s Story to mark her living and her death, HIV and AIDS have been brought into the world’s awareness again, in the personal way that only outstanding audio documentaries can.

Here’s hoping – no let’s make that assuming – Death Diminishes Me will win awards.

Stone Soup

connorwalsh — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:31:00 +0000

So someone tweets about… you know which radio show, and you follow it round to her blog which suggests you lay off the blogging. For the reasons I have been struggling to blog.

Before Twitter bit me, I would post short entries here about a nice show I’d just heard. These days though, those go on Twitter, Facebook, or the lovely AudioDocumentary.org.

So, a compromise: a collection of links and impressions.

Shappi Talk on BBC Radio 4. Two episodes in and this stand-up and interview comedy with an audience about being a foreigner really hits the spot.

Outfront has finished on the CBC.

RTÉ have a new micro-site based round the Documentary on One. It looks fab. Though I admit I haven’t faced into a DocOnOne for months now.

The BBC’s Save Our Sounds project continues apace, with micro site, an audible world wide web, and two on-air docs. Definitely worth checking out.

RFI staff have suspended their strike, and it’s great to hear the podcasts back in French – okay so I understand next to nothing but I have to try to keep it up! The English daily broadcasts didn’t seem to be interrupted much.

Interesting podcast called Listen to Africa.

Apparently there was once a famous Irish broadcaster called Liam Nolan. I’ll be honest I had never heard of this Today programme presenter.

Finally, by next month, I’ll be in a permanent job – my first in six years in radio – at another of the stars of international broadcasting, WRN. I can’t wait!

Radio Lab and the BBC

connorwalsh — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:46:00 +0000

Sometimes, it’s easy to see how Radio Lab has positively influenced BBC Radio 4. Take for example, the two part series presented by Dr Ben Goldacre, on the placebo effect, and Radio Lab’s own.

Sometimes though, it would be really nice to see even a hint of Radio Lab’s influence. Take this Analysis on Thought Experiments, which shares some content with Radio Lab’s Morality show.

You know, the Analysis may have as much, or even more information. But how much of it sticks? Only the baking topic, which was mentioned three times throughout the programme.

Now, have a peep at the comments on Radio Lab episodes, and you’ll see why Radio 4 feels it can’t engage more than on part of the brain at once. I can’t be arsed looking up any of the examples of people complaining at how the non-speech sounds distracted them and made them angry – there are some there. Now imagine how much more of that crap BBC Radio 4 gets. Too many older listeners, it is my opinion (and attitude), don’t want radio to challenge them, they want it to reinforce they choices they’ve made in life so far. So, they chose to go through education and to save for their offspring to go to university and to look down on those who didn’t and so… they like to learn new things. But only on their terms. Engagement, the fearful old people believe, should only happen though the writing. They don’t feel free to let themselves go, to let the sound hit them in linguistic spots, musical spots, intellectual and instinctive spots.

And they are the people who own Radio 4. So that is that.

A few years back I had a discussion with creative producer (and Beeb employee) Martin Williams about how Radio 4 seems to lose the run of itself and carry lovely shows from Alan Hall’s Falling Tree Productions that go sound and language hand-in-hand, often with sound taking the lead. Martin reckoned (as I remember it) that the Radio 4 commissioners and editors deep down wanted sound-rich pieces, yet didn’t quite know it, and Alan Hall created that a space, showed it to them, and they agreed to let him fill it. My view was more that they knew him well, trusted him, and liked the awards that came with it, so left him to fill in day-time half hours.

And, um, now I’ve run out of steam. Let me give it some more thought.

Radio Academy Podcast

connorwalsh — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 07:20:00 +0000

For a few weeks now I’ve been listening to the Radio Academy Podcast. It’s a humdinger.

It’s a proper podcast for radio peeps. The gusts are from across the, um, spectrum: commercial and Beeb, technical, production, management, regulation. The discussion is well informed and informative. Very groovy.

Wreck Diving in Ireland

connorwalsh — Sat, 23 May 2009 15:08:00 +0000

I caught most of this programme this morning on RTE Radio 1 (audio here). It was a most pleasant surprise! It starts safely enough, but soon turns into a proper radio feature. Not ostentatious, yet very tasty.

Simple music, filed recordings, maybe some FX, used to excellent effect with interviews informative, passionate, and poetic.

“Why are the best shows on Irish radio on early Saturday and Sunday mornings?” I asked myself – a repeat question that still stands.

I was pleased at the end to hear Wreck Diving in Ireland was paid for by the BCI’s Sound and Vision scheme, something which had passed me by until recently.

The slot is called Private Passions, and is available as a podcast.

Review: The Emergency

connorwalsh — Wed, 06 May 2009 07:07:00 +0000

I guess it’s about time I reviewed The Emergency, broadcast on Newstalk on Saturdays at 11:30 in Ireland.

It’s a half-hour satirical sketch show, that has had TV adverts and reviews in the mainstream press. The title refers to the Irish government’s official term for World War II; and for the current economic mess.

The direct combining of the two themes probably leads to the weakest sketches. The sense I’ve gotten is that people are tuning in for satire towards today’s politicians, and while they are plenty intelligent to understand what’s going on, they’d rather just laugh at Sweary Mary, the unlovable minister for finance, and Brian Cowan going forward.

It also raises the possible accusation of that thing you should never do – comparing someone to the Nazis.

But the strong characterisations of today’s politicians give every episode belly laughs. Good!

The most popular part of the show, at least with people old enough to remember the original, is the regular Dev stings – a WWII air raid siren sounds and Dev (I’m told it’s an excellent reproduction) sentences the nation to certain behaviour “during the emergency”.

This is often greeted with delight by older listeners who don’t appreciate the cultural references, to films like Apocalypse Now. When I say “appreciate”, I mean “laugh at”. The most impressive cultural references are the songs. So far they have had a perfect hit-rate, which is little short of a miracle when it comes to comedy songs. Some of these parodies could just as well be sung by the original performer, they sound great – as does the whole show. Yes, there’s excellent audio engineering on it to boot!

As well as their own website linked above, check out the promotional media and the podcast feed on Newstalk.ie

Awesome sounds of radio (astronomy)

connorwalsh — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:33:00 +0000

If you’re anything like me, you’ll be fascinated, and maybe a little bit fearful, of radio astronomy. At first the big dishes make it seem so inaccessible, yet somehow understandable – that big collector bounces so much of those faint, well-travelled signals, to make the audible. After that though, you’re left mystified. What’s the next bit of the chain? How and what do you listen to?

The more you read up, indeed the more you just listen to the radio, you learn it can be on familiar territory. Jupiter can be heard around 20 MHz – that’s shortwave, any old radio can tune there!

And then there’s meteor showers. A smear of a distant TV channel, or a snatch of FM radio from the other side of the continent, is at times because (as I understand it) the signals are twisted by the fuzz of ionisation surrounding a meteor as it dashes through the earth’s atmosphere at some point in between and above you and that radio station.

But radio astronomers, professional and amateur, can do something more structured.

Have a look at what this guy, Thomas Ashcroft does. This recording is of one of the most well known meteor showers, Geminids, at VHF, and it is compelling. Trust me, this is awesome.

There are two channels of audio, about 20MHz apart, recorded in the narrowest of modes, CW (that’s how you get Morse code), and yet they interact.

Poke around that website, there’s lots of good stuff – binaural representations of electromagnetic radiation. He also has receivers recording 300KHz apart around 21MHz for Jupiter, and VLF and ELF – that’s 0 – 20 KHz.

Review: Roberts Robi DAB/FM adaptor for iPod

connorwalsh — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:31:00 +0000

I’ve been trying out an iPod remote control that includes a DAB digital radio and RDS FM radio. It’s the Roberts Robi.

I like the Robi. It gives fast, solid DAB and FM reception. On DAB, you can only see the station name, no other text services. It tunes between stations very quickly – using the up and down buttons to scroll through, it changes instantaneously. Note though that I have only used it in Dublin, where there is only one DAB multiplex. The Robi may take a bit longer to tune to different transmitters.

On FM, the RDS is quick and the reception is solid.

For both DAB and FM, the Roberts Robi annihilates the Pure PocketDAB 2000 I’ve had so much grief from – and what that had an SD socket for playing mp3s, this has your whole iPod!

The size of the Robi is just right, the controls are easy to use, and the cable is a useful length.

Mobile phone pic on the bus:

The negatives:

the switches are easy to accidentally knock, if you put it in our pocket without hold on: this is an issue if you are in a rainy climate and like to retune or adjust the volume a lot – like me!
DAB mode drains the iPod battery at a rate of knots. You’ll get one afternoon around town, going between iPod, FM and DAB, on a full charge.
The white cable – maybe this could be black? Most iPods and headphones sold are black or encased in black these days, so the cable seems to draw unnecessary attention.

Other than that, I’m very happy with the Robi. Far happier than my brother was when I gave it to him for Christmas, but hey he returned the favour with a hideous clothes store voucher so all is balanced – we do give the presents we’d like for ourselves, don’t we?