Commercial Radio Australia reveals 2021 Brian White Scholarship finalists

Image: The Brian White Scholarship panel of news directors who will determine the scholarship winner

Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) has named the 10 finalists for this year’s Brian White Scholarship.

Now in its fifth year, the scholarship is awarded to one university student, providing them with the opportunity to gain experience in Australia’s biggest radio newsrooms.

Students are selected from a range of universities and educational institutions Australia-wide, with each finalist proceeding to a workshop with leading commercial radio news directors to develop their broadcasting and news presenting skills.

The lucky recipient of the scholarship will then go on to undertake an eight-week paid placement working for two weeks at Nine Radio, Southern Cross Austereo, Australian Radio Network and NOVA Entertainment.

The scholarship will either take place in the broadcaster’s Melbourne or Sydney newsrooms, with travel and accommodation provided to recipients if they live outside those cities.

This year’s finalists come from five different educational institutions in New South Wales and Western Australia, with all West coast hopefuls (Francesca De Nuccio, Bianca Carbone, Daniel Litjens and Cameron Carr) hailing from Edith Cowan University.

New South Wales institutions represented in this year’s scholarship include AFTRS (Scott Leek, Helena Ellis and Olivia Hill), University of Wollongong (Jamie Rey), University of Sydney (Dona Sirimanne) and Macleay College (Christa Nicola).

CRA’s CEO Joan Warner congratulated each student who applied for the scholarship and highlighted the importance of radio as a journalistic medium.

“Congratulations to the finalists on making it this far, we hope they find the experience valuable,” Warner said.

“Radio plays a unique role in getting information to the public quickly, whether it’s breaking news through live on-air interviews or being on the ground in regional areas when emergencies happen.”

Due to ongoing lockdowns across the country, the workshop for this year’s Brian White Scholarship will be held online on Wednesday, August 11.

The scholarship is named in honour of Australia’s first commercial radio cadet journalist and legendary news broadcaster Brian White, who enjoyed a prosperous career in radio and was deemed a pioneer of the newstalk format.

The winner of the 2020 scholarship was Macquarie University’s Zac de Silva.