World Class Radio from Your Local Catholic Church

28 June 2009

News comes through from New York that our Sony Radio Academy Gold winning podcast has been short-listed for an international radio award. 

The New York Festivals Grand Jury has determined that ‘The Budgerigar and the Prisoner’ is to be a finalist in the 2009 New York Radio Programming Awards.  

The final judging takes place later this year in New York to determine if the podcast produced by Cathedral parishioner Mary Colwell will earn another award.

Mary Colwell said: “I’m absolutely delighted that ‘The Budgerigar and the Prisoner’ has been recognised as a finalist in New York.  In fact I can hardly believe it!  It says a couple of things to me - that religious broadcasting is alive and well and that people worldwide recognise and appreciate holiness, which can appear in many ways.  It is fantastic news.”

Father Robert King who features in the podcast said: “It’s wonderful that ‘The Budgerigar and the Prisoner’ has been met with such acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic.  It’s a simple story of redemption that reflects our basic goodness as people made in the image and likeness of God.  Its popularity fills me with hope.”

‘The Budgerigar and the Prisoner’ won the radio equivalent of an Oscar - a Sony Radio Academy Gold - earlier this year.  The programme was recently highlighted at a media conference as an example of excellent public service broadcasting in the new digital age. 

It was recently announced that ‘The Budgerigar and the Prisoner’ is on the shortlist to win the internet audio award at the Jerusalem Radio Awards.  The announcement for this prize takes place at the Royal Academy in London in October.  cliftondiocese.com has won this honour for the past two years.