CBC named Broadcaster of the Year at New York Festivals Radio Awards

CBC has earned the Broadcaster of the Year Award at the New York Festivals Radio Awards. 

New York Festivals has announced its 2020 Storytellers Gala award winners, recognizing podcasts and audiobooks, dramas, documentaries, breaking news coverage and entertainment and music specials created by storytellers around the globe.

Among the CBC’s Gold award-winning entries were CBC Podcasts’ Tai Asks Why, Uncover: The Village, Alone: A Love Story – Season 3, The Band Played On and PlayMe.

“It is truly an honour to be recognized as Broadcaster of the year amongst so many award-winning international colleagues. It is a testament to the level of dedication and depth of talent of CBC programmers across the country and their commitment to producing quality content. On behalf of CBC Radio and Audio, I would also like to express my gratitude to the New York Festival for this incredible recognition,” Cathy Perry, Executive Director, CBC Current Affairs and Investigative Programming, said in a release.

CBC investigate podcast Hunting Warhead, a co-production with Norwegian newspaper VG that delves into the world of online child abuse, was also recognized with a prestigious Grand Award for Best Investigative Reporting. It also won Best Serialized Podcast.

Among other CBC programming recognized was Cross Country Checkup’s coverage of the final report of the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls inquiry; Q host Tom Power’s interview with Margaret Atwood; and CBC Vancouver profile, Eleanor Collins at 100.

Toronto’s Jazz.fm.91 earns Gold

Toronto not-for-profit station Jazz.fm.91 (CJRT-FM) also earned a Gold award for its documentary Journey to Jazz and Human Rights. Hosted by Alana Bridgewater, the documentary looks at how the music and the men and women who made music laid claim to human rights around the world. Funding for the series was provided by the Maytree Foundation. An expansion of the documentary project is currently being developed as an education template for schools.

Other notable winners included:

Abbey Road Phase One and Two, a two-part music documentary produced by Beatles historian Kevin Howlett, BBC Radio 2, and Sirius XM Beatles Channel, which earned a Grand Award. Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Abbey Road, Howlett went deep into the creation of the last album the Beatles recorded together. Himesh Patel, star of the movie Yesterday, narrated.

In addition to CBC, podcasts earning Gold trophies included 30 for 30 Podcasts: Season 6  and The Sterling Affairs( both for ESPN Films), Dolly Parton’s America (OSM Audio), Bad Batch (Wondery), The Last Voyage of the Pong Su (The Age newspaper, Melbourne), The Shrink Next Door (Bloomberg), Stardust (Journal Media), GIANT (Spotify Studios), The Little Match Girl (Almost Tangible), To the infernal Rhythm of the Bomba (ASCR), Rose:  An Inspiring New Musical (Soulpepper), Mobituaries (CBS News Radio), What happened to Annie? (Sky News), Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: The Podcast (Rebel Girls) and Gertie’s Law (Victorian Supreme Court).

Audio books winning Gold included Elisabeth Moss’ narration of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, as well as The Secret Commonwealth (Penguin Random House), and the Wizenard Book Series (Granity Studios).

This year’s Radio Awards Grand Jury awarded a total of two Grand Awards, 51 NYF Gold Radio trophies, 52 Silver and 55 Bronze.

Find a complete list of 2020 Radio winners, here.

View this year’s TV & Film Award winners, here.

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