Eight radio docs, including pieces for Radiolab, This American Life, Marketplace and WNYC Radio, won trophies from among 300 entries in the Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Awards, presented Oct. 23 in Chicago.
The winners are listed below and pictured on the Third Coast Festival’s Facebook page.
Documentary, Gold Award: “The Wisdom of Jay Thunderbolt,” by Nick van der Kolk and sound designer Brendan Baker, with Nick Williams, a Love + Radio podcast “for mature audiences.” (On the Nieman Journalism Lab blog, Annie Gilbertson discusses van der Kolk’s podcast about a Detroit strip club, which features profane language and dark subject matter.)
Documentary, Silver: “Finding Emilie,” by Jad Abumrad with Robert Krulwich and Soren Wheeler, the team from WNYC’s Radiolab.
Documentary, Bronze: “Patriot Games,” by Ben Calhoun, for This American Life, about two friends who formed a Tea Party chapter in Petoskey, Mich. Edited by Ira Glass and Julie Snyder.
Documentary, Honorable Mention: “Heel, Toe, Step Together,” by Katie Burningham (U.K.) about an octogenarian East End London dancer, broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
Directors’ Choice: “Children of Sodom and Gomorrah,” by English-language producer Sharon Davis and original German-language writer/producer Jens Jarisch, about a hellish, toxic computer waste dump in Accra, Ghana. English version broadcast on Australia’s ABC Radio National. Presented by 360 Degree Documentaries, Australia.
New Artist: “Kohn,” by Andy Mills (U.S.).
News Feature: “Deportations Before Reform: Anatomy of an Immigration Bust,” by Marianne McCune for WNYC, New York.
Radio Impact Award: “The Five Percent Rule,” by Sally Herships for Marketplace, about the government’s discount tobacco prices for military smokers. Edited by John Haas.
PRX will distribute a two-hour “Best of the Best” broadcast through pubradio stations, available Nov. 17.
Next year’s competition opens for entries in May 2012.