How to put a Community Radio Award entry together

To support people putting their entries together, we asked our judges what advice they would give to help people with their entries.

General Hints and Tips

Read the category details, including the five judging criteria against which entries will be scored, make sure your entry really demonstrates against those areas.

Be cautious of word counts and time limits, don't go over, and don't be too much under either. Also use the track listing to outline what judges are listening to.

Have a critical friend listen to and read your entry, and ask them how they think it works against the judging criteria.

Outline your target audience/community as part of the entry, and demonstrate how your entry meets that audience.

Be original, and be yourself. Be natural and try to to rely heavily on gimmicks.

A good rounded entry featuring everything you do as a show / content.

The judges don't know you, your station, your show, or your target audience/community make sure the audio and written elements outline everything the judges need to know.

Audio or "Demo" element

Best bits first, you have to capture the judges attention and encourage them to keep listening to the end and almost leave them wanting to hear more!

Curate a good journey to demonstrate the audio against the criteria, try and tell a story with your clips on how great your presenting/content is.

If its a presenter entry make sure your voice is the first heard and your voice is in the majority of the entry.

Make sure clips are identifable, either with a mico silence or fade in / fade out (and fade to nothing, don't cross fade).

Be wary of too much station or show productions or jingles, the entry is about the content not the production.

Use the best quality of audio and content, bad quality or distortion can make it hard for best content to shine through.

Be minimal with songs or extracts of songs, judges want to hear the content and presenters.

Make sure you complete the track listing to timecode what judges are listening to when.

Written element

Read the judging criteria for the category and make sure the written element really meets those five areas.

Be honest, and open.

Make it a clear and easy read, use paragraphs or bullet points as needed, with examples that really shine out as to why you are the best. While you won't be judged on spelling and grammar, it needs to be readable.

Don't be afraid to blow your own trumpet, you examples, use casestudies, use stats etc

It needs to work in partnership with your audio entry, what are people listening to.

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For the judging criteria in particular, we asked the judges what they are looking for when they score the entries against the published criteria, here is a summary of some of their thoughts.

Judging Criteria, what are judges looking for: Presentation and quality of entry

Well written with good clarity, good spelling and punctuation.

Utilising the word count to good effect.

Good quality and clear audio.

Writing and audio that capture the attention.

Presentation style, voice, and showing passion.

 

Judging Criteria, what are judges looking for: Identification of need and the target community & Engagement of the target community

Does the entry specifically show evidence of the target community.

Inclusion of the community, case studies, evidence & endorsements of the community.

Interviews and interactions with the local community, local or relevant references.

Topics and content relevant to the community.

Judging Criteria, what are judges looking for: Passion and energy & Personality and character

Radio is about personality (not ego), consider how it comes across to the judges.

Upbeat, lively, engaging, natural, and interested.

Confidence.

Judging Criteria, what are judges looking for: Presentation Skills

Be clear and concise.

Commanding the attention of the listener.

Relaxed and 'professional' approach

Confidence and authenticity.

Engagement with the audience.

Judging Criteria, what are judges looking for: A positive example or role model for those at the station

Helping others and mucking in.

Examples of training/mentoring or whatever they do in the station.

Positive attitude.

Going above and beyond.

Showing and demonstrating dedication.

Caring and passion.

What they did, and it's impact and effect on people and the station.