“If we cannot celebrate our industry and our people, then what do we have?”
Audio integration expert and proud ACRA winner Zak Davies says the permanent cancellation of the Australian Commercial Radio Awards is devastating news for our industry.
“How do we benchmark our greatest achievements? How do we motivate our people to do their best work if we can no longer profile them and their success in front of their peers? How do we attract young talented people and maintain radio as an aspirational medium?”
Davies – recently appointed Content & Promotions Director at amplifyCBR, operators of Canberra’s Mix 106.3 and Hit 104.7 – says radio remains relevant and, no matter the platform it is on, requires people to create and deliver content that engages and connects with its audience.
“As an industry we must fight to recognise our people and celebrate their work. Certainly on a national level, but more crucially on a regional level – the birthing suite and nursery of our industry – we need to ensure that we are nurturing our upcoming talent.”
Davies has flagged the idea of like-minded individuals and organisations getting together to create a new regional Australia awards system to celebrate industry achievements, based on the New Zealand model of a telecast event which awards framed certificates instead of lavish trophies.
“The reward is the industry and peer recognition even if it is just 30 seconds of your name and photo being flashed up,” he says.
Davies worries that if Australia’s radio industry loses its awards system now, it will never get it back.
“And people who are far too young to say so will say ‘Remember the good old days?!’”
*Images: CRA