Organised by the Sydney-based Commercial Radio Australia, on behalf of the commercial radio industry, the national awards include 34 categories. These cover all areas of radio broadcasting including news, talk, sport, music and entertainment. The ACRAs are judged by fellow radio executives and those in associated industries. Winners are announced in each category across three areas: metropolitan, provincial and country commercial radio stations.
Melbourne talent generally does well at these awards. At last year’s event, held in Brisbane, winners included 3AW breakfast presenters Ross Stevenson and John Burns for Best On Air Team (AM). Mix 101.1’s Jane Hall, who co-hosts the breakfast show with Chrissie Swan, won Best Newcomer. 3AW’s Neil Mitchell took Best Current Affairs Presenter.
Entries open today and close Friday May 23.
Commercial Radio Australia CEO Joan Warner said: “2014 is set to be an exciting ACRAs year with many changes in on-air team combinations and timeslots. We’re hoping we’ll have more entries than ever before.” She added, “The ACRAs is a highlight of the radio industry’s annual calendar and always provides a great opportunity to celebrate the enormous talent within commercial radio around Australia.”
News of the awards comes after Kyle Sandiland and Jackie O Henderson caused a major upset in last week’s radio ratings. The duo won ACRA’s Best On Air Team (FM) four times, including last year. Last week, the duo who left Southern Cross Austereo’s 2DAY FM for KIIS in Sydney, tied with WSFM’s Amanda Keller and Brendan “Jonesy” Jones for top music FM team. Kyle and Jackie O took 250,000 of their listeners to KIIS, and have 9.3% of the Sydney listening market. They decimated 2DAY’s replacement breakfast team, which dropped to a 3.8% share. The fear is advertisers will also follow Kyle & Jackie O over to KIIS. Radio sites estimate it would cost 2DAY $12 million of its projected $20 million earnings, and 2DAY is holding meetings with sponsors.
The Melbourne ratings saw radio yakety-yak 3AW lead with 11.9% of the city’s listening share. It was followed by ABC774 (10.6%), FOX FM (8.5%), Nova 100 (7.9%), GOLD (7.8%), Triple M (6.8%), MIX 101 (6.5%), smoothfm 91.5 (6.5%), Magic 1278 (6.2%), 3JJJ (6.1%), ABC FM (3.2%), SEN (2.9%), Radio National (2.5%) and News Radio (1.5%).
