News!

October 13, 2006. New York: THE WIRE received the gold World Medal for best editing. The Wire is an 8-part music documentary series coproduced by Battery Radio’s Chris Brookes with Paolo Pietropaolo and Jowi Taylor for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The series explores the effect of electricity on music, and won the Peabody Award earlier this year (see below for details and audio)

May 12, 2006. Hvar, Croatia: RUNNING THE GOAT - A DANCE IN 8 FIGURES, a Battery Radio feature broadcast by Radio Netherlands Vox Humana is co-winner of the to prize at the prestigious Prix Marulic International Festival of Radio Plays and Documentary Radio Features in Hvar, Croatia. Jurors described it as "an entertaining, multi-layered.. vivid, well-paced and perfectly mixed documentary that subliminally discusses the loss of tradition and its hope for survival"

The Prix Maruliç is an international festival dedicated to radio programs based on the world's cultural heritage. The annual week-long event takes place on the Adriatic island of Hvar, and this year screened entries from China, Australia, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Netherlands, Serbia, Spain, Italy, Greece, Macedonia and Canada as well as Newfoundland and host country Croatia.

RUNNING THE GOAT shares the 2006 Prix Maruliç documentary prize with the German docunentary feature "Extraordinary. Stille. Ce soir" by Jean-Claude Kuner. The Battery Radio program is an acoustic film based on a traditional Newfoundland set dance. It was written and recorded by Chris Brookes, and features the voices of Newfoundland singer Anita Best, folklorist Tonya Kierley, fisherman Cyril Whitten, and the late dancer Mercedes Barry amongst others.

April 5, 2006, Athens Georgia: THE WIRE, a music documentary series coproduced by CBC's Paolo Pietropaolo, Jowi Taylor
and Battery Radio's Chris Brookes has won the 2006 Peabod y award.

The U.S. Peabody Awards were founded in 1940 “to establish a Pulitzer Prize for radio.” Today they recognise programming excellence in both radio and televison. Referring to the series as “ear-opening...audio dynamite”, the Peabody jury said “...this consistently surprising eight-part radio series explores how electricity changed -- and con tinues to change -- how we hear music, how we play it, even what we think it is or can be.”

THE WIRE is an eight-part series exploring the effect of electricity on music. It was coproduced by Battery Radio's Brookes with CBC's Pietropaolo and Taylor for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 2005. Production was trans-continental via internet file transfer between St. John’s, Vancouver and Toronto. The series was first broadcast on CBC Radio One in February and March 2005 with a CBC Radio Two rebroadcast during July and August 2005.

The Peabody award will be presented June 5 in New York by Jon Stewart, anchor of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”

October 23, 2005, Chicago: Battery Radio is proud to find its fingerprints on two out of a total nine awards announced by the Third Coast International Audio Festival.

THE WIRE (episode 5) received the Directors Choice award. The Wire is an 8-part music documentary series coproduced by Battery Radio’s Chris Brookes with Paolo Pietropaolo and Jowi Taylor for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The series explores the effect of electricity on music.

The Wire can currently be heard in Canada every Sunday at 4.30 Nfld time until Christmas on CBC Radio Two. Episode 2 of the series, to be heard this Sunday (Oct 30) won the prestigious Prix Italia last month in Milan. The 3rd Coast award-winning episode (#5) will be broadcast November 20th. Check the series website for complete interviews, timelines and background information.

A MAP OF THE SEA, produced by Battery Radio for Homelands Productions USA claimed the second 3rd Coast award. Written by Chris Brookes and edited by Homelands' Jon Miller, the documentary examines cultural change in Newfoundland resulting from the cod fishery collapse. It was broadcast throughout the United States in January by the program Living on Earth. and is part of the Homelands Worlds of Difference series exploring the effect of global change on societies.

The Third Coast International Audio Festival Competition honors creative and compelling documentary work being produced worldwide.

September 24, 2005. Milan: THE WIRE, a music documentary series coproduced by Paolo Pietropaolo, Chris Brookes and Jowi Taylor has won the 2005 Prix Italia radio award. The announcement was made in Milan, Italy.

The Prix Italia has been called"the Booker Prize of radio", and is the world's oldest international radio, television and web competition. Founded by the Italian public radio broadcaster RAI in Capri in 1948, this year's festival is its 57th edition.

THE WIRE is an eight-part series exploring the effect of electricity on music. It was coproduced by Battery Radio's Brookes with CBC's Pietropaolo and Taylor for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation earlier this year. Production was trans-continental via internet file transfer between St. John’s, Vancouver and Toronto. The series was first broadcast on CBC Radio One in February and March 2005 with a CBC Radio Two rebroadcast during July and August 2005.

The series episode honoured by the Prix Italia is Part 2: The Change of the Sound. In explaining their decision, the Italia jury said:
"The Jury chose this program because it succeeded against all the odds in educating and entertaining the listener in a very lively, engaging and sophisticated way. The production employs specific audio techniques that reflect the very development in the history of sound recording and post production explored in the broadcast. It also applauded a musical plot that embraced everything from Karlheinz Stokhausen to the Beatles."

June 27, 2005. New York: TRAVELLING LIGHT, a documentary about the monarch butterfly produced for Radio Netherlands, has claimed a Silver World Medal at the International Radio Festival of New York. It has also been selected to receive the United Nations Award, which honours programming that best exemplifies the aims and ideals of the United Nations. The award was presented in New York by UN Public Information Director Raymond Sommereyns.

The 30-minute feature was produced for Radio Netherlands and broadcast last year by Radio Netherlands Vox Humana. It was written and recorded by Chris Brookes. It competed in the global competition which attracted over 500 entries from 32 countries.

TRAVELLING LIGHT examines the incredible 4000-mile journey of the Monarch butterfly from Canada to Mexico. The spectacular annual flight of this tiny insect has captured the imagination of poets, scientists and schoolchildren alike, but it is now threatened by environmental destruction in Mexico, United States, and Canada. In the program, scientists discuss the mystery of the butterfly's navigational abilities and stress the ecological and cultural value of the unique migration.

The New York announcement comes on the heels of last month’s success which saw the Newfoundland independent radio production house score three national and international awards. Last month in Hvar, Croatia, a Battery-produced radio feature was named winner of the international Prix Marulic prize. Also in May, the company’s documentaries won the CAJ Canadian Association of Journalists and the AJA Atlantic Journalism awards in Canada.

May 16, 2005. Winnipeg: The Battery Radio documentary feature THE MAN WHO SANG GOODBYE has been named top Radio News/Current Affairs program of the year by the Canadian Association of Journalists.

The CAJ, Canada's only national professional organization for reporters, editors, producers and photographers, announced the winners of the annual CAJ Awards for Investigative Journalism on Saturday at the association's annual national conference in Winnipeg. The CAJ Awards are Canada's only recognition for the best investigative journalism across the country.

THE MAN WHO SANG GOODBYE is a historical detective story which tracks the trail of a musician named Omar Blondahl. Once a star of radio and television with over a dozen record albums to his credit, Omar Blondahl was a household name in Newfoundland and maritime Canada 40 years ago. Folklorists and musicologists today give him credit for rescuing many traditional songs from oblivion and for creating the modern canon of Newfoundland folksong. At the peak of his career he suddenly disappeared. Most people (including his family) had no idea where he went. Beginning with genealogical records in Reykjavik and ending with an old man and a box of mementos in a Vancouver apartment, the documentary explores the performer's music as it tries to solve the riddle of his life.