Nottingham sweeps board at student radio awards

28-11-2012 — /europawire.eu/ — The University of Nottingham’s student run radio station has been named Best Station at the Student Radio Awards for a record third year running.

The best station gong was one of eight awards picked up by URN on a night supported by BBC Radio 1 and Global Radio.

The Students’ Union station also walked away with the top prize for Best Marketing and Station Sound, as well as silver and bronze prizes for George O’Neill and Giles Gear in the Newcomers category.

In another first, URN became the only station to ever win Bronze, Silver and Gold awards in one category, with ‘The Science Show’, ‘The Pulse: Whose Lenton Is It’ and ‘The Pulse: The Truth About Taxis’ chosen as the winning entries in the category of Best Journalistic Programming.

Hard work pays off

After the awards, hosted by BBC Radio 1’s Nick Grimshaw and 95.8 Capital FM’s Dave Berry at the indigO2 in London, URN Deputy Station Editor Stu Manton, was quick to thank all those who work throughout the year to make the station so successful.

He said: “To have picked up these awards is incredible, and we are all so proud of our achievements at the Student Radio Awards — to have won three years in a row is just something that we never even thought could happen.

“It feels fantastic to be recognised by such esteemed industry judges, to show that those times sitting up at 4am perfecting a four minute piece of audio were worthwhile. But this really is for the 300 URN members who put in hundreds of hours of work every week to make it all possible.”

Tradition of success

While continuing to attain success at the national awards, former URN members are also forging successful careers in the industry after they graduate.

Recent alumni of the station have included Ian Chaloner (Assistant Producer on The Radio 1 Breakfast Show), Sam Edwards (Sports Reporter at BBC Radio Cambridgeshire), Rob Howard (Drive-time Presenter at 105-106 Capital FM) and URN’s Station Editor 2011-12 Robin Murphy (Graduate Developer at BBC Future Media).

To help continue its success, the station has recently undergone a station refit, thanks to funding from the Students’ Union and Cascade — a University initiative which uses donations from alumni to improve the student experience at Nottingham.

More information about the station can be found at: www.URN1350.net

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Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham has 42,000 students at award-winning campuses in the United Kingdom, China and Malaysia; according to the Sunday Times University Guide 2012, ‘Of all the British universities, Nottingham has embraced internationalism the most.’ It is also one of the most popular universities in the UK by application numbers, and ‘the world’s greenest university’. It is ranked in the UK’s Top 10 and the World’s Top 75 universities by the Shanghai Jiao Tong (SJTU) and the QS World University Rankings.

More than 90 per cent of research at The University of Nottingham is of international quality, according to the most recent Research Assessment Exercise. The University aims to be recognised around the world for its signature contributions, especially in global food security, energy & sustainability, and health. The University won a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2011, for its research into global food security.

Impact: The Nottingham Campaign, its biggest ever fundraising campaign, will deliver the University’s vision to change lives, tackle global issues and shape the future. More news…