ACRA’s Finalists Fever – #3

Staff Writer

There are thousands of hard-working, dedicated and amazingly creative people throughout the radio industry – and every year a small fraction of those people make the short list as a finalist in the ACRA’s.

Just like we did last year, over the next few weeks, Radio Today will shine a spotlight on the best of the best.

The ACRA's Finalists Fever – counting down the days to the big event on October 18 by profiling the finalists across all categories. You can get involved by emailing us here.

Today we feature, Clive Robertson from Fairfax Radio Network who is up for Best Talk Presenter,  Aiden Grant has two shoot in the ACRAS  for Best MD and Best Station Produced Comedy with Grant Broadcasters and finalist for Best Digital Radio Format, Sarah Fletcher from Nova Entertainment. 

Let's Roll Out the Red Carpet….

CLIVE ROBERTSON

BEST TALK PRESENTER (C)

2UE, Sydney – Fairfax Radio Network

So give us a wrap of your career so far?

I've pretty well done everything, everywhere. 6VA, 6TZ'CI, 6IX-WB-MD-BY, STW 9, ABC Radio and TV Sydney, ABC Canberra, 2BL, 2FC, TEN 10, ATN 7, 2GB, 2DayFM, TCN 9, 2GB, 2SM, ABC RN, ABC Classic FM and The Fabulous 2UE, so there!

Clive, your ACRAs entry?

No idea, I didn't do it, but it will be real good.

https://radiotoday.com.au/music/acras – best talk presenter – clive robertson.mp3

Your speech, if you were able to make one…

I'd like to thank GOD. All the people who made it possible and all the people who made it impossible, I'm a stronger man.

 

AIDEN GRANT

BEST MUSIC DIRECTOR (P) & BEST STATION PRODUCED COMEDY SEGMENT (P) 

K-ROCK, Geelong VIC – Grant Broadcasters 

 

Give us a quick snapshot of your radio background

My story is very similar to Mike from The Brady Bunch. I started at Musswellbrook’s Power FM then after 5 month scored the breakfast spot at Ballarat’s Power FM. Was in Ballarat for 18 months before heading to K-Rock to do drive and MD the station. Was at K-Rock for 2 and half years up until only very recently.

As of September I have just stared as MD at SAFM in Adelaide. Oh and I married a lady with 3 beautiful daughters and an old lady named Alice lives with us too. 

 

All formal and stuff now, tell us about your ACRA’s entries?

Well the MD entry was once again, a lot of hard work! Some short essays about why I pick different songs to add to our rotation, what Australian music means to me and that sort of thing. Oh and graphs and charts, everyone loves a good pie chart!

The Comedy Segment entry was just a matter of selecting one of the skits I’d writen and put together for drive. I went back and listened to a heap of stuff and found what I thought stood alone as still funny now. 

 

What are your key achievements over the past 12 months?

I got a Twitter blue tick! If you’re over fifty that will just be gibberish to you but I was pretty pleased with myself! haha

What’s the best part of your job ?

I love music and my job let’s me get all up in it. Watching bands like Greenday side of stage, sitting down to chat with Kylie Minogue or listing to the new Madden Brothers album before being released to the public. There’s not too many jobs in the world were these things can be passed off as ‘work’. 

You can’t make a speech on the night but you can here. So let’s pretend you won…. what would you say ?

ABOUT TIME! I mean what’s with giving it to someone else last year, should have been mine! I mean….um… I’m very humbled, thank you. Lot’s of very talented people nominated so it's an honour just to be in the same category as these guys blah blah blah. 

SARAH FLETCHER

BEST DIGITAL RADIO FORMAT – LONG TERM

National, Nova Entertainment

How did you get your start?

I started in the carting room at Triple M Brisbane at the beginning of 1996 straight from completing my School of Audio Engineering course. Moved to Austereo Melbourne later that year as production assistant and over my three years there worked my way up to Breakfast producer for Fox FM. I then moved to the UK at the beginning of 2000 and worked for the GWR group as Network Producer for Sales & Promotions. In 2005 I was hired as Breakfast Producer at Nova Brisbane, made the move across to DAB+ in 2009 as a producer and now find myself programming NOVA Entertainment’s DAB+ brands, plus syndication offerings.

 

So you ACRA’s entry… how did you piece it together?

There was both a video and written component. Without survey figures I had to sell the uniqueness of music, our passionate listeners and use of our technology. I provided examples of listener feedback, year-on-growth figures of our social media platforms, website streaming and iPhone app downloads, partnerships we have with Ku De Ta in Bali, Australian content numbers, our streaming rate (which is higher than our nearest competitor) and really highlighted the opportunity we had to find listeners’ new favourite songs and artists. 

 

Here Sarah.. you have the freedom to make a speech if you won.. so let rip.

I feel really proud of Koffee so it’s great to be recognised for the hard work I put into it in what was a big year of change over here in DAB land.  

 

Are You an ACRAs Finalist?
If you're a finalist in Metropolitan, Non-Metropolitan, Provincial or Country drop us a line and we'll shine the spotlight on you. Email Blair here.

 

You can view our other Finalist so far here. and here.

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