WLR has received seven nominations for this year's IMRO Radio Awards - more than any local station in the country.
673 entries were received for this year’s Awards, which will be a Virtual Live Stream event on Friday 2nd October 2020 due to government guidelines.
Last week the 105 judges led by Chair of the Judges, Peter McPartlin, spent over 42 hours on Zoom narrowing down the entries to form the shortlist.
Peter and the judges commented the outstanding creativity and broadcasting quality this year particularly through the difficulties of lockdown when so many radio programmes were being broadcast from the homes across the country to the homes of listeners.
WLR were shortlisted for the following categories:
- Current Affairs Programme -Local / Regional – Damien Tiernan
- News Reporter of the Year - Damien Tiernan
- Speech Broadcaster of the Year -Local / Regional – Damien Tiernan
- Documentary – Breast Cancer and Me – Sinead Aherne
- Arts, Music & Culture Documentary – The Road Less Travelled - Cyril Stack and John Stack
- Short-Feature - Big Breakfast Little Stories on WLR – Karen Tomkins
- Drama – YouthQuake -WLR- Aoibhin Fallon
In 2019, WLR won the overall Local Station of the year award, and has been nominated this year once again.
The staff at WLR are delighted with the nominations:
Over the moon to be shortlisted for Documentary of the Year at the IMRO Radio Awards. 'Breast Cancer and Me' was a really personal piece but I couldn't have done it without the three women who also shared their stories, my medical team & my family. pic.twitter.com/qMFybgxlX7
— Sinead Aherne (@sineada) September 7, 2020
Turned 50 this year. Made a to do list.
Get a tattoo ✔️
Get an @IMRORadioAwards nomination ✔️
Going well 🤣— aoibhin fallon (@aoibhinfallon) September 7, 2020
In a year when radio has shown its continuing importance to Irish life, today the @IMRORadioAwards shortlist has been revealed. @wlrfm have received 7 nominations this year. Congrats to all #IMRO20 pic.twitter.com/pjFaOVMRWi
— Michael Byrne (@michaeltmbyrne) September 7, 2020
Thrilled for my amazing colleagues @sineada, @aoibhinfallon, @KarTomkins, @damienwlr and all the Déise Today team! Also huge well done to my other radio friends on their nominations 🥳 #IMRO20 https://t.co/d5z1aUgbSz
— Claire Power (@clairebp7) September 7, 2020
Chair of the IMRO Radio Awards committee, Chris Doyle said “Radio has had some of its finest moments over the last twelve months. We are delighted to celebrate the work of all those involved in the industry this year as much as any other year. We’ve shared the good news and the bad news stories, but we’ve always been there for the listeners.”
Chairperson of Awards title sponsors IMRO Eleanor McEvoy said ““In the bizarre times of the COVID-19 pandemic, radio has kept us entertained, kept us informed and kept us sane.
"We now have an obligation to keep everyone safe, so we are very much looking forward to taking the radio awards on line on October 2nd to celebrate the excellence and creativity of broadcasters from right throughout Ireland and would like to congratulate those of you who have been shortlisted and we wish you the very best of luck for the awards ceremony.”
Michael O’Keefe Chief Executive of sponsor Broadcasting Authority of Ireland said “The BAI is once again delighted to support the annual IMRO Radio Awards. 2020 has seen the most challenging times for the radio sector for many years. It is to the tremendous credit of the sector that it has continued to deliver top quality programming to its listeners throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
"This would not be possible without the station personnel who deliver such a wide and diverse range of high quality programming every day. The BAI congratulates all the nominees for their continued excellence in serving the listening public in Ireland with great radio and we wish them all the best of luck on the Awards night in October”
