What's New
BY Sarah Patterson May 12, 2026
What's New November 20, 2025
Radio Today to launch new awards for the Australian Audio Industry
UPDATE: 2026 Australian Audio Award finalists revealed
Radioinfo and Radiotoday, in partnership with media and marketing publication Mumbrella, have launched a new awards event for Australia’s Audio Industry.
The Australian Audio Awards will include recognition for both radio and podcast talent.
The awards begin a new era of recognition for Australia’s audio industries.
An awards ceremony will take place on the closing night of Mumbrella360 at Carriageworks in Sydney, on Thursday May 28th, 2026.
Radio entries will be open to commercial broadcasters and the public sector, including the ABC, SBS and community broadcasters.
Podcast entries will be open to broadcast companies that publish podcasts, corporate podcast publishers and independent producers in two categories, Major and Independent. RadioToday’s previous podcast awards will now become part of the new expanded audio awards.
Entries open soon. More details at https://mumbrella.com.au/audioawards
Radioinfo and RadioToday publisher Steve Ahern will lead jury curation. Ahern said:
“This is an opportunity for all the radio and podcasters sectors to celebrate our vibrant Australian Audio Industry. We are working together to support our industry with these awards, which will recognise talent, encourage creativity and provide benchmarks for success. The audio industry in this country has been successful because we compete hard, but also work together for the benefit of the whole industry. This is one of those times for us to work together.”
Mumbrella publisher Tim Burrowes, who co-presents the MediaLand show on ABC Radio National, along with the Mumbrellacast and Unmade podcasts, said:
“The audio sector is the media industry’s most collegiate community, which is why we’re so happy to be partnering with the team at Radioinfo and RadioToday in putting this event together. The industry deserves the chance to come together to celebrate its success.”
Also joining the event as media supporters is the Radio Rubber Room Facebook group. The group is a forum, curated by David Rogerson, for radio professionals to share information and discuss industry issues.
Judging will take place in person in Sydney next year on the campus of awards supporter AFTRS.
The launch of the Australian Audio Awards follows the decision of industry body Commercial Radio + Audio to end the long-running Australian Commercial Radio Awards, which has given the Audio Industry an opportunity to reset its approach to awards recognition.
Award categories are:
RADIO
- Best Breakfast Show
- Best Local Show
- Best Networked Show
- Best Newcomer On Air
- Best Newcomer Off Air
- Best Salesperson or Team
- Best Agency Audio Campaign
- Best Station Promotion
- Best Audio Producer
- Best News Presenter/Reporter
- Best Australian Music Show and/or Music Programmer
- Best Non-Commercial Program
- Best Specialist Program
PODCASTS
- Best Branded Podcast
- Best Children’s Entertainment Podcast
- Best Comedy Podcast
- Best Crime Podcast
- Best Health & Wellness Podcast
- Best Interview Podcast
- Best Investigative Journalism Podcast
- Best Money & Business Podcast
- Best News & Current Affairs Podcast
- Best New Podcast
- Best Podcast Producer
- Best Podcast Host/Presenter
- Best Society & Culture Podcast
- Best Sport Podcast
While you are preparing your Christmas best-of shows and blooper tapes, why not put the best bits of your work aside so you can use it in your entry tape. Audio entries can be 5-10 minutes long and will be accompanied by other written supplementary material.
We received many emails, calls and comments when the ACRAs were cancelled, asking us to try to do something. We have done our bit, with our collaborators Mumbrella and Radio Rubber Room. Now it’s over to you. Please support these awards in whatever way you can, so that they can grow from here and celebrate radio, podcasting and audio in Australia. Steve Ahern
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What's New
BY Sarah Patterson May 12, 2026
What an excellent initiative, especially as it brings in commercial, public and community radio along with podcasts. Well done to everyone involved!
Yes! This is fantastic news for the audio industry!
Not getting any audio off the video though.
Thanks LB.
There’s no audio on it, we figured moving graphics was enough of an effort. You can imagine cheering and applause as the FX under 🙂
Steve
Audio producer there but nothing for those of us who slave for hours daily lining up interviews, guests and topics for the hosts and put dozens of callers to air.
You are an unsung hero! We did put content producers into the Podcast section, but you’re right, we left it our of radio. Good point.
In this first year we had to start somewhere. We will refine categories in future years, Radio Producer is now on the list for consideration next year. Having produced for years I know what you mean. A beautiful radio show is more than skn deep 🙂
Steve
Awesome! What about a music announcer category?
Thanks Jacki.
In this first year we had to start somewhere. We will refine categories in future years.
All comments welcome, we want to do our best for everyone in the industry as much as we can.
Steve
Initially excited to see that Community Radio is being included in this. Then reading the criteria for the new talent award and realising that new presenters on a Community Radio station won’t meet the criteria to enter because the majority are not paid to present their program.
It’s a good point Dianne. The thinking behind the ‘paid’ criteria for newcomers was to focus it on those who are seeking a career, not just doing a show for a hobby. But still, maybe we can create an excpetion for community volunteers opursuing a career. Swings and roundabouts – we don’t want to disadvantage paid newcomers, but you have made a good point about volunteers. I will take it to the jury group and see what we can do.
In this first year we had to start somewhere. We will refine categories in future years.
Steve
Nothing for Copywriters? Surprise, surprise.
Sorry Peter. Good point.
It’s on the list for consideration next year. In this first year we had to start somewhere. We will refine categories in future years.
Steve
BRILLIANT IDEA GUYS!!!! the acras were an an iconic part of our beloved industry and we were all devo that they ended…
What a beautiful idea to bring the industry together again to celebrate the hard work the passion the dedication & the incredible talent both past and present (and soon to be networked ) haha just kidding, sort of…. ! Ps can you put in an entry from 2022? Just asking for a friend… wink wink 😛
Ha ha…. wink back!
Steve
How outstanding it would be to receive a AAA award, which neatly parallels the ultimate in standard ratings.
How great is it that these awards areto be all inclusive of commercial, public and community radio, and incorporating podcasts.
Frankly, there is only one bloke who could have made this happen based from this man’s deep love of the whole of the radio spectrum, and that nowadays extending to podcasting.
That man is … Steve Ahern, of course.
Aaaaaawwww. thanks Dino.
It’s not just me but I appreciate the acknowledgement.
Steve
(Blushing)
This is wonderful. Thankyou on behalf of all of us in the audio industry. X
This is such an excellent idea – well done! And great to see the entire audio industry (commercial radio, podcasts, public & community) all at the table.
Will it be a level playing field? Is it possible that the Triple R Breakfasters, ABC Sydney Breakfast with Craig Reucassel, and Kyle and Jackie O could all be nominated as finalists for “Best Breakfast Show”? (good luck to the judges with that one!)
Sam,
It IS possible. We are looking forward to trying to judge THAT category!
Steve
As usual, Engineers get excluded and forgotten.
OK Bryce, good point.
It’s on the list for consideration next year. In this first year we had to start somewhere. We will refine categories in future years.
Steve
Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m excited! I can get my long frock out of mothballs and will get to share smiles and laughs with all the wonderful people in radioland that I so missed seeing in October!
I know that many people in the industry will be delighted about this; a chance to polish their skills and have a goal to fulfil.
Wendy Jane 🙂
Great initiative.
Given the awards haven’t yet started, wouldn’t it be great if everyone in the audio space was recognised from day 1 – content producers, digital content producers, digital radio stations, music hosts…. etc
Let’s shout about the fabulous women, the creatives revolutionizing how we do things in 2025 and beyond.
Make it inclusive and modern from the go.
This could be epic.
What about for the smaller independent podcasters out there? All the big media outlets are going to be the ones benefiting from this.
Rufus,
You will be happy to know that we thought of that. There are two categories for podcasters. Major is for the big players. Independent is for the smaller ones. Our definition for the Indie category is a small company or sole trader, etc that has less than 3 staff and produces no more than 5 podcast series per year. They can distribute through large platforms like Acast, Omny, LiSTNR, iHeart, etc, but the production company must be small and independent.
We thought long and hard about it, that definition worked for our previous Radio Today awards, so hopefully it will make it fair for the smaller players in these too.
All comments welcome – we are refining these awards as we go along, so all thoughts are valuable. Thanks to everyone so far for their ideas.
Steve
I would add some light category like “best viral/radio moment”
Really excited to see this, I especially love that it’s an overall audio awards rather than just commercial radio or podcasting separately, love it!
I hope there’ll be a sound designer category for podcasts one day, the magic we make with audio to create these podcasts needs to be celebrated. I’d love to see more behind the scenes roles for podcasting recognised too, but a fantastic and exciting start!
So many people have been left out. So non-inclusive, it’s disappointing.
Sorry to hear you think that Mr Bring Back. We will keep trying as we build them over the next few years.
Steve
Podcasters have their own awards – the podcast awards, so why not focus on radio and add more awards???
I don’t think they’re running.
Steve
First of all, let me comment what a great thing it is we have these awards to look forward to.
Now more than ever, the industry needs to be recognised, especially those who are just finding their way in the first 5-10 years of their careers in broadcast media.
One roadblock I have found…. Has anyone else had issues uploading their submissions?
I’ve tried numerously to upload my audio demo but it won’t accept anything larger than 5MB, which means I have to compress my audio to an unlistenable quality.
If this can be looked into, that would be massively appreciated.
Thanks TT. Checking it.
Steve