WLR is in contention for a whopping seven radio awards at the upcoming IMRO national radio awards in Kilkenny on October 7.
The awards ceremony at the Lyrath Hotel will be attended by all radio stations across the 32 counties, locally and nationally, and will be the first in-person gathering after two years of broadcasting virtually.
Hopes are high that it will be a very successful night for WLR with an impressive seven nominations in six categories: Music, News and Sport, Speech, and People.
Forty-one awards in total will be handed out on the night, with each category announcing a gold, silver, and bronze winner, as well as awards for Stations of the Year for local, music and national stations.
WLR made history last year winning the Local Station of the Year award for the third consecutive year and will be in the running again this time round.
WLR’s Kieran O’Connor – who is celebrating 30 years broadcasting with WLR this year - and the station’s Head of Sport Nigel Kelly are nominated in the same category, ‘Sports Broadcaster of the Year’.
The WLR News at 1pm programme is shortlisted for ‘News Programme of The Year’, having won the award for the first time ever in 2021.
Deise Today presenter Damien Tiernan is shortlisted in the ‘Speech Broadcaster of the Year’ category, an award he has won gold for in the past two years. A Deise Today Climate Change Special programme, meanwhile, which received lots of praise locally after it aired, has been shortlisted in the ‘Specialist Speech’ category.
Karen Tomkins’ ‘Big Breakfast Little Stories’ has been nominated for a third year, having won the award for the last two years also while WLR’s Irish Music Month has been shortlisted with all other IBI stations in the ‘Music Initiative of the Year’ category.
Commenting on the awards, WLR Programme Director, Michael Byrne said: “It’s great to be recognised at national level for radio that is produced here in Waterford. The standard on WLR is at a very high level and I am delighted to see the nominees shortlisted in 2022.”
All eyes now will be firmly on the Lyrath Hotel on Friday, 7 October 2022, with Dermot Whelan back on hosting duties!
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