NEWS:

What we've been up to
lately...


October 11, 2008 Chicago:
Chris Brookes is named recipient of the at the 2008 3rd Coast International Audio FestivalAudio Luminary award

Battery Radio coproduction awarded Gold World Medal

June 19, 2008 New York:
The soundscape "Invisible Cities-Toronto" receives the gold World Medal for best editing at the International Radio Festival of New York.

CITIES-Toronto is an impressionistic sound portrait of the city of Toronto coproduced by CBC's Paolo Pietropaolo and Jowi Taylor with Battery Radio’s Chris Brookes for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The sonic composition celebrates the acoustic layers of the city of Toronto. Focusing on sounds that are lost in the din of contemporary life, and using the sounds of nature, industry, language, culture and music this "acoustic film" achieves a sonic shortcut to intimacy with the city.

The program was broadcast on CBC Radio's "IDEAS" series on May 18th, 2007.


Lanier Phillips awarded honourary doctorate

May 30, 2008 St. John's:

Lanier Phillips, survivor of the 1942 wreck of the USS Truxton near St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, and well-known U.S. civil rights advocate, received the degree of doctor of laws at Memorial University's spring convocation.

The moving story of Mr. Phillips' life is featured in the Battery Radio documentary Survivor. (NPR written transcript can be found here, CBC television news story here)

The university announcement stated:

Mr. Phillips joined the United States Navy in 1941, when he was 18-years-old, and was on board the USS Truxton when it ran aground near St. Lawrence on Feb. 18, 1942. He was the only African-American to escape his ship; other black sailors who served with him stayed on board, fearing they would be ill treated by the locals and hoping they would be rescued by the U.S. Navy. From a crew of 156, Mr. Phillips was one of only 46 survivors. He and other sailors were rescued by the people of St. Lawrence, and Phillips was terrified that he would be lynched. Instead he was taken into a local home, put to bed and cared for by white people. This experience left Mr. Phillips with a new outlook on life, having been treated with dignity and full respect for the first time in his young life.

Though segregationist policies were still alive when he returned to the U.S., Mr. Phillips was no longer prepared to be repressed by them. Despite discouragement and discrimination, he was accepted, trained and became the first African-American sonar technician. He became involved in the American civil rights movement and marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King. Mr. Phillips has since shared his life story with students of all ages. He still carries with him the lessons he learned some 64 years ago in the small town of St. Lawrence.

For his resistance to and capacity to rise above repression, Lanier Phillips will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree at the 3 p.m. session of convocation on May 30.

"A Tapestry for the ears..."

Audiofile magazine, August/Sept 2007:

Audiofile raves about Coasting Trade, an audiobook produced by Battery Radio for Rattling Books.

"In a performance of less than an hour, producer Chris Brookes and poet Robin McGrath transport the listener to a Yankee schooner circling Newfoundland in the late nineteenth century. The production, a Canadian tapestry for the ears, is beautifully embellished with sound effects that capture the waves, ship sounds, and local fauna. Robert Joy, Rick Boland, and Anita Best bring a lyrical beauty to this "Performance for Three Voices."

"McGrath provides fleeting glimpses into the lives of an immigrant, a biologist, a smuggler, and Newfoundland locals scratching a life out of the rugged terrain. The short performance is superb, with the rich voices of Joy, Boland, and Best meshing into a melody against the harmony of background sounds. "

Rattling Books "Literature to Listen to" is a Newfoundland-based publisher of fine audio books.


2 Battery Radio features score in New York

June 28, 2007 New York:

The Battery Radio production WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE BEEN has won the 2007 Gold World Medal at the International Radio Festival of New York.
In addition, the Battery documentary BOTH SIDES NOW, a portrait of the life and music of Joni Mitchell, received a finalist citation for Best Music Special at the New York festival. Both programs were produced for CBC Radio.

What We Might Have Been remembers a tragic battlefield loss on July 1, 1916 that ended the dreams of a nation. A historical documentary produced for CBC Radio Nfld & Labrador to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the battle of Beaumont Hamel, the program recreates the "war to end all wars", when the independent nation of Newfoundland raised a regiment to fight for Britain in World War One, when the Regiment was virtually wiped out on July 1, 1916 in France, and when the repercussions of that loss later catapulted Newfoundland into losing its independence and becoming a province of Canada.

Both Sides Now was produced for CBC Radio Music, and first broadcast as a 2-hour network special on January 27, 2007. The documentary chronicles the great Canadian composer's career, art and music. It was recorded and produced by Chris Brookes with assistance from Katherine Welbourn and CBC Radio Archives.

What We Might Have Been was comissioned by CBC Radio Nfld & Labrador, and first broadcast as a 5-part daily series on CBC's ON THE GO program in June 2006. It was recorded and coproduced for the CBC by Battery Radio's Chris Brookes and CBC's Curtis Rumbolt. The version cited by the New York Festival is a 54-minute feature broadcast by CBC Radio Nfld & Labrador's PERFORMANCE HOUR on July 1, 2006.

Click to hear What We Might Have Been


Battery co-pro shortlisted for Atlantic Journalism Award:

April 2, 2007, Halifax:

WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE BEEN is a finalist for Radio Feature in this year's Atlantic Journalism Awards.

A historical documentary produced for CBC Radio Nfld & Labrador to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the battle of Beaumont Hamel, What We Might Have Been was broadcast as a 5-part daily series on CBC Radio Nfld & Labrador's ON THE GO program in June 2006. It was recorded and coproduced for the CBC by Chris Brookes and Curtis Rumbolt. The version cited by the AJAs is a 54-minute feature broadcast by CBC Radio Nfld & Labrador's PERFORMANCE HOUR on July 1, 2006.

Click to hear the 54-minute feature


Battery co-pro scores at
International Radio Festival of New York.

October 13, 2006. New York:

THE WIRE receives the gold World Medal for best editing.

The Wire is an 8-part music documentary series coproduced by CBC's Paolo Pietropaolo and Jowi Taylor with Battery Radio’s Chris Brookes for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 2005. The series explores the effect of electricity on music, and won the Peabody Award earlier this year (see April 5 news for details and audio)

The series explores the effect of electricity on music. 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, and has been rebroadcast several times since. It has also been heard in Australia on ABC's Concert FM.

Click to hear a sample episode from the series:


Battery Radio feature co-winner of top prize
at European Prix Maruliç:

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 top 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 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.

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.

Click to hear RUNNING THE GOAT


St.John's-Vancouver co-production wins Peabody Award

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 Peabody award.

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. It has also been heard throughout Australia on ABC's Concert FM.

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

Click to hear a sample episode from the series:


Battery's fingerprints found in Chicago

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.

Click to hear A MAP OF THE SEA:


Canadian co-production wins 2005 Prix Italia

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 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.

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.

In explaining their decision, the Prix 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."

Click to hear the award-winning episode:


Battery Radio run of luck continues at
International Radio Festival of New York:

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.

The documentary 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.

Click to hear the winning program:


Newfoundland documentary chosen by Canadian Association of Journalists.

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.

The 53-minute feature was written by Chris Brookes and broadcast by CBC Radio Newfoundland and Labrador's regional PERFORMANCE HOUR.

(Click to hear the feature in RealAudio)


Battery Radio feature claims top European prize:

May 12, 2005. Hvar, Croatia:

THE PROMISED LAND OF THE SAINTS, a documentary feature produced for Radio Telefis Eireann, has won top prize at the prestigious Prix Marulic International Festival of Radio Plays and Documentary Radio Dramas in Hvar, Croatia.

The winning program is a 43-minute radio feature that explores the ancient 6th-century Chronicle of St. Brendan in a Newfoundland soundscape, using contemporary sounds and voices. Part whimsy, part serious, it takes the Proustian view that memories are embodied in physical objects and sets out to find traces of St. Brendan’s paradise in present-day reality.

The production features Newfoundland performer Berni Stapleton, writers Wayne Johnston and Tim Severin, and the work of Newfoundland model-maker Peter Picco as well as the voices of Newfoundlanders in St. John's, Ferryland, Paradise and St. Brendan's. It was recorded in Ireland and Newfoundland, and was part of a project assisted by the Ireland-Nfld partnership organisation.

The program was written by Chris Brookes, and broadcast by Radio Telefis-Eirann RTE in Ireland.

The Prix Maruliç is an annual festival dedicated to radio programs based on the world's literary heritage.

(Click to hear the winning program)


Newfoundland documentary wins Atlantic Journalism Award.

April 30, 2005. Fredericton:

NOT FIT FOR IT, a 5-part documentary series broadcast by CBC Newfoundland & Labrador's regional afternoon show ON THE GO in March 2004, has won this year's Atlantic Journalism Award for Radio Feature.

The 100-minute historical series marked the 70th anniversary of an unprecedented event in world history. In February 1934 Newfoundland became the only country ever to voluntarily relinquish elective democracy. The national legislature closed for 16 years and never reopened (from then until becoming a Canadian province in 1949 the country was governed by British-appointed bureaucrats). The two-year period 1932-34 in St. John's pre-destined the next quarter-century of Newfoundland's political history. Looking back at those events today is like "reading the tea leaves" for sea-changes which later happened to a people's sovereignty and national character, to how others would come to view them and how they would come to see themselves.

The radio series featured the voices of: historians James Hiller, Peter Neary, Gene Long, and John Fitzgerald; witnesses to the era Helen Whiteway, Bert Sparkes, Bill Coady, Paul O'Neill; and performers: Brian Hennessey, Robert Chafe, Aidan Flynn, and Ivan Morgan. Tne series was written and recorded by Chris Brookes. It received a repeat broadcast on CBC ON THE GO during March 2005.

The 24th annual Atlantic Journalism Awards celebrate excellence in Atlantic Canadian media. Awards were presented in 23 categories. The Battery Radio Not Fot For It series won the Gold Award for Radio Feature Writing.

This program now available as a SoundTrek CD