The Australian Commercial Radio Awards (ACRAs), previously known as the rAWARDS, are an Australian award ceremony held to recognise outstanding achievements in the radio industry. They were first held in 1989, and recognise excellence in all areas of Australian

radio broadcasting Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

including

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...

talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

sport Sport pertains to any form of Competition, competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and Skill, skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to specta ...

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

and

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...

. They are run annually by

Commercial Radio Australia Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) is the peak body for the commercial radio broadcasting industry in Australia. CRA was formed in 1930 as the Federation of Australian Radio Broadcasters. It provides representation and advocacy on common statuto ...

and hosted in either

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

or the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

. There are typically 33 award categories that are peer judged across three divisions: metropolitan, provincial and country commercial radio stations. All judging panels are composed of industry members.

Awards Format

The awards are organised into various categories, with nominees being announced a few weeks before the main awards ceremony. Usually four (on rare occasions five) entries are shortlisted in each of the three divisions and an overall division winner is selected from these finalists, meaning three separate awards are given out per category (one each for metropolitan, provincial and country). A hall of fame member is also generally inducted each year. The night is hosted by an industry member (or members), who is (are) generally employed in an on-air capacity, with revolving hosts throughout the night presenting specific awards.

Previous Winners

A full list of winners can be found on the Australian Commercial Radio Awards website. All winners listed below are in the Metropolitan division.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official site

Commercial Radio Australia
Australian awards Radio awards Awards established in 1989