Award of our own
TV has the Emmys and the Peabodys, print has the Pulitzers and radio has, well, a small share of the Peabodys, but that's it—until now. "Radio is always included as an afterthought, something squeezed in somehow," says Johanna Zorn of Chicago public radio station WBEZ-FM 91.5. Zorn is director of the new Third Coast International Radio Festival, a combination conference and competition honoring radio documentaries and features. "I was so impressed with what Sundance has done to get the word out about independent film and documentary film work," Zorn says of creating Third Coast, which aspires to be a "Sundance for Radio." In its first year, the Festival received more than 300 competition entries from around the world—from Australia and Finland to Hungary and Spain. "We did get a lot of people really excited," Zorn says of the response. "People were really waiting for this—in some ways it's surprising that it hadn't happened yet." Zorn credits Ira Glass and "This American Life" for helping to raise the profile of documentary radio programming. "It was sort of an appreciation that radio can really tell a powerful story," she says, noting that this was a logical place for the festival to spring up. "I think Chicago public radio, the profile of the station, really is willing to take some risks to try new and creative things. This is a welcoming place to do that." Among the winners for the first awards is local producer Dan Collison for "Learning to Live: James' Story," which aired first on WBEZ as part of the "Chicago Matters" series, before turning up on NPR's "All Things Considered." Collison and other winners will find out how they placed during a ceremony, October 27. Then the winners and highlights from notable entries will be showcased in a program, hosted by Glass, and scheduled for broadcast on more than ninety public radio stations nationwide, many on Thanksgiving Day. "There are so few choices now on the radio," Zorn says. "And the people I've met working on programs lead me to believe that people need to know about this work." For more information about the awards and for audio clips from the winners, visit www.thirdcoastfestival.org.

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