Student radio nominated for two awards

CAT Radio – student radion station on the Warrington Campus of the University of Chester – has been nominated for two national radio awards.
The station has received two nominations at this year’s Student Radio Awards (SRA), which are held annually in London. This year there were more than 500 entries across 16 categories.
Judged by over 100 industry professionals to produce a shortlist of six nominees in each category, the nominees are then whittled down to a Bronze, Silver and Gold award winner by some of the biggest names in radio.
Cat Radio’s Student Radio Chart show has been nominated in the Student Radio Chart Show Award category. Each year, student stations are invited to host the chart show. This year, students Will Dell and Cat Warren produced the programme, which has featured an interview with The Voice 2017 winner, Mo Jamil.
Cat, who is aged 21 a, studies Television Production with Radio Production. She said: “Producing the SRA Chart show was incredibly fun, despite being at one of the busiest times of the academic year and that was all down to the amazing team of presenters and the ongoing help from my co-producer Will and lecturer, Michelle Ponting. Fingers crossed for November 8 guys!”
Will, aged 22, who studies Radio Production with Journalism, also presents The Mind Guide, which has been nominated in the Best Podcast category. The Mind Guide is a five-part podcast series all about mental health and wellbeing, created to coincide with Mental Health and Wellbeing Awareness Week back in May. At the end of each episode, listeners were invited to join in with 60 seconds of meditation and relax to some soothing sounds.
He said: “I’m really proud of The Mind Guide and I loved working on it for Mental Health and Wellbeing Awareness Week. I got to talk to some great people with some fantastic stories to tell and I was able to have some great conversations because of it. I’d love to pursue a career in the podcast industry, so being recognised by the SRA is amazing. Plus it’s the first year that there has been a podcast category.”
Michelle Ponting, programme leader for Radio Production, said: “We entered quite a few of the categories this year so I had high hopes. To get two nominations is great for the students and the university. We got Silver for the chart show a couple of years ago, so let’s see if we can beat that this year. Will’s podcast was fantastic and a great tie- in with a university wide initiative.”
The awards ceremony takes place at Indigo in the O2, in London, on November 8.