ACRAs Finalists Fever – #3

There are thousands of hard-working, dedicated and amazingly creative people throughout the radio industry – and every year a small fraction of those people make the short list as a finalist in the ACRAs.

Just like we did last year, over the next few weeks, Radio Today will shine a spotlight on the best of the best.

The ACRAs Finalists Fever – counting down the days to the big event on October 8 by profiling the finalists across all categories. You can get involved by emailing us [email protected] 

Today we feature, Cassey Small, Shane McFarlane Tribute Show and Ray Adams.  Let’s Roll Out the Red Carpet….

BEST STATION PROMOTION

The Zinc Alice Cooper Golf Day; Cassy Small, Zinc 96, Maroochydore QLD, Grant Broadcasters C

Give us a quick snapshot of your radio background…

I am coming up for my 12 year radio anniversary this October. I began as a Promotions Assistant for Hot91.1 and as our network has grown I have been blessed for my career to progress while still staying on the beautiful Sunshine Coast, where I am now the Group Promotions and Marketing Manager for Queensland and Northern Territory.

Tell Us About your ACRA Entry….

I am a finalist in the Best Station Promotion for our Alice Cooper Golf Day. We hosted over 200 listeners, clients and hanger-on’ers from across our network in Noosa for an exclusive golf day with Alice Cooper. The response from listeners for this truly money can’t buy opportunity was overwhelming and in the lead up and on the day of the event Alice Cooper was so accommodating. From voicing our promo’s to mixing and mingling with guests on the day, he was a genuine rock star in every sense of the word. Certainly one of the better days at work.

Your speech, if you were able to make one…

These promotions don’t come together on their own and for this promotion I was lucky to work with a hard working promo team and passionate programming department.

This event will always be a career highlight for me and whether I win or not will be one of the achievements I am most proud of.  

BEST STATION PRODUCED COMMERCIAL – SINGLE

Deadly Gas; Ray Adams & Darcy Thomson, 3HA & Mixx FM, Hamilton VIC, ACE Radio Broadcasters C 

Your Career so far…

I’ve been working and writing for Radio for 28.5 years.
20 years of which have been spent in Hamilton in Western Victoria, with 8 years in Melbourne.
This tenure equates to about 60,000 scripts, 30,000 “By popular demands”, 20,000 “Attention all people with ears attached to the sides of their heads”, far too many “that number agains”, but quite a significant number of compelling and memorable ads which have served to engage, amuse, entice and persuade the listener to a significant degree in order to deliver a return on the client’s investment.
Amongst those umpty-twelve thousands of ads have been many adorned by a suitable arrangement of my lips, lungs ‘n’ larynx, and a hefty chunk of produced ads too, just to demonstrate there are more strings to my bow than a set of furiously flickering fingers on a keyboard.
 

Tell Us About Your Entry…

The challenge to create an ear catching and memorable radio commercial with a serious message of gas appliance safety checks was answered by tapping into evolution’s original joke, which was born when Australopithecus first let rip with a fart that caused his to buddy laugh uncontrollably, and then club the offender to death with a tree branch.
We utilised the medium of sound to its butt-cheekiest level by simplifying the message with very little spoken word, in favour of a collage of assorted farts and giggles to capture the listener’s attention, build their curiosity and then deliver the simple yet vital message.
To modify Gordon Gekko’s often misquoted line from Wall Street, “Farts, for want of a better word and a useful downwind, are piss funny.”
 

Your speech… let rip.

I’d like to thank the judges for believing that a collected series of farts which, when assembled in a carefully researched manner, and painstakingly and enthusiastically generated can be not only be socially acceptable, but be used as a force for good in this delirious methane engorged world in which we live.

I’d like to thank my parents for merging their chromosomes to create me, and rather than thanking every person who’s ever had an influence on my career in some shape or form over the decades in a systematic alphabetical and Von Trapp children-style descending height order, I’m mindful that the orchestra will start playing over the tail end of my speech, so I’ll quickly finish with a quote from John Lennon, “Thank you very much, you have a lucky face. The end”.
 

BEST DOCUMENTARY

The Shane McFarlane Tribute Show;Dean Clairs & Kymba Cahill, Mix 94.5, Perth WA, Southern Cross Austereo M

Tell us about your Entry…

Shane’s death came as a complete shock to us, despite several months of illness. Our breakfast show team was split between Perth and the Gold Coast, as it was on the eve of the Radio Conference and ACRA’s, and so there was a mad scramble to get back to WA and prepare a fitting farewell to him on-air.

His remaining co-hosts Dean Clairs & Kymba Cahill, along with Executive Producer Brearne Cavallaro, Imaging Producer Neil Pagett and myself spent several days collating archived audio, photos & videos to create a special four hour breakfast show the Tuesday after Shane died.

The response from not only our listeners, but the other breakfast shows in our market was phenomenal. He would’ve loved it.

Are You an ACRAs Finalist?

If you’re a finalist in Metropolitan, Non-Metropolitan, Provincial or Country drop us a line and we’ll shine the spotlight on you. Email Blair  here.