At the ACRA’s on Saturday night, 3AW’s Neil Mitchell was awarded the 2013 Best Community Service Project – Metro for the “Better Together” joint broadcast with community station JOY 94.9 in Melbourne’s City Square in 2012.

In what may well be a first, this joint outside broadcast also won the 2012 Community Broadcasting Association Award for the Most Innovative Outside Broadcast or Special Event Broadcast

The two-hour outside broadcast at Melbourne’s City Square focused on youth suicide and was co hosted by 3AW’s Neil Mitchell and JOY 94.9 President and Saturday Magazine lead host David “Macca” McCarthy. The issue of youth suicide brought JOY 94.9 and 3AW together with Melbourne City Council, Politicians, Mental Health workers and advocates to put the youth suicide issue on the agenda.

JOY 94.9 President David McCarthy said: “Joint broadcasts between commercial and community radio are pretty rare but to win both the CBAA Award and the Commercial Radio Australia Award is an even rarer occurrence. Without the support of Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, beyondblue, Jeff Kennett, Neil Mitchell and Justin Smith from 3AW and the entire JOY team this broadcast would not have happened. It was great radio and I am very proud of everyone at JOY 94.9 who worked extraordinarily hard to put this together. This award belongs to all of them and the people who had the courage to talk publicly about the tragedy of youth suicide.”

Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said: “JOY 94.9 thoroughly deserve this special recognition for creating such great radio on a difficult and vital community issue. Congratulations to all at JOY and 3AW”.

Neil Mitchell from 3AW said: “This was an initiative of JOY 94.9 and I am delighted that they wanted to do this with 3AW. It is fantastic that the broadcast has been recognised. It was an honour to be part of it and my real hope is that we saved a life somewhere.”