Downtown & Cool news team scoop Silver double at IMRO awards

The Downtown Radio and Cool FM news team picked up two Silvers and a ‘Commended’ in a night to remember at the prestigious IMRO awards gala in Leinster.

The event – to recognise the very best in Irish radio broadcasting – took place at the Lyrath Estate Hotel in Kilkenny.

More than 600 of the finest representatives from the radio industry across the island attended the event – known as the Irish radio equivalent of the Oscars.

Chairman of the radio awards Tom McGuire said the awards are a celebration of the creativity,innovation and variety of Irish radio.

“The quality, appeal and professionalism of all nominees is a fitting recognition of our audio island and our wonderful listeners,”he said.

Bauer NI was shortlisted in three categories.

The news team won Silver in the news bulletin section with Special Correspondent Damien Edgar collecting another on the night for the ‘Save The Next One’ campaign which featured a powerful collection of reports on the abuse of drugs in Northern Ireland.

Sasha Wylie was ‘commended’ in the overall Newcomer of the Year category – a superb achievement given the traditional high standard of entry in this section.

Head of News & Sport, Nigel Gould, said it was yet another memorable achievement for the news team.

“We have had some superb award nights and collected a number of accolades along the way over the past four or five years,” he said. “This is right up with them.

“Congratulations to both Damien and Sasha as individual nominees. They both had very strong entries and just to be shortlisted among the great and the good for such coveted awards is an amazing achievement.

“This team, also including Naomi Holland, Tara McLaughlin, Alex Keery and Paulo Ross, produce the goods every single day across 17 news bulletins, five sports bulletins, three agri-news features and two business reports.

“It is incredible to see how far we have come and I am genuinely excited about the future."

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