Add Category
To reflect Australia’s reputation as a nation of podcast lovers, the 34th ACRAs expanded the podcast categories. Abbie Chatfield won the first-ever podcast host of the year award for It’s a Lot. According to Triton Digital’s Podcast Ranker, her podcast boasts more than 250,000 monthly listeners.
Abbie Chatfield was named the inaugural podcast host of the year.Credit:
Podcast of the year went to Australian documentary-maker Akhim Dev’s The Children in the Pictures. The eight-part series follows the Queensland Police investigation of a notorious child exploitation website and has previously been recognised with a Gold at the New York Radio Festival Awards.
This year’s Hall of Fame had a distinctly Sunshine-state flavour, with two veterans of Queensland radio – Laurel Edwards (4BC, Nine Radio) and Steve “Pricey” Price (Triple M Townsville, SCA) – both being inducted.
Edwards has been known as Brisbane’s Queen of Breakfast Radio for more than 30 years, while Price has been a permanent on-air fixture in Townsville for more than five decades, including 32 years on breakfast radio. He announced his retirement in May, with his final show to be broadcast on Christmas Day.
In another first for the ACRAs, 2023 marked the inaugural Gudinski Australian music champion award, named in honour of Mushroom Music founder Michael Gudinski. The gong was won by Matty O’Gorman, drummer for Melbourne rock band British India, for his work on Triple M’s Homegrown with Matty O.
Other major award winners included:
- Best on-air team (provincial) – Jimmy & Nath (Hit100.9 Hobart, Tas, SCA)
- Station of the year (metro) – KIIS 1065 (Sydney, ARN)
- Best sports presenter (metro) – Gerard Whateley (SEN 1116am, Melbourne SEN)
- Best podcast by a radio show – Biana, Ben & Lakey, Lift the Lid podcast, SeaFM, Qld SCA
- Most innovative DAB or podcast format – TikTok Trending, iHeart, ARN
- Best news presenter AM – Amie Meehan (2GB, Nine Radio)
- Brian White award for radio journalism (metro) – Clinton Maynard (2GB, Nine Radio).
- Brian White award for radio journalism (non-metro) – Katie Woolf, Mix 1049 NT, ARN
Nine, the publisher of this masthead, is the majority owner of Macquarie Media, the broadcaster of 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and Macquarie Sports.
Find more of the author’s work here. Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Instagram at @thomasalexandermitchell and on Twitter @_thmitchell.