The Radio Industry Awards Committee (RIAC) has made a number of category changes for the 2025 NZ Radio & Podcast Awards including an Independent Station of the Year for independently owned radio
stations and allowing podcast hosts to enter the ‘Best New Talent – Presenter’ Award. The aim is to encourage a wider range of entries across all radio stations and podcast producers in New Zealand.
Category changes include:
• An ‘Independent Station of the Year’ award for independently owned radio stations.
• Sales Team of the Year broken out into 2 sub-categories – ‘Metropolitan/Network Sales Team’ & ‘Regional/Provincial Sales Team’
• A new podcast category ‘Best Science & Environmental Podcast’ joins the 15 other podcast categories.
• An age cap for the three ‘Best New Talent’ categories. Entrants must be aged under 35 years at the end of the relevant award year.
• Podcast hosts are now able to enter the ‘Best New Talent – Presenter’ Award, and
• Local music host categories have been changed so that local breakfast shows, whether a team or solo host, are now judged together.
NZ Radio & Podcast Awards Committee Chair, Jana Rangooni said:
“With over 3.6 million New Zealanders using radio every week we are a valued and primary source of many New Zealanders music, news and entertainment. Podcasting and other audio content production continues to grow Kiwi’s engagement, and it is important the industry awards recognise all audio.”
Entries for the 2025 NZ Radio & Podcast Awards open on 27 January 2025 and close on March 5.